Some Comments from Swofford

[itgoeslike]

The NBE is not one of our choices, but it is ridiculous to make fun of that leagues ratings on foxsports when they are making so much more than us and our conference sucks so badly in both major sports.

Name one NBE school that will generate more revenue than UConn.

 

[Pudge]

I think the NBE - money & all - is heading to a status very close to the A10 & CAA. Granted, they recruited a little & MSG had a nice draw for their tourney. Nostalgia. Their Brand will be sinking.

We are where we are. Football is important & we have a decent regional market. Need to creep further into NE & metropolitan NYC. And, of course, Diaco needs to succeed. Crossed my fingers on that guy.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Name one NBE school that will generate more revenue than UConn.

From their conference TV contract? All of them.

 

[itgoeslike]

From their conference TV contract? All of them.

The answer is none of them. It's not even close. Both conference's TV contracts represent a fraction of UConn's overall revenue. The delta between the two contracts is even more insignificant. You're advocating picking up pennies when we need to be focused on pocketing dollar bills. . .

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I think the NBE - money & all - is heading to a status very close to the A10 & CAA. Granted, they recruited a little & MSG had a nice draw for their tourney. Nostalgia. Their Brand will be sinking.

We are where we are. Football is important & we have a decent regional market. Need to creep further into NE & metropolitan NYC. And, of course, Diaco needs to succeed. Crossed my fingers on that guy.

You realize how pathetic this whole board sounds with posts like this? This is like saying your ex will get fat and broke eventually, even if she looks great and is rolling in cash now. It sounds ridiculous.

We are in a southern mid-major league that plays on TV for almost nothing.The closest school is about 275 miles away, and after that the distances get really big. We would have been better off adding UMass and Buffalo instead of Tulane and Tulsa, but instead of adding two large state schools within driving distance of UConn, it added two tiny private schools that are each over 1,000 miles away. Having a school in Florida does not help us for recruiting when we are no longer in a BCS league. Those Florida kids would have to pick us over about 35 G5 schools that are closer, and in case you guys forgot, there was a foot of ice on the ground for about 2 months last winter.

I have said before that any other alternative is better than the one we have. Nothing has caused me to change that position. We are better off taking us, UMass, Temple, Buffalo and Cincinnati, and grabbing the next 3 closest schools we can find, and starting over with a new league. Miami (OH), Navy and Army, and we are done. Navy and Army would probably like the scheduling flexibility of a 7 game schedule, and we could fill in with the other 6 teams playing 4 games a year against BYU. That is better than our current option, and would likely generate more in revenue. We are stuck in a contract of death with ESPN, and the MAC basically just gave up with its TV deal. Mix things up and see what happens.

Literally every single option is better than the one we chose.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The answer is none of them. It's not even close. Both conference's TV contracts represent a fraction of UConn's overall revenue. The delta between the two contracts is even more insignificant. You're advocating picking up pennies when we need to be focused on pocketing dollar bills. . .

It represents a fraction now. UConn kicks in about $15MM to the athletic department, and that is while UConn is still receiving exit fees from the OBE exodus. When those try up, we are completely screwed.

 

[Kolumbo]

Duke's football field has a track around it. Just saying.

 

[itgoeslike]

It represents a fraction now. UConn kicks in about $15MM to the athletic department, and that is while UConn is still receiving exit fees from the OBE exodus. When those try up, we are completely screwed.

You just proved my point. An extra $1.8M isn't going to close that gap. Additionally, the football team was profitable or lost money while generating $11M in revenue depending upon whose data you believe. So if you downgrade football, what do you gain? Maybe you cut coaching salaries. You still end up with less fan interest, less revenue and the lion's share of the expenses. You would also halve the advertising revenue and donor support for the sport. Lastly, consider that the AAC's playoff payout, as well as other AAC payouts, more than make up the delta between the TV contracts. Your proposal is a net loss.

 

[Pudge]

You realize how pathetic this whole board sounds with posts like this? This is like saying your ex will get fat and broke eventually, even if she looks great and is rolling in cash now. It sounds ridiculous.

