UConn Power Conference Profile - A Long Look at the Numbers | The Boneyard

UConn Power Conference Profile - A Long Look at the Numbers

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Dooley

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In response to @CL82 's message in a different thread http://the-boneyard.com/threads/jacobs-to-the-rescue.85506/page-2#post-1527877 , I tried putting together a list of some important numbers for UConn's P5 profile. There's been a lot of chatter in the last few days and weeks about UConn and the Big 12 has motivated me to do a deeper dive into UConn's power profile and how it could make sense for the Big 12 to come out east.

Anyone is free to take any of this and run with it, including any journalists. I tried to provide links to sites that support my data below.

1. TV/Markets (within 2 hour radius): http://www.tvb.org/media/file/2015-2016-dma-ranks.pdf
UConn would provide potential viewership into the following markets within a 2 hour radius-
#1 New York (which includes Southwest CT) - 7.3M TV homes (6.5% of U.S.)
#8 Boston/Manchester - 2.4M TV homes (2.1% of U.S.)
#30 Hartford/New Haven - 945K TV homes (.8% of U.S.)
#52 Providence/New Bedford - 600K TV homes (.5% of U.S.)
#116 Springfield/Holyoke - 246K TV homes (.2% of U.S.)

Total potential reach: 11.4M TV homes

Conversely, here are how some of our competitors stack up (and I'm trying to be as liberal as possible). I consider Houston, Cincinnati, BYU, UCF, and USF as UConn's top competitors -
#10 Houston - 2.4M TV homes (2% of U.S.)
#11 Tampa/St.Pete - 1.9M TV homes (1.6% of U.S.)
#19 Orlando/Daytona - 1.5M TV homes (1.3% of U.S.)
#18 Cleveland/Akron - 1.5M TV homes (1.3% of U.S.)
#27 Indianapolis - 1M TV homes (1% of U.S.)
#31 Columbus, OH - 900K TV homes (.8% of U.S.)
#34 Salt Lake, UT - 885K TV homes (.7% of U.S.)**
#36 Cincinnati - 860K TV homes (.7% of U.S.)
#50 Memphis - 636K TV homes (.5% of U.S.)
#61 Ft Myers, FL - 505K TV homes (.4% of U.S.)
#63 Lexington, KY - 472K TV homes (.4% of U.S.)
#64 Dayton - 460K TV homes (.4% of U.S)
#77 Toledo - 400K TV homes (.3% of U.S.)

Total potential COMBINED reach (Houston, Cincinnati, UCF, and USF): 12.3M TV homes

**BYU should also be counted as number of LDS members in the U.S.
There are a total of 6.46M LDS Church members in the U.S. http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/facts-and-statistics/country/united-states.

When combined with Salt Lake, UT, BYU brings a total potential reach of 7.2M TV homes.

CONCLUSION: UConn is the unquestioned #1 candidate for potential TV reach. I am by no means saying that every 11.4M TV home will watch UConn. But not every TV home listed in their respective demographics, including all 6.46M LDS members, will watch our B12 competition either. We are talking about potential TV reach which is important for any movement towards a B12 Network launch. If Texas decides who the 12th member will be (assuming that the "rumors" about Cincinnati being #11 is true), then we would bring the most potential TV homes to their Longhorn Network.


2. Academics - if Texas is the school that has ultimate veto power and academics are important to them, then UConn is the unquestioned #1 candidate by academic profile. UConn would weigh in as the #2 ranked school, behind Texas, by the U.S. News & World Report. http://www.usnewsuniversitydirectory.com/undergraduate-colleges/national-universities.aspx

Here are the 2016 US N&WR rankings:

#52 Texas *AAU
#57 UConn
#66 BYU

#72 Baylor
#82 TCU
#108 Oklahoma
#108 Iowa St *AAU
#115 Kansas *AAU
#140 Cincinnati
#146 Kansas St
#149 Oklahoma St
#156 USF
#168 UCF

#168 Texas Tech
#175 WVU
#187 Houston

Of course, there are other factors when measuring a school's academic strength. By in large, U.S. News & World Report is used as the "gold standard" for U.S. school rankings, hence my use here. UConn's overall ranking and Top 20 public university ranking certainly bodes well for UConn's academic strength. With the research expansion projects taking place, thanks to the $1.5B bonding allocation from the state of Connecticut, and aggressive faculty hiring initiative (with the goal to increase student body and alumni while creating a better student:faculty ratio, of course) puts UConn on track to rise in the rankings even further.

*AAU members are noted

3. Athletics - we are obviously talking about athletic conference expansion. This category also bodes well for UConn.

As cited by Jacobs in today's article, UConn has won 4 national championships in the two major sports (football and men's basketball) since 1999. The only other school to have done that is Florida (2 football, 2 men's hoops). As we all know, UConn has won men's and women's basketball titles in the same year twice ('04 and '11). No other school has ever done that. There is no questioning the strength of UConn basketball. UConn would easily become the top basketball program for men's and women's in the B12.

