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As frustrating as CR has been, here is why I think UCONN is not ultimately screwed.
Despite what people and institutions might say and believe, college athletics is still driven primarily by regional interests. ND has a national following and special interests like Navy and BYU have their unique following around the country, but just about everyone else relies on their regional following. Regionally, our market overlaps with BC, Cuse, Rutgers and to a lesser extent maybe PSU and Temple. Outside of PSU's football program, none of these athletic programs is poised for meaningful long-term success within their current conference alignment.
CR certainly provides more funding to most of those institutions, but it won't necessarily provide a greater following without winning. By way of example, a UCONN football program back on a winning track will draw comparably to BC and Syracuse even in the AAC. It did when it was winning in the past after playing D1A football for less than 10 years. A UCONN football program contending for conference championships in the AAC will outdraw BC and Syracuse after they have a series of down years in the ACC. As bad as UCONN football is right now, consistently winning and contending for conference championships is more likely for UCONN within the next 5 years than it is for BC, Cuse and Rutgers.
And while football does drive the bus and UCONN needs to get the mess that is currently its football program in order, the University brings tremendous programs in Olympic sports leading off with the best pair of basketball programs in the country. They do matter. When Rutgers and BC literally struggle to put 1,000 fannies in the seats for a hoops game you have a problem and UCONN goes a long way to addressing that.
Both the ACC and BiG will need to make the northeast market work for them and I don't think BC, Cuse or Rutgers in and of themselves can grow that market for their respective conferences. UCONN helps in that effort, especially if the football following is rebuilt. On a level playing field UCONN excels in the region. I know this from history.
Despite what people and institutions might say and believe, college athletics is still driven primarily by regional interests. ND has a national following and special interests like Navy and BYU have their unique following around the country, but just about everyone else relies on their regional following. Regionally, our market overlaps with BC, Cuse, Rutgers and to a lesser extent maybe PSU and Temple. Outside of PSU's football program, none of these athletic programs is poised for meaningful long-term success within their current conference alignment.
CR certainly provides more funding to most of those institutions, but it won't necessarily provide a greater following without winning. By way of example, a UCONN football program back on a winning track will draw comparably to BC and Syracuse even in the AAC. It did when it was winning in the past after playing D1A football for less than 10 years. A UCONN football program contending for conference championships in the AAC will outdraw BC and Syracuse after they have a series of down years in the ACC. As bad as UCONN football is right now, consistently winning and contending for conference championships is more likely for UCONN within the next 5 years than it is for BC, Cuse and Rutgers.
And while football does drive the bus and UCONN needs to get the mess that is currently its football program in order, the University brings tremendous programs in Olympic sports leading off with the best pair of basketball programs in the country. They do matter. When Rutgers and BC literally struggle to put 1,000 fannies in the seats for a hoops game you have a problem and UCONN goes a long way to addressing that.
Both the ACC and BiG will need to make the northeast market work for them and I don't think BC, Cuse or Rutgers in and of themselves can grow that market for their respective conferences. UCONN helps in that effort, especially if the football following is rebuilt. On a level playing field UCONN excels in the region. I know this from history.
