Forgive my ambiguity here, reputable source: UConn making earnest P5 Push

[Gfunk]

Next season will be the first ND season without a Big Ten team on the schedule in 99 years. I love it. I have been the biggest anti-Big Ten guy possible for about 50 years. I would like ND to boycott playing Big Ten schools in all sports forever.

Yes, ND took Michigan and Michigan State off the annual schedule but added Texas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Arizona State, Florida State, Clemson, Georgia, Ohio State and others. (ND will play Michigan State from time to time because they have a great relationship with ND and defied Michigan's attempt to boycott and blackball ND).

ND's future SOS rankings will be just fine.


2014 Football Schedule

ND 48 Rice 17
ND 31 Michigan 0
ND 30 Purdue 14
ND 31 Syracuse 15
ND 17 Stanford 14
ND 50 North Carolina 43
Florida State 31 ND 27
ND 49 Navy 39
Arizona State 55 ND 31
Northwestern 43 ND 40 (OT)
Louisville 31 ND 28
Southern Cal 49 ND 14
ND 31 LSU 28


2015 Football Schedule

S05 TEXAS
S12 @ Virginia
S19 GEORGIA TECH
S26 UMASS
O03 @ Clemson
O10 NAVY
O17 SOUTHERN CAL
O31 @ Temple (LFSF)
N07 @ Pittsburgh
N14 WAKE FOREST
N21 BOSTON COLLEGE (Fenway Pk.)
N28 @ Stanford


2016 Football Schedule

S03 @ Texas
S10 NEVADA
S17 MICHIGAN STATE
S24 DUKE
O01 @ Syracuse (Meadowlands)
O08 @ North Carolina State
O15 STANFORD
O29 MIAMI
N05 @ Navy
N12 ARMY (Alamodome)
N19 VIRGINIA TECH
N26 @ Southern Cal


2017 Football Schedule
not official

S09 GEORGIA
S16 @ Boston College
S30 MIAMI(OH)
O07 @ North Carolina
O28 NORTH CAROLINA STATE
N04 WAKE FOREST
N11 @ Miami(FL)
N25 @ Stanford
TEMPLE
NAVY
SOUTHERN CAL
@ Michigan State


2018 Football Schedule
not official

S22 SYRACUSE
O13 @ Virginia Tech
O20 PITTSBURGH
N10 FLORIDA STATE
N17 @ Wake Forest
N24 @ Southern Cal
STANFORD
@ Navy
4 games TBD


2019 Football Schedule
not official

S02 @ Louisville
S19 @ Georgia
S28 VIRGINIA
O19 @ Georgia Tech
N02 VIRGINIA TECH
N09 @ Duke
N23 BOSTON COLLEGE
N30 @ Stanford
NAVY
SOUTHERN CAL
2 games TBD


2020 Football Schedule
not officia

N28 @ Southern Cal
STANFORD
DUKE
CLEMSON
LOUISVILLE
@ Purdue
@ Navy
@ Wake Forest
@ Pittsburgh


2021 Football Schedule

not official

S06 @ Florida State
N27 @ Stanford
PURDUE
NAVY
SOUTHERN CAL
NORTH CAROLINA
GEORGIA TECH
@ Virginia Tech
@ Virginia


2022 Football Schedule
not official

N26 @ Southern Cal
STANFORD
BOSTON COLLEGE
CLEMSON
@ Navy
@ Ohio State
@ North Carolina
@ Syracuse


2023 Football Schedule
not official

N25 @ Stanford
NAVY
SOUTHERN CAL
OHIO STATE
WAKE FOREST
PITTSBURGH
@ North Carolina State
@ Duke
@ Louisville
@ Clemson


2024 Football Schedule
not official

A31 @ Texas A&M
MIAMI(FL)
FLORIDA STATE
VIRGINIA
STANFORD
@ Navy
@ Southern Cal
@ Georgia Tech


2025 Football Schedule
not official

S27 TEXAS A&M
NAVY
SOUTHERN CAL
NORTH CAROLINA STATE
SYRACUSE
@ Stanford
@ Miami(FL)
@ Boston College
@ Pittsburgh


The proposed "stability" of a conference schedule is a red herring. It has little relevance to ND football.

Bottom line: you're a Midwest school in South Bend - Rust Belt central - your pretentious national reputation is overrated. Your school's history has in fact been shaped, dramatically, by Midwestern Catholicism - don't try to debate me here.