We are in a southern mid-major league that plays on TV for almost nothing.The closest school is about 275 miles away, and after that the distances get really big. We would have been better off adding UMass and Buffalo instead of Tulane and Tulsa, but instead of adding two large state schools within driving distance of UConn, it added two tiny private schools that are each over 1,000 miles away. Having a school in Florida does not help us for recruiting when we are no longer in a BCS league. Those Florida kids would have to pick us over about 35 G5 schools that are closer, and in case you guys forgot, there was a foot of ice on the ground for about 2 months last winter.

I have said before that any other alternative is better than the one we have. Nothing has caused me to change that position. We are better off taking us, UMass, Temple, Buffalo and Cincinnati, and grabbing the next 3 closest schools we can find, and starting over with a new league. Miami (OH), Navy and Army, and we are done. Navy and Army would probably like the scheduling flexibility of a 7 game schedule, and we could fill in with the other 6 teams playing 4 games a year against BYU. That is better than our current option, and would likely generate more in revenue. We are stuck in a contract of death with ESPN, and the MAC basically just gave up with its TV deal. Mix things up and see what happens.

Literally every single option is better than the one we chose.

Not very broadminded nor forward thinking are you?

I disagree. The NBE is not for us. We need to protect our Basketball brand and that has become increasingly hard to do. Long term, we can't sustain this going forward. However, I think that the NBE is going to sink to a lower status. They won't hold the urban attention that it used to have. That idea of yours ... SUCKS. And that is my view after this past year; I don't think we are going to see anything improve.

AAC is our stopgap. Can we inch along & make ourselves attractive for a ride into the B1G? I say yes. I think that has uber benefits for our Academic Brand as well as a great target for our sports. The ACC ... not so much. Probability? Not zero. But, we need the football and our overall AD to continue to strive.

The Florida schools do help us. They just do ... your statement is wrong. We never ever ever tried to compete with 35 G5 schools. Edsall/Terry Richardson ... and now Diaco/Keith Wolthausen et al go get a few kids. It is what it is. Not a huge component today. I think Diaco has really hustled for recruits well; we shall see when they arrive how good his evaluation eye is. I really like what I have heard.

Buffalo, UMass ... should be on our schedule regularly: for just the same idea that you promote. But, they are even farther behind than we are at this. Until they prove a bunch of things, they don't deserve to be where we have attained. Maybe soon? I don't think they have a fanbase that will grow over 20k.

So ... we sold our soul to be on TV. And, maybe the $$$ will increase over time. Until we get ascension ...

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Not very broadminded nor forward thinking are you?

I disagree. The NBE is not for us. We need to protect our Basketball brand and that has become increasingly hard to do. Long term, we can't sustain this going forward. However, I think that the NBE is going to sink to a lower status. They won't hold the urban attention that it used to have. That idea of yours ... SUCKS. And that is my view after this past year; I don't think we are going to see anything improve.

AAC is our stopgap. Can we inch along & make ourselves attractive for a ride into the B1G? I say yes. I think that has uber benefits for our Academic Brand as well as a great target for our sports. The ACC ... not so much. Probability? Not zero. But, we need the football and our overall AD to continue to strive.

The Florida schools do help us. They just do ... your statement is wrong. We never ever ever tried to compete with 35 G5 schools. Edsall/Terry Richardson ... and now Diaco/Keith Wolthausen et al go get a few kids. It is what it is. Not a huge component today. I think Diaco has really hustled for recruits well; we shall see when they arrive how good his evaluation eye is. I really like what I have heard.

Buffalo, UMass ... should be on our schedule regularly: for just the same idea that you promote. But, they are even farther behind than we are at this. Until they prove a bunch of things, they don't deserve to be where we have attained. Maybe soon? I don't think they have a fanbase that will grow over 20k.

So ... we sold our soul to be on TV. And, maybe the $ will increase over time. Until we get ascension ...

The NBE is not an option for us, so that doesn't matter.

We didn't sell our soul, we gave it away. The next contract with this league will suck just as badly as this one does. All these southern schools operate in markets where there are powerhouse competitors. They attract modest interest, and the travel must be killing the non-revenue sports. At least if the league had a northeastern nexus of UMass, Buffalo, UConn, Temple and Navy, it could put up a credible fight on the DC to Boston corridor, where the competition is pretty weak (Rutgers, Syracuse, BCU). Instead, we are heading down south and trying to get attention in markets that schools like LSU, Oklahoma, Texas, Florida and Florida State own. UConn, UMass, Cincinnati, Temple and Buffalo with only 1 dreg would be better on Day 1 than the league we are in now. We would probably have to add 2 basketball onlies, or maybe add Delaware and another MAC team or ECU. We wouldn't have to play an 18 game basketball schedule, 10 of which are RPI killers, like we do now.

