ok give it to me straight - why didn't we get in (again)

[Waquoit]

It’s a largely southwest conference and four already-P5 schools in more convenient locations became available.

According to the Arizona president, they were signing a GOR on Friday morning before Oregon called and said they were going to the Big Ten.

We came that close

What are the odds of getting the pen knocked out of the hand twice?

 

[Excalibur]

all of this breaks my heart. sry to all you long-timers - hope you get your wish of an elevated uconn football & athletics.

but i seriously wonder, if Syracuse and BC and Rutgers have not been able to matter in the national conversation, even with their top tier P5 status, what makes us think we have a shot to do any better? Are we in a better position/more serious about it? asking not because i'm hating, but because the investment/standard that the P4/P3 is implicitly asking of us, is pretty serious. Is that something we want to do, and to what end, ultimately (i.e. what does it accomplish for UConn, to keep spending and spending on football)?

AGAIN - not advocating for cancelling program/going to FCS, like others people. I v much desire to see us on the big stage. Just asking real dollars and cents / ROI questions. Surely someone in UConn boardroom, is as well.... you can only get left at the altar so much.

Viability in hoops will eventually require membership in the club. Football or no football, the entire athletics program will be irrelevant eventually if we don’t get in somewhere.

 

[superjohn]

Viability in hoops will eventually require membership in the club. Football or no football, the entire athletics program will be irrelevant eventually if we don’t get in somewhere.

We're on a path where college sports will he irrelevant for a large swaths of the country. I guess it will be fun for those few SEC teams who win championships and those few Big 10 teams who are ranked highly all season and never win championships. I don't see how that will be fun for anyone else

 

[dayooper]

We're on a path where college sports will he irrelevant for a large swaths of the country. I guess it will be fun for those few SEC teams who win championships and those few Big 10 teams who are ranked highly all season and never win championships. I don't see how that will be fun for anyone else

How many schools can win football national championships now?

 

[superjohn]

How many schools can win football national championships now?

There's only 4 conferences who win basketball national championships. ACC, Big East, Big 12, and SEC. There's basically only one conference the SEC who wins football national championships and 4 teams are in the mix- Bama, Georgia, LSU, and Florida. Clemson will be the 5th team once they're added to the SEC. The point is having 2 conferences who control everything while everyone else is shut out and only one conference who wins stuff is terrible for college sports. People lose interest when they're not a part of things.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

How many schools can win football national championships now?

Those that have AD budgets of $175MM-$200+MM.

 

[aburks41]

There's only 4 conferences who win basketball national championships. ACC, Big East, Big 12, and SEC. There's basically only one conference the SEC who wins football national championships and 4 teams are in the mix- Bama, Georgia, LSU, and Florida. Clemson will be the 5th team once they're added to the SEC. The point is having 2 conferences who control everything while everyone else is shut out and only one conference who wins stuff is terrible for college sports. People lose interest when they're not a part of things.

I agree, but the beauty of the NCAA tournament is that it gives 68 teams a fighting chance to win it all. Every single conference in the sport is represented in the tournament. So yes, even though the ACC, Big East, SEC, and Big 12 are the only conferences that produce a winner, everyone else is still getting an equal shot at it.

College football gives 4 teams a chance. And with the SEC, Big 10, and ACC/B12 winner taking up 3 of those 4 spots, you are leaving the rest of college football to fight over 1 spot. And when the CFP expands, they'll just give more spots to those conferences. There's only 10 FBS conferences (plus indy). The sport would be so much better if every conference got an AQ in the CFP

 

[CTBballfan243]

I agree, but the beauty of the NCAA tournament is that it gives 68 teams a fighting chance to win it all. Every single conference in the sport is represented in the tournament. So yes, even though the ACC, Big East, SEC, and Big 12 are the only conferences that produce a winner, everyone else is still getting an equal shot at it.

College football gives 4 teams a chance. And with the SEC, Big 10, and ACC/B12 winner taking up 3 of those 4 spots, you are leaving the rest of college football to fight over 1 spot. And when the CFP expands, they'll just give more spots to those conferences. There's only 10 FBS conferences (plus indy). The sport would be so much better if every conference got an AQ in the CFP

They are going to do away with AQ’s. 12 playoff spots and a selection board made up of Power Conference AD’s.

