Would you do it all over again? | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Would you do it all over again?

Knowing what you do now, would you green light a move up if you could go back to 1999?

  • Yes

    Votes: 63 80.8%

  • No

    Votes: 15 19.2%
  • Total voters
    78
Dooley said:
My only regret is that we waited waaaaay too long to upgrade football. That is consistent with how Connecticut does things - hem and haw over something only to make a rushed bad decision at the very last minute, then complain about the eventual negative fallout. If we had upgraded in the 80s...even the early 90s...I really believe we would be in the ACC right now. Better yet, there is a chance the old Big East (the REAL Big East) would still be in existence and a member of a true Power-6 structure. We would have competed against Boston College, Miami, and Virginia Tech for 10 years before their eventual split. That's plenty of time to develop strong partnerships. Of course, we would have needed an invite from the Big East to upgrade. It's my understanding - and I may be wrong - that we had one of those "if you upgrade, you will have a place to play" agreements similar to our Hockey East upgrade.

Our upgrade took way too long and the stadium our state finally relented to bond out was a cheap and quick construction just to get something built. The Rent became outdated in less than 5 months after it opened, offers zero on-campus flair that the majority of FBS stadiums offer, and any attempt to renovate or expand it was met with the same ridiculous "season ticket sellouts" response from our inept AD.

Best of all, we're doing the same exact thing with the new hockey venue. Somebody please wake up Albert Einstein and march him to UConn's front door to, once again, define insanity for our inept AD.

Aside: not entering that Notre Dame series was a stupid opinion back then and looks incredibly stupid now. That series slapped the entitled label on us and rightfully so. New kid on the block UConn tried to dictate decade long terms to Notre Dame. Connecticut politicians are a special kind of stupid.
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I ventured around to a different board recently and saw stuff about the hockey program arena investments and facepalmed visciously. Repetition of mistakes. Same thing they did with the football venue, happening with hockey program management.
 
There is no athletic program (IMNSHO) professional, amateur, collegiate, youth, national, olympic whatever - where the adage that 'Winning fixes everything' applies like the University of Connecticut athletic department.

Everything that is a problem now - has been a problem for near 4 decades. But when the football program was winning, and the basketball program was winning - it didn't matter.

And like it or not, outside the state borders of Connecticut - women's basketball doesn't matter.
 
.-.
BlueandOG said:
I have had so much fun at the UCONN games, it is definitely worth it.
Expand ...

This.

Great memories at the Rent watching games 07-11. While since then the fun moments for football are few and far between, still enjoy the social aspect of tailgating and seeing friends at the games. While I hope we build the program back up, eventually CR works out for us, and we get back to sell out crowds against big opponents, if we end up with a ceiling of 7-5 in the american in front of 25,000-30,000, that's still better to me than not having it at all.
 
TKs said:
That 5-3 vote to add Penn St in 1982 was 1 vote short (needed to be 6-2). That would have changed everything, none of the football schools would have ever left.
Expand ...

Georgetown, St. John's and Nova voted against Penn State in 1982. Nova had dropped 1-A football in 1980. They brought football back in 1984 at the 1-AA level. If Nova was still playing football when the vote occurred things might have turned out differently.
 
TKs said:
That 5-3 vote to add Penn St in 1982 was 1 vote short (needed to be 6-2). That would have changed everything, none of the football schools would have ever left.
Expand ...
St Johns, Villanova. and Georgetown were afraid of football, and responsible for the end of the Big East.
 
Stainmaster said:
This would make sense if other parties to that lawsuit weren’t extended invites...but they were.

Your political dislike of certain people isn’t license to rewrite history.
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It is my dream not yours, so pissoff

He still sucked as an AG
 
.-.
businesslawyer said:
The lawsuit had to be done. We wouldn't have gotten as close as we did without it.

And many of you continue to delude yourself if you really believe that ACC members held it against us and not Pitt. You're assuming that university presidents are as easily manipulated by social media discussion as you are.
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That's law talk, which has nothing to do with dreams, and this is about dreams and do-overs.
 
We were 2-3 years too late on the upgrade. I think if UConn had upgraded in 1995 or 1996, the ACC raid would have worked out very differently.