I am brain storming because there is no realistic scenario where long-term membership in the AAC does not result in the effective irrelevance of UConn's athletic program.

 

[The Viking]

In 10 years we will have our answer on where we will be. In 10 years we will be in a power conference or we will be in the "modified" big east.
If we can't get in by the time all these GOR's are set to expire, I would imagine we're done with football. If we do get in, well then we're in.

But if we don't fit in by then, then it's time to go back to our roots, play Northeast basketball with many of our former Northeast partners and play in MSG like it's our home away from home again. Not to mention being a strong force in the Hockey East every year.

Anyway, the world will not end within 10 years, our future will be resolved one way or the other and we can shut down this damn realignment forum.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

You just proved my point. An extra $1.8M isn't going to close that gap. Additionally, the football team was profitable or lost money while generating $11M in revenue depending upon whose data you believe. So if you downgrade football, what do you gain? Maybe you cut coaching salaries. You still end up with less fan interest, less revenue and the lion's share of the expenses. You would also halve the advertising revenue and donor support for the sport. Lastly, consider that the AAC's playoff payout, as well as other AAC payouts, more than make up the delta between the TV contracts. Your proposal is a net loss.

Football has 85 scholarships ,and accounts for a like number of women's scholarships. Coaches salaries ,travel and anything associated with it.
For many dropping football is a real consideration as is dropping other sports to save football.
We do not fit the NBE model. They don't want to compete with a a State Flag Ship school. That's a dead issue.
Creation of own model is a more likely scenario.

 

[Broman]

There are really two separate problems here:

1) Football (This would never happen, but with the P5 being rooster suckers, you have to do something different).

You need the top 12 teams outside of the P5 to band together period, end of story, if you want it to work. Make it a relegation league based on the prior 3 years conference schedule or RPI ranking. Nobody cares about traveling large distances for football since its only 6 games a year and football has the most money. Think about the TV revenue the following league would make in football...it would generate better matchups which would give much more $, and you can pay everyone $2 mil, and those in the top league get more since they are generating the additional revenue.

West
BYU
Boise State
Nevada
Colorado State
Houston
San Diego State

East
Cincinnati
UCF
UConn (assuming PP never existed...FYI I thought Diaco sucked at UC when he was DC, so I hope he does well for you guys...)...
ECU
Northern Illinois
Marshall

Slot in the other conferences on an as needed basis.

2) Olympic Sports

Olympic Sports need to be more regional and can make do with smaller conferences. similar to what is now, although the American and Mountain West need to start a scheduling alliance to help with non-conference. And frankly you could redraw the conferences such that the american no longer has perennial bottom dwellers in it such as ECU, and make a basketball league that makes sense geographically.

In Conclusion:

Of course nobody wants to actually work together on this and make the best of crappy situations, so we will likely be stuck with the status quo, but if we want TV money, you have to create quality games between teams that seem to exude quality based on reputation and that networks want to get into a bidding war in order to broadcast, meaning you have to put your top teams all in the same conference and not dilute them out, which is the current scenario. NIU vs UC is $$$. the current games against dregs (see Tulane, Kent State) are worth nothing. So you need to consolidate top teams to make entertainment value to get significant increases in cash value that can be disperesed in a way that nobody is worse off.

 

[Stinger92860]

I like the out of the box thinking. However you are missing one important fact. UConn basketball, men and women, is not regional. Basketball for us is a national brand.

 

[Ldandy]

I think the NBE - money & all - is heading to a status very close to the A10 & CAA. Granted, they recruited a little & MSG had a nice draw for their tourney. Nostalgia. Their Brand will be sinking.

We are where we are. Football is important & we have a decent regional market. Need to creep further into NE & metropolitan NYC. And, of course, Diaco needs to succeed. Crossed my fingers on that guy.

