- Joined
- Dec 22, 2013
- Messages
- 34
- Reaction Score
- 50
There's been a lot of different theories as to why Louisville beat us for the last realignment spot in the P5.
Heard Tom Jurich the other on the radio -- it was interesting hearing from the horse's mouth who helped Louisville get that last spot.
Some we've already spoken about: FSU, Clemson. No surprise there -- Southern schools culturally more of a fit with Louisville than UCONN.
The other specific people he thanked were the Syracuse AD and Duke AD: old friends of his from years back.
A couple of things struck me when I heard this: 1) Jurich plain and simple had been around for a lot longer than Manual, and had a larger set of connections and markers to call in. 2) While he didn't specifically name or speak about UCONN, he did say that he thought a big part of Louisville's selection was that it hadn't had any type of NCAA investigation/violation in any program during his 17 year stint at Louisville.
That suggests to me that UCONN couldn't have been in a worse position having been under the shadow of NCAA violations and an unproven rookie head coach during this selection process. I've heard a lot of people holding Warde Manual and Susan Herbst to the fire due to their performance during those 12 days of realignment jockeying. But UCONN's probation wasn't their fault. Calhoun couldn't have lost the reigns of our signature program at a worse time. I realize he didn't have any idea that this was going to play out this way, but let's also realize that there is a lot of blame that can be spread around.
Heard Tom Jurich the other on the radio -- it was interesting hearing from the horse's mouth who helped Louisville get that last spot.
Some we've already spoken about: FSU, Clemson. No surprise there -- Southern schools culturally more of a fit with Louisville than UCONN.
The other specific people he thanked were the Syracuse AD and Duke AD: old friends of his from years back.
A couple of things struck me when I heard this: 1) Jurich plain and simple had been around for a lot longer than Manual, and had a larger set of connections and markers to call in. 2) While he didn't specifically name or speak about UCONN, he did say that he thought a big part of Louisville's selection was that it hadn't had any type of NCAA investigation/violation in any program during his 17 year stint at Louisville.
That suggests to me that UCONN couldn't have been in a worse position having been under the shadow of NCAA violations and an unproven rookie head coach during this selection process. I've heard a lot of people holding Warde Manual and Susan Herbst to the fire due to their performance during those 12 days of realignment jockeying. But UCONN's probation wasn't their fault. Calhoun couldn't have lost the reigns of our signature program at a worse time. I realize he didn't have any idea that this was going to play out this way, but let's also realize that there is a lot of blame that can be spread around.