Presenting UConn in Conference Realignment

[UConn Esq]

I don't believe UMD is one of the approved Evidence Based Practice Centers fyi

 

[Huskybite]

Yeah, it got better. While Miami and VT went on a reputation slides (Miami moreso than VT) after their Championship Games as Big East members, the Big East replaced those schools with Cincinnati, Louisville, USF and UCONN (also replacing Temple). WVU took over as the weight bearing football member and found more BCS success than the entire ACC conference combined. UCONN won multiple hoops titles and helped the Big East become the best basketball conference in the country.

The subtractions that really killed the Big East was Syracuse and Pitt - the same wave that UCONN was ticketed out but replaced by Pitt, thanks to Boston College and ESPiN. It was that departure that included a charter member (Syracuse) that created a mass panic by all remaining members of the Big East to find escape pods. It was at that point that WVU, Louisville, UCONN, and Cincinnati started screaming and running along the Titanic deck tops looking for empty spots on fleeing escape vessels. Syracuse was part of an effort by Big East football schools to try to strengthen football. Once ESPiN's lowball offer was turned down, the writing was on the wall and they knew they had to leave. UCONN was the original partner with them but BC objected over turf wars and ESPiN didn't fight too hard for us when they offered up Pitt as a quick Plan B.

The ironic thing is that had the conference's football playing members successfully persuaded the league's hoops-only Catholic 7 schools that football was the pre-cursor to league stability, not basketball, then the Big East could have added a few schools and, quite possibly, been the 5th P and not the ACC. But as we all know, it didn't pan out that way and everyone, including the Catholic 7 dregs like Seton Hall, Providence and St John's, profited except UCONN. The Big East was, by most measurable metrics (bowl records, BCS records, basketball titles, markets), a better conference than the ACC. But the ACC didn't have a Catholic 7 problem and could act unanimously in trying to kill off their top competition. With ESPiN's help, they obviously succeeded.

Just came across these Pitt articles (a little dated) which, by comparison, make BC look sports-crazed. Awesome choice, Swoffy..er..ESPN!

http://fansided.com/2014/12/24/sad-state-pitt-panther-football/

http://triblive.com/sports/robrossi/6952873-74/pitt-football-thursday#axzz3O136yrTO

 

[Dooley]

Just came across these Pitt articles (a little dated) which, by comparison, make BC look sports-crazed. Awesome choice, Swoffy..er..ESPN!

http://fansided.com/2014/12/24/sad-state-pitt-panther-football/

http://triblive.com/sports/robrossi/6952873-74/pitt-football-thursday#axzz3O136yrTO

Yup. Pitt is so irrelevant in their own city that it washes out any sort of "recruiting ties" that the ACC thinks it will gain from adding them. Penn State and Ohio State dominate that area. Sure, Pitt has some fans, but not enough to regularly sell out Heinz Field unless Notre Dame or West Virginia play there (and bring 20+K of their own fans too). They should build a new stadium on-campus somewhere that is MUCH smaller and more intimate but they won't because there just isn't enough demand. And Pitt's plight is much more different than UCONN's regarding attendance. UCONN is in an attendance spiral because of a bad on-field product and a schedule that doesn't move the needle. Pitt, on the other hand, regularly wins about 6 games a year against a good ACC schedule and they still can't draw. To me, that is more indicative of fanbase apathy than anything else.

 

[Antiobserver]

Yup. Pitt is so irrelevant in their own city that it washes out any sort of "recruiting ties" that the ACC thinks it will gain from adding them. Penn State and Ohio State dominate that area. Sure, Pitt has some fans, but not enough to regularly sell out Heinz Field unless Notre Dame or West Virginia play there (and bring 20+K of their own fans too). They should build a new stadium on-campus somewhere that is MUCH smaller and more intimate but they won't because there just isn't enough demand. And Pitt's plight is much more different than UCONN's regarding attendance. UCONN is in an attendance spiral because of a bad on-field product and a schedule that doesn't move the needle. Pitt, on the other hand, regularly wins about 6 games a year against a good ACC schedule and they still can't draw. To me, that is more indicative of fanbase apathy than anything else.

Pitt fans live in la-la land to think Pitt can return to their "glory days" of the 70s. In that time, Pitt regularly had 100+ kids on scholarship and was busy paying players. They cling to a bunch of phoney titles while Woodrow Wilson was president to justify their demands.

That program is DOA and Nardoozi will be fired in the next 3 years. Rinse and repeat.