B12 and ACC on the clock!

[jostar1]

 

[CTBballfan243]

The real question should be is the B12 worthy of UConn.

 

[coachcap]

So Mr. Mundo, your argument of "Why UConn" didn't go far enough:
- UConn has the SNY deal for women's basketball that already penetrates the Greater NYC television market. The Huskies Women would be a valuable addition when paired with teams like Baylor.
-UConn's Baseball team is an annual contender to make the College World Series & would strengthen further XII baseball's regular season.

 

[Stinger92860]

So Mr. Mundo, your argument of "Why UConn" didn't go far enough:
- UConn has the SNY deal for women's basketball that already penetrates the Greater NYC television market. The Huskies Women would be a valuable addition when paired with teams like Baylor.
-UConn's Baseball team is an annual contender to make the College World Series & would strengthen further XII baseball's regular season.

Don‘t forget the UConn Frisco campus, which will very attractive to students.

If Fairfield can do it…

 

[Husky25]

I like that UConn moved from the AAC to the Big East, but what sports were dying on the vine due to the AAC? Sure, fans were not excited which was a LT problem financially, but most teams were doing OK. Football should have been better, but UConn botched 2 coaching hires. Think about this. Temple passed UConn in football! Men's basketball was failing due to Ollie's problems. That said, moving to the Big East made the turnaround in men's basketball easier. Women's basketball won 3 NCAA championships and made 3 other Final Fours. Field Hockey remained in the Big East and won 2 NCAA championships. Baseball was doing fine. Men's and women's hockey are in Hockey East. Men's and Women's soccer played in the AAC, but most of their games were out of conference. The men have not won a conference tournament since 2007 (can you believe that?!) and their issues were related to coaching issues. The women won the AAC conference tournament 2x. I don't think the AAC had much impact on the other sports.

The real LT problem with the AAC happened after UConn left: the loss of Cincinnati, UCF, and Houston. Thank God UConn left the AAC before it blew up.

I don't blame the AAC for the problems with football, I blame the UConn administration. UConn hired Diaco when it seems nobody would hire him as a head coach even though he was the Broyles Award winner. What did the other schools know that UConn didn't? I thought Edsall was a better hire than Diaco and I was wrong. It seemed like he didn't think UConn could win and he opposed independence. He should have been fired on the spot when he didn't embrace independence. The administration, with Edsall, decided to shut down the program in 2020. And, UConn's administration was "monitoring the situation" when the ACC expanded with Louisville which was another failure of the administration.

If you can get beyond the excuses, you answered your own question with the rest of your own post. However, "Sure, fans were not excited which was a LT problem financially," is really the long and short of it. Nothing else is needed to support my point.

 

[coachcap]

Don‘t forget the UConn Frisco campus, which will very attractive to students.

If Fairfield can do it…

And the Jim Mora credibility factor: success wherever he's coached & the way he turned an underachieving UConn football team into a 6 game winner last season after losing his starting QB in the 1st quarter of the 1st game.

 

[CL82]

UConn hired Diaco when it seems nobody would hire him as a head coach even though he was the Broyles Award winner. What did the other schools know that UConn didn't?

I don’t think that’s true at all as shown by the number of schools that hired Diaco after he was head coach at UConn. Diaco fit all the metrics you’re looking for when hiring a young up-and-coming coach. He was successful, enthusiastic, and charismatic. Unfortunately, he was also bat sh.it crazy and incapable of managing the football program.

 

[Stinger92860]

I don’t think that’s true at all as shown by the number of schools that hired Diaco after he was head coach at UConn. Diaco fit all the metrics you’re looking for when hiring a young up-and-coming coach. He was successful, enthusiastic, and charismatic. Unfortunately, he was also bat sh.it crazy and incapable of managing the football program.

It seemed like a great hire at the time, but upon reflection it was a swing and a miss.

 

[CL82]

I’m kind of getting this vibe off this guy:

MOM THE MEATLOAF

Chazz screaming to his mom for some meatloaf in the movie Wedding Crashers starring Will Ferrell and Owen Wilson.

youtu.be

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

It seemed like a great hire at the time, but upon reflection it was a swing and a miss.

I wish UConn had done more homework on that hire because the day he was announced, my cousin told me that the entire Notre Dame athletic department was ELATED that he was leaving them. Later that month I was at a fundraiser event (not related to UConn) where Diaco spoke and within a minute I thought he was totally unhinged. Sigh.

 

[Ldandy]

It seemed like a great hire at the time, but upon reflection it was a swing and a miss.

As soon as he busted out key/non key starters, winning breakfast, Batman and fish cakes I knew that you guys were in trouble. Sometimes people are truly eccentric but are low key geniuses in their field. (Mike Leach) The rest of the time they turn out to be Bob Diaco...

 

[CTBasketball]

You guys love drinking the kool aid.