 

[superjohn]

I agree, but the beauty of the NCAA tournament is that it gives 68 teams a fighting chance to win it all. Every single conference in the sport is represented in the tournament. So yes, even though the ACC, Big East, SEC, and Big 12 are the only conferences that produce a winner, everyone else is still getting an equal shot at it.

College football gives 4 teams a chance. And with the SEC, Big 10, and ACC/B12 winner taking up 3 of those 4 spots, you are leaving the rest of college football to fight over 1 spot. And when the CFP expands, they'll just give more spots to those conferences. There's only 10 FBS conferences (plus indy). The sport would be so much better if every conference got an AQ in the CFP

I stopped caring about college football a while ago. It would be neat to have UConn occasionally being a top 25 team but it's a Southern SEC sport and it's only going to become more of a Southern SEC sport. Big 10 is just accumulating big names who don't win anything. I think the fear for everyone is that these greedy morons will try and ruin college basketball and the best event in sports. They're unbelievably greedy and unbelievably stupid but the backlash would be enormous if they tried to ruin college hoops. Just break football off and the two of them can jack each other off.

 

[Nostical]

Forget all the esoteric last minute machinations of the Pac 12. While the 4 Corner Schools made more sense for hurried Big 12 invitations during that dramatic "tipping point" on Friday morning, the fact remains that—FOX was not pushing for us to be invited! While Yormark and ESPN wanted us—FOX was against it. While UConn may have played an outsized role in Bret Yormark’s conference vision, FOX’s Big East TV rights made UConn more valuable to them staying in the Big East (at least in the short term) than any perceived 'value added' Fox might get from us being in the Big12. Why would FOX want to lose their ratings "big dog" as the Huskies head into the ‘23-24 season as the National Champion.

May 2023
Representatives from FOX Sports, the Big East's television partner, led by Executive Vice President Jordan Bazant and Executive Vice President Larry Jones, who negotiated the conference’s current national television agreement, spoke to the men’s and women’s coaching groups about plans for the 2023-24 season, including scheduling and promotional strategies to enhance their already innovative wall-to-wall coverage of BIG EAST men’s and women’s basketball. "The league will enter the 2023-24 season riding a wave of basketball successes during the 2023 postseason, which culminated with the University of Connecticut’s fifth men’s basketball national championship. Ratings for men’s and women’s basketball on the FOX family of networks this past year were up 10% and 107%, respectively."
Joel Fisher, Executive Vice President for Marquee Events, participated in discussions about the success of the BIG EAST Tournament and potential future events involving BIG EAST schools at The World’s Most Famous Arena, Madison Square Garden.
The BIG EAST Men's regular season culminated with sellouts in all five sessions of the BIG EAST Tournament at Madison Square Garden, the Tournament’s home since 1983. This was the highest attendance and TV ratings in years. The BIG EAST Women's Tournament at Mohegan Sun boasted the highest attendance and viewership numbers since realignment.

I would submit that in both instances, UConn's being back in the conference with successful programs were key contributors to the rise in both attendance and viewership. Would you be eager to see UConn slip away to the Big 12 if you owned those Big East rights? UConn is must-see TV for Fox’s Big East basketball ratings.

 

[uconnyankee]

Yes, we're viewed as a basketball school because we're awesome at basketball and win championships all the time in basketball. We're viewed as a terrible football school because we suck at football. The sucking at football thing is why we're left out.

We agree.

If the school would have even pretended to care about football prior to Mora, we’d be in better place.

Bad hires, sticking with HCRE, stupid coaching moves, cancelling a season, etc.

Doesn’t scream we’re football

 

[uconnyankee]

We're on a path where college sports will he irrelevant for a large swaths of the country. I guess it will be fun for those few SEC teams who win championships and those few Big 10 teams who are ranked highly all season and never win championships. I don't see how that will be fun for anyone else

Participation Trophy’s!

 

[superjohn]

If the school would have even pretended to care about football prior to Mora, we’d be in better place.

Bad hires, sticking with HCRE, stupid coaching moves, cancelling a season, etc.