Schools like Neb and OSU recruit almost as far and wide as you - other schools as well. OSU, and likely Michigan in the future, will have as much pull as ND on the national recruiting stage. OSU is already on par with ND in this department while being able to lean on Ohio with first pickings. You've been lapped by Ohio State in terms of the best football program in the Midwest & it's been this way for more than 20 years & OSU has done it as a conference member in the so-called weak BIG. You still have a losing record against Michigan. Your BCS record speaks for itself - awful and unprecedented in terms of blue bloods. You lost to NW this past season - enough. Good Lord! ND has had some awful seasons since Holtz has left - awful. But I love your women's basketball program.

My ultimate issue with ND still remains: independent status in a sport where fairness is required to establish legitimate playoff = unfair & problematic. As I said, no sane professional league in the US allows for some independent franchise to tailor their schedules.

The playoff committee will likely bypass ND if 4 of the P5 conferences have undefeated teams & the ACC doesn't step up outside of FSU. But I make no guarantees.

Anyways, back to a more important wish - UConn to the BIG - would love to see it.

 

[Dooley]

Conference realignment thread evolution in 20 simple steps.

1) A fact occurs.
2) Poster (OP) notes fact and explains how, in his opinion, the fact improves UConn's chances on joing a new conference, no matter how tenous or imaginary that connection might be.
3) OP gets many likes.
4) Poster 2 (P2) says that OP's interpretation is wrong and that fact will negatively impact UConn
5) Poster 3 (P3) notes that any fact which remotely relates to realignment must ultimately screw UConn due to CR rule#1.
6) P3 gets many likes.
7) Poster 4 (P4 -usually an ACC fan) denies fact ever occurred in the first place.
8) Board debates points.
9) Poster 5 (P5 - ugh), and I won't name names, enters thread and states that the fact's occurance or non- occurance is proof that we should drop football.
10) Everyone tells P5 to shut up.
11) Mandatory FS1 ratings discussion.
12) P4 discusses ACC basketball non-sequitor.
13) Poster 6 (P6) in discussing P4's post makes a vague reference to ND
14) Everyone else on the board groans.
15) Poster 7 (P7 a B1G fan) Talks about how the B1G ship has sailed for ND, but ND would be smart to beg for admission.
16) Everyone else on the board groans.
17 ) Poster 8 (uh let's just call him Terry) appears nearly instantanously to tell us that ND will NEVER join the B1G.
18) Everyone else on the board groans.
19) Poster 9 comes in and indignently announces that CR is dead.
20) Rinse and repeat.

Spot. On. Well done.

 

[TerryD]

Bottom line: you're a Midwest school in South Bend - Rust Belt central - your pretentious national reputation is overrated. Your school's history has in fact been shaped, dramatically, by Midwestern Catholicism - don't try to debate me here.

Schools like Neb and OSU recruit almost as far and wide as you - other schools as well. OSU, and likely Michigan in the future, will have as much pull as ND on the national recruiting stage. OSU is already on par with ND in this department while being able to lean on Ohio with first pickings. You've been lapped by Ohio State in terms of the best football program in the Midwest & it's been this way for more than 20 years & OSU has done it as a conference member in the so-called weak BIG. You still have a losing record against Michigan. Your BCS record speaks for itself - awful and unprecedented in terms of blue bloods. You lost to NW this past season - enough. Good Lord! ND has had some awful seasons since Holtz has left - awful. But I love your women's basketball program.

My ultimate issue with ND still remains: independent status in a sport where fairness is required to establish legitimate playoff = unfair & problematic. As I said, no sane professional league in the US allows for some independent franchise to tailor their schedules.

The playoff committee will likely bypass ND if 4 of the P5 conferences have undefeated teams & the ACC doesn't step up outside of FSU. But I make no guarantees.

Anyways, back to a more important wish - UConn to the BIG - would love to see it.

I could write a long, detailed retort to your post, but I won't to the rest of the board's relief.

Note, though, that I never talk negatively about any school (conferences yes, schools no) even though you seem particularly obsessed with knocking ND.

P.S. "Fairness" has very little to do with CR, the playoffs and college sports in general.

P.P.S. I will bow out of this thread now. Take care.

 

[Rinaldi]

I could write a long, detailed retort to your post, but I won't to the rest of the board's relief.

Note, though, that I never talk negatively about any school (conferences yes, schools no) even though you seem particularly obsessed with knocking ND.

P.S. "Fairness" has very little to do with CR, the playoffs and college sports in general.

