Yankee Network ... this Conference obsession ends

[nelsonmuntz]

Whaler,

I don't need to see a thousand more of your posts because they will all be exactly the same thing. UConn sucks, Big East sucks, UConn fans suck, program is irrelevant, we should just give up.

Everyone on this board knows exactly what you are going to say before you say it. Have you ever said anything remotely positive about UConn or made a suggestion about next steps? Just link one post if you could.

 

[TRest]

I don't disagree that it's ridiculous. I certainly don't want to talk about it, but it's Pudge and Waylon's favorite point to make when anyone challenges them. Everyone else is drooling at their keyboards but they are captains of industry.

I love the speculation about the future as much as anyone, but it would be nice if everyone on the board could agree that they have no powerto effect change and actual insight into the future, and that we are stuck with the results.

 

[Nostical]

Whaler, I must admit, your comment about drooling posters vs captains of industry made me laugh out loud. That was funny stuff.

 

[Pudge]

It is character. You can't stick your two cents in regularly as a anonymous poster with no recourse for being obstinate. You need to argue in a way that understands that the perspective you are attacking has some value.

Insurance premiums? Guess if you are focused on risk all day, you develop a worldview that everything is horrible.

 

[RS9999X]

I love the speculation about the future as much as anyone, but it would be nice if everyone on the board could agree that they have no powerto effect change and actual insight into the future, and that we are stuck with the results.

I disagree. UConn can be hammered on the UConn Network issue. I could go on for hours on the value to interns in Communciaitons and Marketing and Sports Management programs if they really take it seriously and create a hybrid with UConn/Big East Tier 3 content along with other National and Regional content. Mandatae it and expoit it. Make it the best of breed national model. Be the leader and innovator not the forlorn puppy dog waiting for SNY-CT and others to throw you a few pennies per subscriber.

Mandate it and exploit it and get it placed in other NE states

UConn is a $65 million cap pink sheet stock. Sometimes they act like they just cured cancer (won a Ntional Championship) and the stock implodes. At others its more like a pump and dump boiler room scheme with bad management that just imploded.

 

[Carl Spackler]

We need to stop.

We are just a little bit ... NOT READY. We could be a 55000 seat & rabid fanbase. We are a decade away. And then, certainly, we are far beyond BC, SU and Pitt. They all fear that. Every one of these BCS programs. Why let the upstarts rise? TV money now. Sure ... but the Cartel wants to eliminate the possibility that Boise, UConn, Louisville, USF, UCF rise.

But the Longhorn Network gives us the answer.

The conference can be subverted by a compelling TV network focused on some demographic. Which, frankly, is where we started. UConn = ESPN. But duck those guys.

My idea?

NY and Northeast Media market madness. Focused on Hoop.

Partner with the BE ... and Comcast. Basketball focused on NYC, Boston, Phila, DC, and other major systems. Need deal with Comcast. Then with Time Warner. Cox. ETC.
2. Partner with Rutgers For Football (I know ... I hold my nose ... but they can be Solid & hit NYC with us). Junior Partners are Temple. Army - Navy. And Buffalo. We will push out SU. BC. They can be in their southern conference with no exposure.
3. Olympic sports. Our Women's Team. Other interesting pieces. Hockey too.
4. Have Notre Dame help us. They can provide a lot. Their Olympic sports. and in Football, that has got to be a game or 2 per year.

The HELL with the Longhorn Network. We can do it better with more eyeballs.

I like it. SNY reported a 5.0 average with a high of 7.3 in the CT dma for basketball and a 2.6 for football with a high of 6.1 last year - it's first year broadcasting games.

I'm tired of playing second fiddle to forces beyond our control. We win, we generate viewers, in a highly dense and competitive market.

My only problem with the entire scenario is that I"ve got zero faith in the big east conference leadership, and their basketball centric, repeated lack of understanding the current landscape of college athletics, but if they could pull it off, and create a network around the metro basketball programs and the remaining football programs in the area in UConn, Rutgers, and Temple, hell - even Buffalo - yes - it would certainly return my faith. There are a lot of football fans in the city of buffalo.

With our own television network, things work.

 

[ctchamps]

I like it. SNY reported a 5.0 average with a high of 7.3 in the CT dma for basketball and a 2.6 for football with a high of 6.1 last year - it's first year broadcasting games.

I'm tired of playing second fiddle to forces beyond our control. We win, we generate viewers, in a highly dense and competitive market.

My only problem with the entire scenario is that I"ve got zero faith in the big east conference leadership, and their basketball centric, repeated lack of understanding the current landscape of college athletics, but if they could pull it off, and create a network around the metro basketball programs and the remaining football programs in the area in UConn, Rutgers, and Temple, hell - even Buffalo - yes - it would certainly return my faith. There are a lot of football fans in the city of buffalo.

With our own television network, things work.

I think the exact opposite is true. Sometimes desperation pushes people out of inertia. The BE might be very ready for this type of creative thinking. But first they have to get the house in order and that means they have to get more football schools in place and have contingencies in place if one or more additional fb schools leave. This is still a fluid situation.

 

[Pudge]

What is the LONGHORN Network ... but this concept.

Mack Brown is crowing that their experience can be replicated. Why not us? NOT just for UConn sports ... but we have some eminently watchable programming. But, hook in SJU. Partner with our Metro NYC neighbor Rutgers (SCREW SU).

This isn't easy ... but the Conference paradigm is ridiculous. And TEXAS seemingly has control of its cards.

 

[whaler11]

It is character. You can't stick your two cents in regularly as a anonymous poster with no recourse for being obstinate. You need to argue in a way that understands that the perspective you are attacking has some value.

