Big East basketball not scoring for Fox/Fox Sports 1

[Fishy]

Stats are fun.

Two of the three highest-rated college basketball games of last season were UConn games.

Why, the lesser of the two games just about equalled all of the top four ACC games combined! And the UConn chicks highest-rated game on ESPN was probably rated higher than all of the ACC's men's hoop games. So let's all draw conclusions from that - isn't that what our dopey southern interloper is trying to do as he carries the ACC's water here on a daily basis?

 

[itgoeslike]

The argument that we are better off playing Tulane and UCF on CBS Sports at 9 pm than playing a traditional Big East rival at 7 on FSN is so stupid that it makes my brain hurt. And that doesn't even count the huge financial difference.

The people making the argument understand playing UCF on CBS Sports is the only path to get UConn back to playing top flight conference opponents such as Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Michigan State; or Duke, North Carolina, Louisville and Syracuse; or Kansas, Texas & West Virginia. In fact, the majority of UConn's Big East rivals reside in conferences other than the New Big East. What many find nonsensical is paying a $10M exit fee and foregoing exit fee money, tourney payouts, playoff revenue, national exposure and a more lucrative conference windfall—in order to play Butler, Creighton, DePaul, Seton Hall, St. Johns, Xavier, etc. for the rest of eternity. Get this, in their rabid drive to play DePaul on FS-1 in front of 14,000 viewers, these same individuals advocate putting our football program into the MAC conference, dropping out of FBS, or shutting it down all together. That makes my brain hurt just thinking about it.

 

[Hoophound]

Exit fee money makes the AAC/NBE argument moot. I'd rather play Providence than UCF, but I don't want to drop football nor do I want to give up tons of exit fee cash.

At a bare minimum, even if we ever dropped football, we won't do it for a few years. We'll collect the fee money and hope for a P5 invite. If this all plays out horribly and someday we end up back in the Big East, so be it. Now is not the time.

 

[Dooley]

Exit fee money makes the AAC/NBE argument moot. I'd rather play Providence than UCF, but I don't want to drop football nor do I want to give up tons of exit fee cash.

At a bare minimum, even if we ever dropped football, we won't do it for a few years. We'll collect the fee money and hope for a P5 invite. If this all plays out horribly and someday we end up back in the Big East, so be it. Now is not the time.

Yup, the cost of making a mid-major for mid-major conference move is too high. The tiny bit of extra scratch we'd make in the mid-major Big East would be spent in paying the AAC exit fee and losing conference credits (in addition to the exit fee pot that we are splitting with Cincinnati and USF). And for what? To play in another mid-major. Forever.

Stay the course. We have to turn football around. We need to continue to expand research. Fans need to continue to support/watch UCONN athletics. And we can't have any scandals like Syracuse, UNC, Notre Dame, FSU, etc. If 2025 rolls around and we're still stuck in the AAC, then I would think/hope that we could make a bigger, bolder move for our hoops programs. But I'm definitely not interested whatsoever in forfeiting AAC exit money, conference credits and paying a $10M exit fee to go play the likes of DePaul, Seton Hall, Providence, St John's again. There are only two Big East schools that I would love to see UCONN play again on an annual basis: Georgetown and Villanova. That's it. And I'm confident that we can schedule both of those schools OOC.

 

[billybud]

Stats are fun.

Two of the three highest-rated college basketball games of last season were UConn games.

Why, the lesser of the two games just about equalled all of the top four ACC games combined! And the UConn chicks highest-rated game on ESPN was probably rated higher than all of the ACC's men's hoop games. So let's all draw conclusions from that - isn't that what our dopey southern interloper is trying to do as he carries the ACC's water here on a daily basis?

http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/201...numbers-for-every-game-of-the-2013-14-season/

 

[Dooley]

I thought FSU didn't care about basketball??? At least, that's the company line from the day that the last ACC team is eliminated from the Tourney through the football championship. Sure seems like that isn't true.

 

[billybud]

In ratings, it is all about the match ups.

UConn-Indiana drew a million viewers. Duke vs a major player brings great ratings, against Davidson, puny ratings.

When the biggies of basketball meet, the ratings go up.

UConn, Kentucky, Michigan, Kansas, Louisville. etc.

Teams like FSU, Clemson, Davidson, Nova, etc will not get a decent rating...and will pull a middling rating only if paired against a partner with a draw.

 

[billybud]

I thought FSU didn't care about basketball??? At least, that's the company line from the day that the last ACC team is eliminated from the Tourney through the football championship. Sure seems like that isn't true.

FSU is still trying to build fan interest in basketball. It is soooo far distant to football that it may seem of limited interest. Like Bama.

I just took a look at Warchant pay boards. Right now there are 684 logged on to the Football board and 48 to the basketball board...and it is basketball season...and FSU lost to Duke by 3 last night. The basketball forum has echoes when you post.