Is UCONN Football positioning for independence?

[huskyrob1]

Pudge said.....

Silly

Use your eyes.

Larrier is outstanding. He is a 6-8 Wing who is athletic, with dynamic moves and shooting touch. Gilbert in 2 games proved that he can get past virtually anyone in CBB with quickness and drive the ball to the hoop; he also looked to be an excellent defender. Add Vance who has gotten far better over the course of 22 games ..... he is a stud skilled 6-9 Forward and can actually defend a wide variety of players. Vital is a gamer; proved to be a solid 3 point shooter and plays better as the game gets tight. Durham needs further development; but his talent is quite evident. And we haven't seen Diar
Adams is progressing quite well; needs to be more consistent. He will be here 4 years. Enoch? I still think we will see good basketball out of a great physical specimen. He is still young.

MAL, Pulley, Carlton? All solid.

Use your eyes when you watch this team. I am not talking about future. I am talking about here and now. Every 20 point blow out is a hit against the reputation of the program. Losses to Wagner and Northeastern degrade the program. I hope that you are correct that next year should be a solid year. Another stumble, and it will be a very difficult recovery.







I'm not worried about losses to Northeastern, Wagner, Oklahoma State. They don't degrade the program. We have the 3rd best recruiting class in the country, and that's a fact!!!

 

[weyuo]

How does BYU do it? Aren't they an independent?

They've been playing D-1 football a lot longer I believe and don't have the distractions of Boston and NYC pro teams to dilute their fan base so they have a larger captive audience for home games.

 

[Samoo]

They've been playing D-1 football a lot longer I believe and don't have the distractions of Boston and NYC pro teams to dilute their fan base so they have a larger captive audience for home games.

Having a dedicated audience of over 6.3 million Mormons in the US doesn't hurt either. That's compared with 230,000 UCONN alumni and a state population of 3.6 million.

 

[freescooter]

Look at BY U. They can get good games in September but the second half is a step down every year. Basically the AAC and the WAC. We would be similar. Except substitute the Sunbelt for the MWC.

 

[noeynox]

Independent. We can get an independent schedule. 6 P5 the first six weeks, NMSU, FCS, UMass, Army, BYU, BC.

Randy has been outspoken about independent status being a hindrance to football fwiw.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Schedule would look like this.

1. @Indiana
2. Illinois
3. NC State
4. @Maryland
5. @WVU
6. FCS
7. BYU
8 @UMass
9. Missouri
10. Army
11. @BC
12. NMSU

Sell a November/December UConn home game as an Independent to a P5 team to me.

Recruiting grounds? Nope.
National TV audience? Nope.
Playing an OOC game in the end of your conference schedule? Nope.
Out of region teams - Playing a game in likely more inclement weather than you're used to? Nope.
In region teams - Providing a lifeline to a regional program attempting to be your peer? Nope.

You are absolutely clueless.

 

[noeynox]

From 2012.

Why not become independent in football?

 

[HuskyHawk]

This is pretty simple. UConn cannot go Independent in Football unless it had a scheduling deal with a P5 conference. Even in the event that we could get enough games to fill the schedule, they won't be broadcast outside the region and that would kill recruiting.

Now, if Fox can get the Big Ten and Big XII to agree to schedule 5 games against UConn every year, and if Fox gave us a TV deal to broadcast most of the games, the NBE could be viable. Otherwise, it is not.

 

[freescooter]

The schedule would be more like
Rhode Island
At Indiana
NC State
Cincinnati
at Syracuse
Mass
at BYU
at New Mexico
at Army
Old Dominion
Maine
at Western Michigan
Hope the MAC doesn't have enough bowl teams

 

[ConnHuskBask]

The schedule would be more like
Rhode Island
At Indiana
NC State
Cincinnati
at Syracuse
Mass
at BYU
at New Mexico
at Army
Old Dominion
Maine
at Western Michigan
Hope the MAC doesn't have enough bowl teams

Why would Cincinnati schedule us? After we left the league they were in to join a different hoops league?

Cuse? Because they have acted on our behalf in this conference madness.

The schedule would be 7 away games and then FCS, Amry, UMass and maybe a MAC team. Any other thinking is nonsense.

 

[freescooter]

Cincy is really a placeholder for one or another AAC team. We'd be seeing a bunch of Buffalo and the FloridaAtlantic/Internationals too

 

[Exit 4]

The schedule would be 7 away games and then FCS, Amry, UMass and maybe a MAC team. Any other thinking is nonsense.

Yeah, that's the baseline and chances of doing much better are slim.