Insurance premiums? Guess if you are focused on risk all day, you develop a worldview that everything is horrible.

We are all anonymous except for a few parents of the players. I'd be more than happy to take in a game at Rentschler or XL with anyone. I've never said that you don't have perspective that has value - I've agreed with you on plenty of topics, that is something you've decided to put on people who disagree with you.

The LONGHORN network is this concept with a much different brand and much different product. If you told me that Texas created a network and partnered with North Texas and Rice, I'd think that was a pretty silly idea as well. Hell, the idea has already changed drastically because the other schools in the conference realized that it would hurt them in the long run.

It's something that baseball may figure out at some point as they build superpowers.... sports aren't interesting when there is no competition. There is a pretty significant reason that UConn sells out XL for Pitt and Syracuse and plays in a half empty building for Sacred Heart and Central Connecticut. It's why so many people are bored by women's NCAA basketball. There isn't enough competition.

 

[uconndogs]

You are missing the key point. Pudge, and I agree, is saying that regardless of how this all shakes out we have to position ourselves as the football program in the Northeast. How that is done is certainly open to debate. But, if your arguement is simply that it can't be done because BC and Syracuse are in the ACC and we are not, then I disagree. We can compete, even if the playing field is not level.

 

[huskysupporter]

We would let UMass in as wel. Junior partner. Play them. KEEP things regional.

When you start fearing the MAC status (thanks Pete Thamel) ... you need to change the paradigm.

I agree. Big East needs to be regional.

 

[whaler11]

How that is done is certainly open to debate.

I guess it is. I'm just pretty sure that aligning oneself with Buffalo and UMass is about the exact opposite way to do it.

 

[TRest]

I guess it is. I'm just pretty sure that aligning oneself with Buffalo and UMass is about the exact opposite way to do it.

Embrace our future.

 

[CL82]

The only thing I'd trust this guy to lead me to is a Duncan Donuts.

 

[Pudge]

I guess it is. I'm just pretty sure that aligning oneself with Buffalo and UMass is about the exact opposite way to do it.

It ain't aligning ourselves with Buffalo & UMass that's important. It is controlling TV eyeballs for Sports. And we see it somewhat (obviously) already in the YES network, SNY and NESN. I'm not sure what was in TEXAS before the Longhorn Network was conceived. But if you send programming to TW in upstate with Buffalo playing Tennessee ... and Syracuse is playing on the ACC network (God knows where that is on my 900 channels) ... you will have more eyeballs on TW3 here. Same with UMass. Basketball? A game between Saint John's and Villanova on a Yankee Network will clearly draw far more than Wake versus BC (or anyone versus BC in Hoop). Tuesday night Soccer game between Number 1 UConn soccer versus IU (a ranked team) will draw more than a Longhorn Network can hope for reruns of a high school football game on Tuesday (I think).

See. Programming is what this is about. Regional. We have the eyeballs. Just need a Programming expert.

 

[The Funster]

I agree with the concept but why not piggyback off of SNY? If they establish SNY-CT let them do the production, etc. They can sell content to NESN if the rest of NE demands UConn. Time is off the essence and rather than take the time to build a network from scratch use the data from SNY-CT to show that CT eyeballs are a valuable commodity.

 

[Pudge]

The Longhorn Network did NOT start from the Ground Up. ESPN, clearly, was at the core of setting this up. And will remain strategically Programming for them.

SNY (or YES) can be piggybacked. The issue, from my view, is control. Can we get some Terms & Conditions that will prevent the crap we saw recently that they get to push us around for the Mets or SU going into OT. (SU should be on the hard-to-find ACC network). I like that Tim Pernetti at Rutgers has a TV background. Let's rely on that guy to forge forward.

 

[whaler11]

It ain't aligning ourselves with Buffalo & UMass that's important. It is controlling TV eyeballs for Sports. And we see it somewhat (obviously) already in the YES network, SNY and NESN. I'm not sure what was in TEXAS before the Longhorn Network was conceived. But if you send programming to TW in upstate with Buffalo playing Tennessee ... and Syracuse is playing on the ACC network (God knows where that is on my 900 channels) ... you will have more eyeballs on TW3 here. Same with UMass. Basketball? A game between Saint John's and Villanova on a Yankee Network will clearly draw far more than Wake versus BC (or anyone versus BC in Hoop). Tuesday night Soccer game between Number 1 UConn soccer versus IU (a ranked team) will draw more than a Longhorn Network can hope for reruns of a high school football game on Tuesday (I think).

See. Programming is what this is about. Regional. We have the eyeballs. Just need a Programming expert.

I agree that programming is local. I disagree that you can get eyeballs if you aren't playing decent competition. I can't disagree more that anything but football and basketball will have any market. College soccer would get blown away by high school football on the Longhorn network.

The market creates the demand for a network. A network doesn't create the market.

Syracuse isn't going to be on the hard to find ACC network. They are going to be on ESPN and ESPN2. I imagine you know where to find those stations.

Have you actually been to a UMass game? They can't get 3,000 people to come to their excellent building. Nobody wants to watch them on television.

Oh people will watch Buffalo and Tennessee? Maybe for 1 quarter before it's 43-0. That sort of proves the point that you need legitimate draws to drive viewership. How many SEC teams can Buffalo play a year?

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Honestly, this whole idea is just a joke.

The best shot we have is to hope SNY can up their coverage of UConn, Rutgers in New York and promote the Big East.

Nobody is tuning in to watch Buffalo over a Syracuse game.
Nobody is tuning in to watch a UMass over a BC game.

And this doesn't even touch on the fact that nobody is watching any college sport in the Northeast besides Football or Men's basketball. Buffalo vs UMass soccer...enthralling televison.