 

[Ha Who]

 

[jostar1]

 

[jostar1]

 

[Kolumbo]

It seemed like a great hire at the time, but upon reflection it was a swing and a miss.

 

[That Guy]

No thanks to the Big 12 and ACC. Big 12 would be great for basketball, but so is the Big East and we actually have history with BE schools. The only Big 12 schools I give a crap about in basketball are Kansas, Baylor, and maybe WVU. That conference will become meaningless in football once Texas and OU leave. We obviously have a lot of history with some of the ACC schools, but no one knows if that conference will get gutted or not, rather not take the chance. B1G would be a great fit, but they will never take us with how bad the football program is and how little potential it has. I know that football rules the college landscape, but after learning the hard way with the AAC debacle, we need to first and foremost ensure that our basketball programs are set up to continue dominating.

 

[CL82]

we need to first and foremost ensure that our basketball programs are set up to continue dominating.

Wouldn’t securing adequate revenue to continue to fund the athletic department be necessary to “ensure our basketball programs are set up to continue dominating?”

 

[Luna]

The big east is the best place for uconn in my opinion…we might have the perfect storm with our national championship..the big east new coaching hires and next year we might have 4 teams in the top ten … its up to Val to get us a good tv deal now

 

[That Guy]

Wouldn’t securing adequate revenue to continue to fund the athletic department be necessary to “ensure our basketball programs are set up to continue dominating?”

One would think so, but when you look at our good friends Cuse, Pitt, L'Ville, and WVU they have all pretty much tanked their basketball programs after chasing the football money. I don't want the same thing to happen to us. As we are finding out, the grass isn't always greener.

 

[CL82]

One would think so, but when you look at our good friends Cuse, Pitt, L'Ville, and WVU they have all pretty much tanked their basketball programs after chasing the football money. I don't want the same thing to happen to us. As we are finding out, the grass isn't always greener.

You’re confusing correlational factors with causal factors. Their making nearly 10 times what we make in media money isn’t the cause for the decline of their programs. UConn has done an outstanding job keeping ourselves relevant, but $40-$70 million losses in the athletic department are not sustainable.

 

[Kolumbo]

You’re confusing correlational factors with causal factors. Their making nearly 10 times what we make in media money isn’t the cause for the decline of their programs. UConn has done an outstanding job keeping ourselves relevant, but $40-$70 million losses in the athletic department are not sustainable.

Moving from the Big East to the ACC causes teams to suck.
Moving from the Big East to the ACC has a positive correlation to sucking.
Either way, Fork that!
Seriously though, there is more than enough reason to be concerned and UCONN is in a very strong position.
UCONN has been in the news more than any other university these past few weeks. It would be interesting if someone could quantify the value of that media bonus to the University and to the state.

 

[History Geek]

...The ACC could make Cuse, Pitt and maybe BC relevant again by having north/south devisions.

I would love UConn to be a part of that.

 

[UConn Dan]

We're not Cuse, Pitt, Louisville or West Virginia. We're UConn. We've finally got our athletic department going in the right direction.

The Big East is great, but I hope fans realize that it's likely not our long-term home if we want to be able to compete with the Power conferences for coaching talent and athletes. There is the potential for a literal divide of division 1, but more realistically the gulf between the haves and have-nots is widening. The day will be here soon when BIG and SEC teams are bringing in $100-$150 million a year from TV revenue alone and we'll be bringing in $10 million if we're lucky.

How do you expect to retain top coaches at that rate? Need to bridge the gap. Move up to higher revenue conferences.

The best situation for UConn outside of a BIG or SEC invite (which is not happening) would be for the Big12 or ACC to take UConn (all sports) with Nova, St. John's and Georgetown. Would lock up the northeast and be the best basketball conference, but unfortunately that doesn't help their football. So, odds are less than 5% of that happening.

 

[noeynox]

No thanks to the Big 12 and ACC. Big 12 would be great for basketball, but so is the Big East and we actually have history with BE schools. The only Big 12 schools I give a crap about in basketball are Kansas, Baylor, and maybe WVU. That conference will become meaningless in football once Texas and OU leave. We obviously have a lot of history with some of the ACC schools, but no one knows if that conference will get gutted or not, rather not take the chance. B1G would be a great fit, but they will never take us with how bad the football program is and how little potential it has. I know that football rules the college landscape, but after learning the hard way with the AAC debacle, we need to first and foremost ensure that our basketball programs are set up to continue dominating.

People need to stop bringing up the AAC like that was some choice. It was what the Big East became. I guess you can call it choice in that UConn stayed there to collect the money from tournament units, bowl payouts and naming rights to the new Big East, but the 2nd TV contract pretty much said this isn't a fit for us and the school did the right thing. An invite to ANY P5 conference is not the same thing as the AAC.

Big East is a great spot to be in no doubt, but open minds should be kept for other great spots.