The Big East breakup worked out well for all but 3 schools: UConn, Cincinnati and USF. There were definitely some tactical moves UConn should have made along the way, like not hiring Pasqualoni. UConn's 2009 team was its strongest, and lost a bunch of close games. That team could have easily gone 11-1 and made a major bowl, and that may have changed a lot of things too.

We will also be too late in cutting football loose. It is destroying our basketball programs in the AAC.
 
At the end of the day, yes.

That cliche is so overused.
 
.-.
baggerbob said:
St Johns, Villanova. and Georgetown were afraid of football, and responsible for the end of the Big East.
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Can we ban Villanova fans from here? Other two schools barely have fans left.
 
nelsonmuntz said:
We were 2-3 years too late on the upgrade. I think if UConn had upgraded in 1995 or 1996, the ACC raid would have worked out very differently.

The Big East breakup worked out well for all but 3 schools: UConn, Cincinnati and USF. There were definitely some tactical moves UConn should have made along the way, like not hiring Pasqualoni. UConn's 2009 team was its strongest, and lost a bunch of close games. That team could have easily gone 11-1 and made a major bowl, and that may have changed a lot of things too.

We will also be too late in cutting football loose. It is destroying our basketball programs in the AAC.
Expand ...

An on-campus stadium was almost a done deal in 1997, until state politics ended up killing it. The upgrade would have been complete by 2000.

I still maintain that the war was lost in the years after the NBE was formed (2005-2010). That we failed to recognize that all of the original Big East football schools (along with Louisville) were actively trying to get out was a colossal failure at all levels, and it's pretty clear that Hathaway, et al were working as hard as possible to advance the NBE while Pitt, Syracuse, RU, WVU and UL were plotting their escape. Perhaps I'm wrong and they knew then that there was no chance we'd be included and that our only chance at survival was the survival of the Big East?
 
Excalibur said:
An on-campus stadium was almost a done deal in 1997, until state politics ended up killing it. The upgrade would have been complete by 2000.

I still maintain that the war was lost in the years after the NBE was formed (2005-2010). That we failed to recognize that all of the original Big East football schools (along with Louisville) were actively trying to get out was a colossal failure at all levels, and it's pretty clear that Hathaway, et al were working as hard as possible to advance the NBE while Pitt, Syracuse, RU, WVU and UL were plotting their escape. Perhaps I'm wrong and they knew then that there was no chance we'd be included and that our only chance at survival was the survival of the Big East?
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

No.
 
I'd go back to 1950 and tell the administration what the future holds. I'd strongly recommend they pour millions into football immediately, as a long-term investment.
 
.-.
I will admit that of Penn St came here this would all be mute now as the Big East would still be here even if the basketball schools left as the Catholic league or something similar.
 
The conference would have had to invite FSU, too.

I think the Big Ten could still have poached anyway.
 
It was definitely not a mistake to move to Division 1 but we squandered our most prolific years due to Hathaway’s inability to capitalize on our athletic prowess in both basketball and football to advocate for growth. He also alienated coaches. Edsall s leaving was more a result of frustration with Hathaway than with a burning desire to grab another job. The lawsuit however was the bigger mistake. We were pursuing retribution from institutions and individuals for a move we would also have accepted had we been invited. There’s also no question that Blumenthal’s ego and ambition helped label the litigation as Connecticut’s lawsuit. When BC wanted to block us on petty territorial grounds, they used the lawsuit as fodder to rile up the needed support to keep us out. That lawsuit is still mentioned at ACC gatherings. But however you want to rate the impact of that lawsuit, it certainly didn’t help us.
Bottom line there’s no mystery to our future. We all know what has to happen. We must rebuild our MBB brand which I feel confident we will with Hurley. But in the end we’ll rise or fall based on how well Edsall rebuilds the football program and rekindles the interest of our fans. Then, if and when the music starts again, we must be ready with extended elbows to grab a seat before it stops.
 
As soon as RE 1.0 ran away to the Twerps we needed to parlay a victory over ND and a Fiesta Bowl game into a GOOD HC. that was the launching point.

Hathaway utterly failed choosing PP.
 
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