Doesn’t scream we’re football

They did care they just made horrible hires in P and Pink Pants. Okay, they stopped caring when they hired back the snake and canceling the season was beyond ridiculous. There were actually a lot of people here who were cheering for canceling the season and they thought other non Ivies would cancel their season. Lolz.

 

[aburks41]

Forget all the esoteric last minute machinations of the Pac 12. While the 4 Corner Schools made more sense for hurried Big 12 invitations during that dramatic "tipping point" on Friday morning, the fact remains that—FOX was not pushing for us to be invited! While Yormark and ESPN wanted us—FOX was against it. While UConn may have played an outsized role in Bret Yormark’s conference vision, FOX’s Big East TV rights made UConn more valuable to them staying in the Big East (at least in the short term) than any perceived 'value added' Fox might get from us being in the Big12. Why would FOX want to lose their ratings "big dog" as the Huskies head into the ‘23-24 season as the National Champion.

May 2023
Representatives from FOX Sports, the Big East's television partner, led by Executive Vice President Jordan Bazant and Executive Vice President Larry Jones, who negotiated the conference’s current national television agreement, spoke to the men’s and women’s coaching groups about plans for the 2023-24 season, including scheduling and promotional strategies to enhance their already innovative wall-to-wall coverage of BIG EAST men’s and women’s basketball. "The league will enter the 2023-24 season riding a wave of basketball successes during the 2023 postseason, which culminated with the University of Connecticut’s fifth men’s basketball national championship. Ratings for men’s and women’s basketball on the FOX family of networks this past year were up 10% and 107%, respectively."
Joel Fisher, Executive Vice President for Marquee Events, participated in discussions about the success of the BIG EAST Tournament and potential future events involving BIG EAST schools at The World’s Most Famous Arena, Madison Square Garden.
The BIG EAST Men's regular season culminated with sellouts in all five sessions of the BIG EAST Tournament at Madison Square Garden, the Tournament’s home since 1983. This was the highest attendance and TV ratings in years. The BIG EAST Women's Tournament at Mohegan Sun boasted the highest attendance and viewership numbers since realignment.

I would submit that in both instances, UConn's being back in the conference with successful programs were key contributors to the rise in both attendance and viewership. Would you be eager to see UConn slip away to the Big 12 if you owned those Big East rights? UConn is must-see TV for Fox’s Big East basketball ratings.

I think UConn vs Kansas twice a year and UConn vs Arizona twice a year would deliver monster ratings. Way more than anyone we play in the Big East. UConn vs Nova does huge numbers but I don’t really think anyone else in the Big East comes close to Kansas or Arizona’s draw in basketball. The quality of programs is part of it, but also small catholic schools having an alumni base 10% the size of these Big 12 schools plays a big role. The Big 12 really screwed up bringing ASU on board. They are mediocre at everything

 

[J187Money]

TV market isn't worth that much. Would help if football is better but there aren't enough eyeballs here (and even if UCONN was a perennial 9 win team this isn't appointment viewing for the fanbase here). If this is about money (and it is) the only thing that matters is the perceived value of the TV market.

 

[Waquoit]

(and even if UCONN was a perennial 9 win team this isn't appointment viewing for the fanbase here).

It would be if UConn was in a Power conference.

 

[DoctorWho85]

It’s a largely southwest conference and four already-P5 schools in more convenient locations became available.

According to the Arizona president, they were signing a GOR on Friday morning before Oregon called and said they were going to the Big Ten.

We came that close

I'm still disappointed we didn't get in, but they took 4 P5 schools in expansion to destroy a rival conference. It's exactly what the ACC did to the Big East in the early 2000's. There's still rumors that the Big 12 will go to 18, but I'm not holding my breath. At this point I'm hoping FSU and Clemson bounces from the ACC, because you know we'll be the first on the list to get the call.

 

[Drumguy]

I'm still disappointed we didn't get in, but they took 4 P5 schools in expansion to destroy a rival conference. It's exactly what the ACC did to the Big East in the early 2000's. There's still rumors that the Big 12 will go to 18, but I'm not holding my breath. At this point I'm hoping FSU and Clemson bounces from the ACC, because you know we'll be the first on the list to get the call.

Apparantly right after Cal and Stanford get their calls in.

