Prefer not to join the ACC

[gars44]

We may have to, but I'd prefer not. I'd rather try to make a go of it with
WVU
Cincy
RU
USF
Uconn
Louisville
TCU
Houston
UCF
ECU
Memphis
SMU

I really would. But there is no way that any one of these schools would not crawl over one another to get out. Like crabs in a barrel. Forget about basketball. Forget about how this resembles CUSA. None of that matters if everyone would hang together. There is enough programming space out there to make this work over time. And this league would be good in short order. Problem is, there would be no loyalty. Coaches would be waiting for their promotion up, just like the big east over the last 7 years. Everyone would be waiting for the phone to ring. The "invitation." It's unfortunate, because that conference, not without controversy, would keep the AQ. But that is the current reality.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no

 

[Rumrunner]

Pass the crack pipe. Better yet, just shoot me.

 

[jrazz12]

Wow

 

[Dann]

u guys aren't seeing the reality of the situation. are those schools a step down? some of them are. but they can build and be good to great just like usf/uconn/lville/cincy did. the minute the sec touches the acc, our looks change 180 style.

 

[MattMang23]

The conference listed at the top is great... for the C-USA. It's not great for anyone who has played, and aspires to play, BCS-level football. Here's a good rule of thumb and very often applicable: Once you have Directional U in your conference, it's time to bail.

 

[ctchamps]

The conference listed at the top is great... for the C-USA. It's not great for anyone who has played, and aspires to play, BCS-level football. Here's a good rule of thumb and very often applicable: Once you have Directional U in your conference, it's time to bail.

You can be right. I don't have an insight into the future. But similar things were said when the BE was forced to add Cincy, USF and Ville (the Directional U's at the time). And until last season the adjusted conference wasn't a laughing stock but was beginning to get respect.

Of course I'm arguing a moot point because I see Herbst guiding UConn into the ACC.

 

[Dann]

university of southern cali? anyone? thats directional right?

 

[MattMang23]

really?
USCe
USCw
come to mind...

Exactly... Two. and one has a direction in it because it's in the name of the state.

 

[Dann]

Exactly... Two. and one has a direction in it because it's in the name of the state.

i know, i deleted it right after i wrote it and change it. fleud has it right

 

[MattMang23]

You can be right. I don't have an insight into the future. But similar things were said when the BE was forced to add Cincy, USF and Ville (the Directional U's at the time). And until last season the adjusted conference wasn't a laughing stock but was beginning to get respect.

Of course I'm arguing a moot point because I see Herbst guiding UConn into the ACC.

Cincy and Louisville don't have directions in their name. I'm literally talking directionals in the name. Reason? Directions in the name often imply the school isn't a top-flight national university. Why? Because the national university in that state is named after the state, not a section of it. ex: Univertsity of Connecticut vs. Central Connecticut State. If the University of Connecticut considers itself a national university- which we are- we must align with other top-flight national universities. The ACC.

 

[Dann]

Cincy and Louisville don't have directions in their name. I'm literally talking directionals in the name. Reason? Directions in the name often imply the school isn't a top-flight national university. Why? Because the national university in that state is named after the state, not a section of it. ex: Univertsity of Connecticut vs. Central Connecticut State. If the University of Connecticut considers itself a national university- which we are- we must align with other top-flight national universities. The ACC.

even if that means hurting our fball program? fball drives the bus i thought? a watered down acc after the sec grab doesn't exactly get me all excited. its great and all that duke and everyone else there are great at school work, but they stink on the weekends in fball. i thought we built a fball program for other reasons. if we spent millions to join a good atheltic conf for school only but not for athletics, then why did we start playing fball??? instead just take those millions and build school buildings/school programs and become yale with a great bball program.

 

[ctchamps]

Cincy and Louisville don't have directions in their name. I'm literally talking directionals in the name. Reason? Directions in the name often imply the school isn't a top-flight national university. Why? Because the national university in that state is named after the state, not a section of it. ex: Univertsity of Connecticut vs. Central Connecticut State. If the University of Connecticut considers itself a national university- which we are- we must align with other top-flight national universities. The ACC.

Gottcha. upstater has been thorough about this subject. He's no fan of Clemson however. I'm not sure the alignment of a sports conference has as much weight on the academic side. But I'll leave that argument to upstater.

 

[Fishy]

The good thing about threads like this is that it gives public health officials a good sense of who needs a net thrown over them and who doesn't.

While Houston is certainly at least the 37th nicest city in Texas and schools like ECU and UCF are often as high as page four or five in their local sports pages, I would sooner drink a Drano and tonic rather than see UConn sharing a conference with 'em.

It's not that they are bad athletic programs, it is that they are bad, ugly, poorly-located remote programs with fan bases who think it is okay to dry their hands on their pants.

If Seton Hall and West Virginia had a baby, it would Houston, or ECU, or UCF....and so on.

 

[UConn Do It4]

with fan bases who think it is okay to dry their hands on their pants.

Why waste a perfectly clean towel?

 

[Dann]

Why waste a perfectly clean towel?

if everyone from those teams saved a towel and used there clothes, maybe then we can collect all of them and then uconn could hand them out at the gate and we could actually have a real white or blue out.