P.P.S. I will bow out of this thread now. Take care.

Piss off

 

[businesslawyer]

Next season will be the first ND season without a Big Ten team on the schedule in 99 years. I love it. I have been the biggest anti-Big Ten guy possible for about 50 years. I would like ND to boycott playing Big Ten schools in all sports forever.

Yes, ND took Michigan and Michigan State off the annual schedule but added Texas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Arizona State, Florida State, Clemson, Georgia, Ohio State and others. (ND will play Michigan State from time to time because they have a great relationship with ND and defied Michigan's attempt to boycott and blackball ND).

ND's future SOS rankings will be just fine.


2014 Football Schedule

ND 48 Rice 17
ND 31 Michigan 0
ND 30 Purdue 14
ND 31 Syracuse 15
ND 17 Stanford 14
ND 50 North Carolina 43
Florida State 31 ND 27
ND 49 Navy 39
Arizona State 55 ND 31
Northwestern 43 ND 40 (OT)
Louisville 31 ND 28
Southern Cal 49 ND 14
ND 31 LSU 28


2015 Football Schedule

S05 TEXAS
S12 @ Virginia
S19 GEORGIA TECH
S26 UMASS
O03 @ Clemson
O10 NAVY
O17 SOUTHERN CAL
O31 @ Temple (LFSF)
N07 @ Pittsburgh
N14 WAKE FOREST
N21 BOSTON COLLEGE (Fenway Pk.)
N28 @ Stanford


2016 Football Schedule

S03 @ Texas
S10 NEVADA
S17 MICHIGAN STATE
S24 DUKE
O01 @ Syracuse (Meadowlands)
O08 @ North Carolina State
O15 STANFORD
O29 MIAMI
N05 @ Navy
N12 ARMY (Alamodome)
N19 VIRGINIA TECH
N26 @ Southern Cal


2017 Football Schedule
not official

S09 GEORGIA
S16 @ Boston College
S30 MIAMI(OH)
O07 @ North Carolina
O28 NORTH CAROLINA STATE
N04 WAKE FOREST
N11 @ Miami(FL)
N25 @ Stanford
TEMPLE
NAVY
SOUTHERN CAL
@ Michigan State


2018 Football Schedule
not official

S22 SYRACUSE
O13 @ Virginia Tech
O20 PITTSBURGH
N10 FLORIDA STATE
N17 @ Wake Forest
N24 @ Southern Cal
STANFORD
@ Navy
4 games TBD


2019 Football Schedule
not official

S02 @ Louisville
S19 @ Georgia
S28 VIRGINIA
O19 @ Georgia Tech
N02 VIRGINIA TECH
N09 @ Duke
N23 BOSTON COLLEGE
N30 @ Stanford
NAVY
SOUTHERN CAL
2 games TBD


2020 Football Schedule
not officia

N28 @ Southern Cal
STANFORD
DUKE
CLEMSON
LOUISVILLE
@ Purdue
@ Navy
@ Wake Forest
@ Pittsburgh


2021 Football Schedule

not official

S06 @ Florida State
N27 @ Stanford
PURDUE
NAVY
SOUTHERN CAL
NORTH CAROLINA
GEORGIA TECH
@ Virginia Tech
@ Virginia


2022 Football Schedule
not official

N26 @ Southern Cal
STANFORD
BOSTON COLLEGE
CLEMSON
@ Navy
@ Ohio State
@ North Carolina
@ Syracuse


2023 Football Schedule
not official

N25 @ Stanford
NAVY
SOUTHERN CAL
OHIO STATE
WAKE FOREST
PITTSBURGH
@ North Carolina State
@ Duke
@ Louisville
@ Clemson


2024 Football Schedule
not official

A31 @ Texas A&M
MIAMI(FL)
FLORIDA STATE
VIRGINIA
STANFORD
@ Navy
@ Southern Cal
@ Georgia Tech


2025 Football Schedule
not official

S27 TEXAS A&M
NAVY
SOUTHERN CAL
NORTH CAROLINA STATE
SYRACUSE
@ Stanford
@ Miami(FL)
@ Boston College
@ Pittsburgh


The proposed "stability" of a conference schedule is a red herring. It has little relevance to ND football.

If you think this is relevant to a discussion on realignment on a UConn board, you're an idiot. If you don't but posted it anyway, you're a jerk.

Go away. Please.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Conspiracy Kitty says:
Your cynicism sickens me. What part of 2 degrees of separation don't you understand?