To me the only way independent football works if its part of an agreed upon transition to a P5 conference where the P5 conference is not ready because of balancing issues (needing a partner for UConn) to make us full members. In that scenario we would get/need a deal to have a certain number of games with said P5 conference (partial slate) to fill the card and keep interest.

A move by ND is probably the next lynchpin event followed by the B12 implosion around 2024ish. If neither of those two events have the gravity to help us, then who knows what happens thereafter.

 

[Marty Jackson]

That's because UMass can't do h/hs with the P5. We can. We have three this year alone: Virginia, Missouri, and BC. If UMass had our brand, their good road games would also be good home games.

Here's the key. If uconn leaves the AAC and goes independent, just like Umass, who fills the vacancy?

Umass in a nanosecond!

 

[Marty Jackson]

How does BYU do it? Aren't they an independent?

They are part of a very very very wealthy church. And they have a contract with ESPN.

They do have several MWC schools as well on their schedule.

 

[#MACtion]

Just curious why some of you think going Independent is better than football only in a G5 league? There is no path to a NY6/BCS Bowl as an independent. MAC has been 2 times in 5 years. BYU doesnt even have a bowl tie-in right now as the Poinsettia Bowl just closed shop. UMass has no tie-ins and struggling to fill a schedule. BYU has stated they can't remain Indy much longer.

College Football Playoff money is $1 million if in a conference and only $350k if Indy like BYU and UMass.

 

[#MACtion]

Not too mention its harder to recruit or motivate players with no Conf. Championship to play for in late season.

 

[freescooter]

We have a band of basketball fans who really have never accepted that UConn is now a football school too. They pine for the days when the old Big East was the power conference. So every few months the post nonsense about going to the Big East for basketball and take your choice: a. Dropping football back to fcs, b. Dropping football entirely, c. Going to be he MAC/Sunbelt/CUSA/MW as a football only member or d. Gong independent. We are mostly used to it.

 

[Excalibur]

Do we know for certain that the AAC would not accept UConn Football without our other sports? A competitive UConn Football team is still probably the conference's third or fourth most valuable commodity from a TV viewership standpoint. I'm not so sure that they don't swallow hard and let it happen if we say we want it to happen.

 

[BlueMAB]

Do we know for certain that the AAC would not accept UConn Football without our other sports? A competitive UConn Football team is still probably the conference's third or fourth most valuable commodity from a TV viewership standpoint. I'm not so sure that they don't swallow hard and let it happen if we say we want it to happen.

No we don't, but isn't the real question how would our TV partners respond?

ESPN/CBS losing UConn basketball to Fox won't go over well for the rest of the AAC, which would make them less inclined to allow us to park Football only there.

And what's the penalty to leave the conference? Who is going to pay that?

 

[BlueMAB]

4 pages in and the op hasn't contributed to the thread.

#missionaccomplished

 

[freescooter]

It's February. We are having a bad hoop year and it's too early for spring football.

 

[uconnell]

JHC, schnitzel 5 pages and you still don't get it. Give it a rest all ready, there are only so many ways to say no .

 

[LoyalFanCT]

One thing some of you are forgetting -- when the ACC does well in football that's the time they are more willing to take a chance on a school like UConn. Having one team win the national championship and another win the Heisman Trophy, the members may be more willing to let in a school where a new coaching staff has commitment to excellence but not yet reached it.Sure it would help for UConn to be ranked in the top 25, which is possible under Randy Edsall. UConn to ACC or B10 soon for all sports!!!

 

[shizzle787]

Sell a November/December UConn home game as an Independent to a P5 team to me.

Recruiting grounds? Nope.
National TV audience? Nope.
Playing an OOC game in the end of your conference schedule? Nope.
Out of region teams - Playing a game in likely more inclement weather than you're used to? Nope.
In region teams - Providing a lifeline to a regional program attempting to be your peer? Nope.

You are absolutely clueless.

Oh really. Then why is Mizzouri coming to our place late October and why are we playing BC in November? Also, other than BC, which P5 team in my schedule do we play the second half of the season?

 

[shizzle787]

Here's the key. If uconn leaves the AAC and goes independent, just like Umass, who fills the vacancy?

Umass in a nanosecond!

Not a chance. UMass sports suck. I believe they have only won about 10 games as an FBS team. They be en to the tourney once in 20 years. I wouldn't be surprised if UMass isn't even considered. Army, Colorado St., Air Force, New Mexico, Southern Miss, Rice, App St. all get a look before UMass. Amherst, Mass is a dead zone as far as CFB is concerned.