 

[ZooCougar]

We may have to, but I'd prefer not. I'd rather try to make a go of it with
WVU
Cincy
RU
USF
Uconn
Louisville
TCU
Houston
UCF
ECU
Memphis
SMU

I really would. But there is no way that any one of these schools would not crawl over one another to get out. Like crabs in a barrel. Forget about basketball. Forget about how this resembles CUSA. None of that matters if everyone would hang together. There is enough programming space out there to make this work over time. And this league would be good in short order. Problem is, there would be no loyalty. Coaches would be waiting for their promotion up, just like the big east over the last 7 years. Everyone would be waiting for the phone to ring. The "invitation." It's unfortunate, because that conference, not without controversy, would keep the AQ. But that is the current reality.

Seriously. People need to STFU about Memphis. We do not want to be associated with them. They are off the charts bad.

 

[ZooCougar]

university of southern cali? anyone? thats directional right?

I think you're kidding. But just in case, USC is a private school. So not at all.

 

[UCHuskies08]

I think you're kidding. But just in case, USC is a private school. So not at all.

I think he's had a few too many Keystone Lights tonight

 

[MattMang23]

even if that means hurting our fball program? fball drives the bus i thought? a watered down acc after the sec grab doesn't exactly get me all excited. its great and all that duke and everyone else there are great at school work, but they stink on the weekends in fball. i thought we built a fball program for other reasons. if we spent millions to join a good atheltic conf for school only but not for athletics, then why did we start playing fball??? instead just take those millions and build school buildings/school programs and become yale with a great bball program.

You spend mills on a good athletic program only partially to win games. The other part is so that you can diversify your student body with students from all over the country. The more you win, the more you're on national TV. The more you're on national TV, the more students come from all over. This makes you a national university. You think it's just coincidence that in the past ten years as UConn's sports teams have been as great as they've ever been collectively, the academic reputation has kept increasing over the same time span to the point where UConn is the best it's ever been academically too? Winning sports teams are (semi-)free advertising.

 

[warbler1055]

Geographically only UConn and Rutgers are in the NY-NE area.

 

[upstater]

Gottcha. upstater has been thorough about this subject. He's no fan of Clemson however. I'm not sure the alignment of a sports conference has as much weight on the academic side. But I'll leave that argument to upstater.

I guess I'm agreeing with myself here. I don't see the connection between conferences and academic rep. If that were true, wouldn't the reverse also apply? Wouldn't Vandy be downgraded? Wouldn't Duke feel a little scuzzy? Maybe with the Big10 and the CIC, there's some real skin in the game, but otherwise, who cares? I know a BigTen admin. paid lip service to this idea yesterday, but the new Prez of Amherst Coll. who was a bigwig in the B10 last year basically said she'd be lying if academics had any real influence in adding Nebraska to the league.

I think this whole idea got started because of the Ivy League. But something that popped up a century ago is not easily reproduced.

 

[upstater]

You spend mills on a good athletic program only partially to win games. The other part is so that you can diversify your student body with students from all over the country. The more you win, the more you're on national TV. The more you're on national TV, the more students come from all over. This makes you a national university. You think it's just coincidence that in the past ten years as UConn's sports teams have been as great as they've ever been collectively, the academic reputation has kept increasing over the same time span to the point where UConn is the best it's ever been academically too? Winning sports teams are (semi-)free advertising.

If it's advertising, then it's very expensive advertising. For some schools sports do help the academic program. For the vast majority they don't. I would tend to think that UConn was helped out by all the money they sunk into the school plus the natural demographic changes going on everywhere even in non-sports schools. Better student bodies, more apps, etc. The only question with UConn is whether sports success in the 1990s lead to the billion dollar buildout. A good argument could be made.

 

[upstater]

I'm not against Gars sentiment here. If UConn moves to the ACC, I think it would be hurt from what it was. Optimally I would've liked to see them stay in the BE as it was, but now I'd love to see them in the ACC. It's going to suck going to the ACC though.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

We may have to, but I'd prefer not. I'd rather try to make a go of it with
WVU
Cincy
RU
USF
Uconn
Louisville
TCU
Houston
UCF
ECU
Memphis
SMU

I really would. But there is no way that any one of these schools would not crawl over one another to get out. Like crabs in a barrel. Forget about basketball. Forget about how this resembles CUSA. None of that matters if everyone would hang together. There is enough programming space out there to make this work over time. And this league would be good in short order. Problem is, there would be no loyalty. Coaches would be waiting for their promotion up, just like the big east over the last 7 years. Everyone would be waiting for the phone to ring. The "invitation." It's unfortunate, because that conference, not without controversy, would keep the AQ. But that is the current reality.

While I am at least indifferent on joining the ACC vs. sticking with the Big East, I wouldn't do it in the way you propose.

Take the 7 we have now, add 1 all sports school, preferably Houston, for 16 and 8. I would be willing to add Navy and Army because they are nearby, have national profiles, would be great for bowls and ratings, and would create some political pressure on the BCS to keep us around and leave us alone.

If someone made the case that we absolutely, positively, had to get to 12 for football, I would add Temple and UMass, initially for football only. UMass, because it is a major, national university, and Temple because it is in Philadelphia and has as good a football team as any of the schools on that list.

Temple and Houston were both in major conferences at one time.

I think posters have very different ideas of what UConn needs to get out of its conference. Many here just want to hang out with the cool kids. I call this the South Carolina Effect, where the fanbase identifies itself more by the schools in the conference than the school they are fans of. In my opinion, a conference is just a schedule of reasonably interesting, high to medium caliber opponents for football. In basketball, I want high quality, urban opponents.

The ACC has its own stability issues right now, because it has several schools that are very attractive expansion candidates for the SEC.