So Kevin Bacon is the key to a P5 invite!

 

[BoatShow]

"Forgive my ambiguity" should go down in boneyard lore with "20 minutes" "quite frankly" and hanging with "Andre Drummond"

 

[kyleslamb]

Conference realignment thread evolution in 20 simple steps.

1) A fact occurs.
2) Poster (OP) notes fact and explains how, in his opinion, the fact improves UConn's chances on joing a new conference, no matter how tenous or imaginary that connection might be.
3) OP gets many likes.
4) Poster 2 (P2) says that OP's interpretation is wrong and that fact will negatively impact UConn
5) Poster 3 (P3) notes that any fact which remotely relates to realignment must ultimately screw UConn due to CR rule#1.
6) P3 gets many likes.
7) Poster 4 (P4 -usually an ACC fan) denies fact ever occurred in the first place.
8) Board debates points.
9) Poster 5 (P5 - ugh), and I won't name names, enters thread and states that the fact's occurance or non- occurance is proof that we should drop football.
10) Everyone tells P5 to shut up.
11) Mandatory FS1 ratings discussion.
12) P4 discusses ACC basketball non-sequitor.
13) Poster 6 (P6) in discussing P4's post makes a vague reference to ND
14) Everyone else on the board groans.
15) Poster 7 (P7 a B1G fan) Talks about how the B1G ship has sailed for ND, but ND would be smart to beg for admission.
16) Everyone else on the board groans.
17 ) Poster 8 (uh let's just call him Terry) appears nearly instantanously to tell us that ND will NEVER join the B1G.
18) Everyone else on the board groans.
19) Poster 9 comes in and indignently announces that CR is dead.
20) Rinse and repeat.

You should get credited for 2,000 additional posts. That was a perfect summation of seemingly 2,000 other posts.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Conference realignment thread evolution in 20 simple steps.

1) A fact occurs.
2) Poster (OP) notes fact and explains how, in his opinion, the fact improves UConn's chances on joing a new conference, no matter how tenous or imaginary that connection might be.
3) OP gets many likes.
4) Poster 2 (P2) says that OP's interpretation is wrong and that fact will negatively impact UConn
5) Poster 3 (P3) notes that any fact which remotely relates to realignment must ultimately screw UConn due to CR rule#1.
6) P3 gets many likes.
7) Poster 4 (P4 -usually an ACC fan) denies fact ever occurred in the first place.
8) Board debates points.
9) Poster 5 (P5 - ugh), and I won't name names, enters thread and states that the fact's occurance or non- occurance is proof that we should drop football.
10) Everyone tells P5 to shut up.
11) Mandatory FS1 ratings discussion.
12) P4 discusses ACC basketball non-sequitor.
13) Poster 6 (P6) in discussing P4's post makes a vague reference to ND
14) Everyone else on the board groans.
15) Poster 7 (P7 a B1G fan) Talks about how the B1G ship has sailed for ND, but ND would be smart to beg for admission.
16) Everyone else on the board groans.
17 ) Poster 8 (uh let's just call him Terry) appears nearly instantanously to tell us that ND will NEVER join the B1G.
18) Everyone else on the board groans.
19) Poster 9 comes in and indignently announces that CR is dead.
20) Rinse and repeat.

Very funny.

 

[Seaa Blue]

PS Sorry Seaa Blue (I know Sparty & the Bucks are not your favorites) .

OT (and TMI): My mom once dated Sparty.

 

[husky210]

Very funny.

You should change your name to poster 5

 

[Ldandy]

That and the fact that ND does not ever want to join the Big Ten. Period.

It would gladly join the ACC before surrendering to the Big Ten, even if "special treatment" (i.e. football independence) were not a factor.

Your constant protestation against joining the B1G tells me one thing and one thing only. You desperately want ND to join the B1G. You wish it with every fiber of your being. Secretly you pine for their partner to be UVA so that you and fellow B1G "Enthusiast" Stimpy can rent an RV and tour the rust belt. Think of the good times you'll have.

 

[Seaa Blue]

I could write a long, detailed retort to your post, but I won't to the rest of the board's relief..

Domer 101:

(sorry, couldn't resist)

Note, though, that I never talk negatively about any school

 

[TruDomGopher]

Hello, everyone! I've said for a long time that UConn is coming to the B1G and I think the time is now--or very, very soon. The OP makes perfect sense.