 

[Fishy]

I'm still disappointed we didn't get in, but they took 4 P5 schools in expansion to destroy a rival conference. It's exactly what the ACC did to the Big East in the early 2000's. There's still rumors that the Big 12 will go to 18, but I'm not holding my breath. At this point I'm hoping FSU and Clemson bounces from the ACC, because you know we'll be the first on the list to get the call.

I think people have a fundamental misunderstanding of the ACC.

We’re not first on any list they have.

Right now, they are discussing whether to invite California. Their football is awful and they have not been to the sweet 16 in 30 years. Also - THEY ARE ON THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE COUNTRY.

But they’re more interesting to the ACC than we are.

 

[CL82]

There's only 4 conferences who win basketball national championships. ACC, Big East, Big 12, and SEC. There's basically only one conference the SEC who wins football national championships and 4 teams are in the mix- Bama, Georgia, LSU, and Florida. Clemson will be the 5th team once they're added to the SEC. The point is having 2 conferences who control everything while everyone else is shut out and only one conference who wins stuff is terrible for college sports. People lose interest when they're not a part of things.

True enough, but if you have a presence in every major media market, do you really care whether people in other markets are interested? The idea will be to maximize revenue for the "power" schools during the period of time that are relevant to the decision makers.

 

[dayooper]

I think people have a fundamental misunderstanding of the ACC.

We’re not first on any list they have.

Right now, they are discussing whether to invite California. Their football is awful and they have not been to the sweet 16 in 30 years. Also - THEY ARE ON THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE COUNTRY.

But they’re more interesting to the ACC than we are.

I wonder if they are trying to entice ND to join fully into the ACC.

It also depends on where the report is coming from. Could it be Cal and Stanford trying to encourage the Big10 to invite them?

 

[Fishy]

I wonder if they are trying to entice ND to join fully into the ACC.

It also depends on where the report is coming from. Could it be Cal and Stanford trying to encourage the Big10 to invite them?

It would not have any impact on Notre Dame. They already play Stanford every year - they do not need a conference for that. If their other sports are in a conference with Stanford now, too, they get the affiliation thrown in for nothing. ND gets the milk, no need for a cow.

There’s nothing out there that would really pressure ND into a conference. They’re going to get paid, they have a great home for their other sports and the expanded CFP looks like they wrote it themselves. They have access and no need to share the rewards.

It’s still Notre Dame’s world.

 

[dayooper]

It would not have any impact on Notre Dame. They already play Stanford every year - they do not need a conference for that. If their other sports are in a conference with Stanford now, too, they get the affiliation thrown in for nothing. ND gets the milk, no need for a cow.

There’s nothing out there that would really pressure ND into a conference. They’re going to get paid, they have a great home for their other sports and the expanded CFP looks like they wrote it themselves. They have access and no need to share the rewards.

It’s still Notre Dame’s world.

Oh I agree, but I think the ACC is getting a little anxious.

Ultimately I believe that NBC will give ND that contract they want, but require they play 3-5 Big10 teams every year. 2 of those could be the LA schools so they get their Cali fix. Playing Purdue, Michigan (scheduled for ‘33 and ‘34), MSU and other Big10 rivalries. Still room to play Navy and BC.

 

[billybud]

It would not have any impact on Notre Dame. They already play Stanford every year - they do not need a conference for that. If their other sports are in a conference with Stanford now, too, they get the affiliation thrown in for nothing. ND gets the milk, no need for a cow.

There’s nothing out there that would really pressure ND into a conference. They’re going to get paid, they have a great home for their other sports and the expanded CFP looks like they wrote it themselves. They have access and no need to share the rewards.

It’s still Notre Dame’s world.

Never trust a leprechaun.

 

[DoctorWho85]

I think people have a fundamental misunderstanding of the ACC.

We’re not first on any list they have.

Right now, they are discussing whether to invite California. Their football is awful and they have not been to the sweet 16 in 30 years. Also - THEY ARE ON THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE COUNTRY.

But they’re more interesting to the ACC than we are.

That's because Duke and UNC doesn't want to deal with Hurley and his superior recruiting now that K and WIlliams are gone hahahaha. Syracuse hasn't been good since they left the big east and same with Pitt.