I agree. The small private schools relevancy was heightened because they were frequently matching up with major universities. Gtown, Nova, and St John's are a lot more attractive as programs to both TV viewers and recruits when they are matched up against Cuse, UCONN, Pitt, Ville, ND etc. When all they have is each other, interest will consist of alums of those schools, and basketball junkies. Depaul v. Providence anybody?

 

[Sea Goat]

Motion to terminate this thread - any seconds?

Swofford is a lying POS - him and his whole family.

 

[Fishy]

You realize how pathetic this whole board sounds with posts like this?

Trust me, you're the most pathetic motherf---er in the thread.

You're a one-trick pony and dumb one at that - go away.

 

[noeynox]

Anybody catch last week's Big East Fox ratings? No?

0.0

This conference sucks, but at least it exists on television.

The Big East doesn't.

0.0, can't be real. Fox must be having buyers remorse on that deal. Their other programming gets good ratings on their networks.

 

[don356]

Broman your league config is actually pretty good even for bball if you add Memphis and maybe Temple. You put Uconn, Cincy, Memphis, Temple, SDiego St, & Houston with Sampson and that's a pretty strong bball core. I know times are low given the fball debacle, but don't believe that this recent configuration is going to benefit some of these teams who have jumped. My feeling is that it's better to be in a league where you can compete year in and year out, than be buried in a p5 with no hope...........see rutgers.

 

[pj]

Rutgers can compete in the B1G. I don't know about BC, Cuse, or Pitt in the ACC though. If UConn rises and the B1G continues its penetration of the Northeast, they might simply slip out of everyone's mind.

 

[don356]

If your idea of competing in the big 10 is finishing in good years 4th or 5th in your division then you're correct. However, if you think they will butt heads with osu, msu, and likely um when they rebound you're kidding yourself. Flood is not up to that, and they're athletic dept. is a bunch of bunglers. Acc fball isn't that strong. However, the schools you've mentioned will likely to bump along. Pitt probably has the best chance of competing regularly.

 

[Fishy]

Rutgers is in the Big Ten forever.

Trying to project what their ceiling is or wondering if their current coach is up to it doesn't make any sense - they have all the time in the world and all the resources of the Big Ten at their disposal.

I don't know how they'll look in the Big Ten in ten or twenty years, but I'm very sure it's a lot better than we will look in the AAC.

 

[Broman]

Broman your league config is actually pretty good even for bball if you add Memphis and maybe Temple. You put Uconn, Cincy, Memphis, Temple, SDiego St, & Houston with Sampson and that's a pretty strong bball core. I know times are low given the fball debacle, but don't believe that this recent configuration is going to benefit some of these teams who have jumped. My feeling is that it's better to be in a league where you can compete year in and year out, than be buried in a p5 with no hope......see rutgers.

The problem is that being associated with the G5 instead of the P5 costs schools $20 million plus a year. I think UC for example currently takes $15 million in student fees to pay for sports. Now people with excess money will always spend it in stupid ways (http://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/2013/college-football-locker-rooms/) that add no value, and of course you might have to pay more for coaches, etc., but overall an infusion of 15-20 million a year into the athletic program would do a lot to help any University's bottom line, especially with state funding cuts and how they are already milking NIH and NSF dry (that's a whole different topic about the research funding bubble that is collapsing...). That's the criminal part about it...based off some arbitrary conference alignments, you create a class system that puts $$ in certain public schools at the expense of others when its really probably only 5-10 schools that drive the preponderance of the revenue.

 

[Broman]

I like the out of the box thinking. However you are missing one important fact. UConn basketball, men and women, is not regional. Basketball for us is a national brand.

Duh. But you want to be able to drive to a bunch of men's basketball games ideally and thus a regional conference makes more sense and you can schedule big non-conference games, especially with a scheduling agreement with the other conferences. You will never catch me trying to insinuate that UConn hasn't established itself as the top college basketball brand in the nation, especially since UNC was and UK is professional basketball (I'm counting the days until Caliper gets nailed for major violations...).

 

[uconnbill]

Why do you say that? Because we shouldn't ask the question or because I should have known that UConn already tried this and was turned down?

Again I will ask why are you always putting football down and as if it shouldn't exist? I love a response