(As an aside, I wish FranktheTank would do a blog on how B1G totally messed up realignment by not blowing straight out to 16--which I think was always the ultimate plan.)

My thinking has evolved: I thought B1G would go 16 before the new TV contract. Now I don't think that's possible in the way they originally wanted or envisioned. B1G is focused on the east and doesn't want to go west. I think the plan was to have Maryland and Rutgers followed up with UV and UConn. (VaTech or UNC would have worked, too.) However, the ACC got the wagons circled and it doesn't look like a UConn traveling partner will be available.

Now the B1G can watch a brand they want and need--they didn't open an NY office just to survey if anyone really knows where the heck Piscataway is--start to deteriorate for lack of exposure and resources, or they can issue the invite now because UConn is striving to be B1G by every measurable metric. Neither UConn or B1G can wait on a traveling partner anymore.

And there are some decided advantages to sitting at 15 awhile. First, someone at ND may have a visit from the Holy Mother and be told to join the B1G. (They still won't.) Second, they don't have to go into TV negotiations with the east/west imbalance for football hanging over everything. Who wants a conference championship game decided by 50+ points every year? They're already going to playing 9 conference games yearly--might as well rotate 3 pods of 5. Each team plays at least every other year and you maximize the chances of having a real blockbuster championship game.

And, frankly, they need the basketball brands, the hockey would really help, and you'll will be strongly encouraged and probably incentivized to get lacrosse for men up and running. (Seriously, a lot of B1G peeps think it is the game of the future.)

Admittedly, I have no sources, no inside knowledge, nothing like that--just like most of the tweet jockeys that claim to have sources. But I sincerely hope you're in and sooner rather than later. You're too good of a school to be stuck in limbo.

 

[MattMang23]

Anyone see Malloy sitting next to Herbst (and chatting with her about when we are being invited to the B1G) at the men's game tonight? I know Conspiracy Kitty @CL82 did.

 

[Gfunk]

I could write a long, detailed retort to your post, but I won't to the rest of the board's relief.

Note, though, that I never talk negatively about any school (conferences yes, schools no) even though you seem particularly obsessed with knocking ND.

P.S. "Fairness" has very little to do with CR, the playoffs and college sports in general.

P.P.S. I will bow out of this thread now. Take care.

You don't have to respond.

I'd like to see ND get with the times.

I'd like to see CF use conferences - primarily - to establish the playoff picture - similar to the NFL or any other professional American sport. The OOC games should matter, ND doesn't need to worry here & all games against FCS teams need to cease (all of FBS).

I'd like to see FBS contract to a manageable size - 80 teams at most. Only a little over a dozen teams have repeated as NCs in the Poll-BCS-CFP era & some of those teams won't likely be back - Minnesota, Pitt, Army - they don't have the infrastructure and advantages of a say a ND, Bama, or OSU. So 84 teams is actually going to high with a target FBS size.

I'd like to see 8 team playoffs, with conference championship games determining the 8 seeds. Rankings can still factor into the seedings. Bowl games & how a conference performs can also help reshuffle seedings. An 8 team playoff doesn't even have to require 2 teams from a particular conference, esp if reseeding is determined by conference performance in bowl games. Thus, there is plenty of room for intrigue and making all games matter.

The crowing of NCs in CF has only ever been controversial because of the lack of vision to much of the above.

My "fairness" point is quite clear - of course you can split hairs with me and a zillion others as to how certain programs will always have an edge on others, conference homes or not - those debates won't go away. You can't institute a salary cap in college sports - we all know this reality. We can do very little about the massive built in advantages certain schools have because the states they reside in are loaded with prep football talent. But a conference slate is just far more entertaining football and helps level the playing field as much as possible. I've given up following ND football in the era of the the BCS and now CFP - it's just so nomadic. The upside of conference schedules and media infusion with conference networks is clearly producing greater regional rivalries and adding to the intrigue and drama of matching the best from these regions in a CFP. Love it I do, it just makes for better tv. It's just an utter bore watching NBC coverage of ND football.

If ND joined a P5 conference for football, it would be better for their future, esp chances of securing a playoff bid. Bluebloods, other sports, absolutely maintain their national brands while still serving along conference membership lines. It's not rocket science. ND will always have its national brand in football. Instead of dominating a national schedule, you simply have to figure out how to dominate a conference slate and limited OOC games. Not calculus . . . sport!

 

[buddy]

Anyone see Malloy sitting next to Herbst (and chatting with her about when we are being invited to the B1G) at the men's game tonight? I know Conspiracy Kitty @CL82 did.

I saw it and think it certainly looks very positive. They were talking about how the B1G logo will look on the new XL Center court.

 

[RegisteredUconn]

We damn well better be aggressively pursuing P5 admittance. I take that as a given. My concern is that there is no reciprocal interest and no one here knows whether there is or not.

That's exactly how I took the OP, i.e., that the interest was now both ways and not simply UConn wanting a P5 slot. And, in my opinion, the less we hear, the more the interested P5 is the B1G.

 

[Fishy]

Very funny.

10) Shut up.

 

[CL82]

Hello, everyone! I've said for a long time that UConn is coming to the B1G and I think the time is now--or very, very soon. The OP makes perfect sense.

(As an aside, I wish FranktheTank would do a blog on how B1G totally messed up realignment by not blowing straight out to 16--which I think was always the ultimate plan.)

My thinking has evolved: I thought B1G would go 16 before the new TV contract. Now I don't think that's possible in the way they originally wanted or envisioned. B1G is focused on the east and doesn't want to go west. I think the plan was to have Maryland and Rutgers followed up with UV and UConn. (VaTech or UNC would have worked, too.) However, the ACC got the wagons circled and it doesn't look like a UConn traveling partner will be available.

Now the B1G can watch a brand they want and need--they didn't open an NY office just to survey if anyone really knows where the heck Piscataway is--start to deteriorate for lack of exposure and resources, or they can issue the invite now because UConn is striving to be B1G by every measurable metric. Neither UConn or B1G can wait on a traveling partner anymore.

And there are some decided advantages to sitting at 15 awhile. First, someone at ND may have a visit from the Holy Mother and be told to join the B1G. (They still won't.) Second, they don't have to go into TV negotiations with the east/west imbalance for football hanging over everything. Who wants a conference championship game decided by 50+ points every year? They're already going to playing 9 conference games yearly--might as well rotate 3 pods of 5. Each team plays at least every other year and you maximize the chances of having a real blockbuster championship game.

And, frankly, they need the basketball brands, the hockey would really help, and you'll will be strongly encouraged and probably incentivized to get lacrosse for men up and running. (Seriously, a lot of B1G peeps think it is the game of the future.)

Admittedly, I have no sources, no inside knowledge, nothing like that--just like most of the tweet jockeys that claim to have sources. But I sincerely hope you're in and sooner rather than later. You're too good of a school to be stuck in limbo.

...and so the cycle begins again.

 

[CL82]

Anyone see Malloy sitting next to Herbst (and chatting with her about when we are being invited to the B1G) at the men's game tonight? I know Conspiracy Kitty @CL82 did.

Conspiracy Kitty says:
I'm not a liberty to say so you will have to forgive my ambiguity...but hypothetically if a certain president needed an in to a certain athletically inferior vindictive university but only so the president could throw off the press so that she was not violation of a certain NDA since she really was not interested in joining the conference of the athletically inferior vindictive university but rather was in active talks with the a conference higher stature with a well know academic affiliation, then that president might reach out to a certain governor who attended the athletically inferior vindictive university making him an unknowing pawn her web of intrigue.

 

[Adios]

That certain governor wants us in the Hockey East.

 

[pj]

That certain governor wants us in the Hockey East.

Typical politician, a day late. Somebody tell him we're already in.

 

[coachcap]

Anyone see Malloy sitting next to Herbst (and chatting with her about when we are being invited to the B1G) at the men's game tonight? I know Conspiracy Kitty @CL82 did.

When the ESPN Camera focused on them shortly after halftime, Suzy was acting like a smitten sorority babe, batting her eyelashes & flicking her tresses at Danno. Hopefully she was trying to cajole him into expanding the RENT to 55K.

 

[pj]

Conspiracy Kitty says:
I'm not a liberty to say so you will have to forgive my ambiguity...but hypothetically if a certain president needed an in to a certain athletically inferior vindictive university but only so the president could throw off the press so that she was not violation of a certain NDA since she really was not interested in joining the conference of the athletically inferior vindictive university but rather was in active talks with the a conference higher stature with a well know academic affiliation, then that president might reach out to a certain governor who attended the athletically inferior vindictive university making him an unknowing pawn her web of intrigue.

Conspiracy Cynic says: Politician wants to be associated with success. When he hears something good is going to happen to UConn, he starts hanging around in public with the university president, in hopes of giving the impression he had something to do with making the good news happen.