Without question, UConn is a "basketball school". Thankfully, there is room inside of the P5 for "basketball schools". For "basketball schools" to be successful (and bring money to a conference), it must be competitive in football. By no means do basketball schools need to bring a national championship pedigree to the gridiron. BUT, like I said, basketball schools have to competitive in most seasons. Let's look at how other "basketball schools" have fared since UConn made the move up to being a full D-1 football member in 2002, with specific attention paid towards schools with basketball programs that are in or around the same class as UConn (Kansas, Kentucky, Arizona, Duke, North Carolina, Syracuse, Louisville).

UConn: First, a brief look into our D-1 football history. I broke it down to pre-Pasqualoni and post-Pasqualoni eras and then a total record.
Edsall: 65-46 record. 2 shared Big East Conference championships. 1 BCS bowl appearance. 5 total bowl games.
Pasqualoni-present: 21-40. 1 bowl game.
Total: 86-86. .500 record since becoming a full-time D-1 football program. As you will see, this stacks up VERY favorably to the "basketball schools" currently in a P5 conference.

Syracuse: 58-105. 5 wins vacated by NCAA for rampant cheating. 4 total bowl games (2 as member of Big East member with UConn; 2 as member of ACC) - invited to ACC before program turnaround where, ironically, they have had more success in the ACC than Big East with/against UConn.

Kansas: 62-108. 1 Big 12 Championship. 1 BCS bowl game. 4 total bowl games.

Kentucky: 71-100. 5 total bowl games, although they were 7-5 bowl eligible in 2002 but were under NCAA sanction and prohibited from postseason play.

Duke: 58-113. 4 total bowl games (last 4 seasons including 2 ACC Championship Games). Their record would be MUCH worse if it weren't for an impressive 33-20 record in the past 4 seasons.

North Carolina: 70-89. 16 wins and 2 bowl games vacated because of ridiculous amount of cheating. 6 total bowl games, including 1 ACC Championship Game.

Arizona: 83-91. 7 total bowl games; 1 BCS bowl game (1 PAC Championship Game).

Louisville: 97-56. By far, the most impressive of the "basketball schools". 8 total bowl games; 2 BCS games. If it weren't for a Pasqualoni-esque 15-21 Steve Kragthorpe era, their record since 2002 would probably be even more impressive.

Other Olympic Sports:
B12 sponsored sports: http://www.big12sports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=10410&ATCLID=208327961

Soccer is sponsored by 9 of the 10 B12 members (KSU does not). UConn finished #2 in the country in attendance in 2015 and offers national championships and appearances.

Baseball is sponsored by 9 of the 10 B12 members (ISU does not). With a recent infusion of former UConn players in the MLB (Scott Oberg, George Springer, Nick Ahmed, Matt Barnes, Mike Olt) in addition to having dozens of players drafted, UConn Baseball adds a competitive program for B12 baseball.

Field Hockey is not sponsored by the B12, so UConn would keep its nationally elite program in the Big East.

Ice Hockey is not sponsored by the B12, so UConn would keep its program in the Hockey East.


4. Brand Value - again, UConn holds a VERY sizeable advantage over every other of its competitors.

http://ope.ed.gov/athletics/ (thank you @Bonz_44 and @CL82)
2014 revenue by school by AAC (*includes BYU):
1. Connecticut - $72,155,789
*BYU - $59,032,406
2. SMU - $55,349,010
3. Central Florida - $51,871,022
4. East Carolina - $48,743,915
5. South Florida - $46,895,838
6. Houston - $45,437,943
7. Cincinnati - $42,861,532
8. Memphis - $41,420,631
9. Tulane - $41,004,900
10. Tulsa - $40,329,852
11. Temple - $39,888,882

Yes, UConn has the 3rd highest subsidy for athletics at $27.2M. But that also shows the level of commitment to athletics that UConn strives for each and every season. If you put UConn in a P5 conference (with P5 TV money!), then the subsidy naturally shrinks by $10-$20M and is replaced with TV money income. At the end of the day, you can put UConn's P5 revenue potential (replacing subsidy with TV money) at around the $80-$90M range. In other words, firmly within the P5 structure as-is with room for upward growth.

Before Tier 3 media rights became a thing of the past, UConn also stacked up with its P5 peers. UConn signed a Tier 3 media deal with IMG valued at $80M over 10 years, which, at the time, placed UConn in the top half of similar deal values. UConn also signed a Tier 3 media contract with SNY for women's basketball only, valued at $1.14M/yr. Combined, this put UConn's Tier 3 media rights well over $9M/yr which would be valued in the upper half of P5 member values. UConn also signed an apparel contract with Nike at around the same time as its IMG Tier 3 medial contract, and that contract was valued at $2.775M in 2014-15. This would put UConn at 27th, ahead of Cincinnati ($2.625M with Under Armour...which was signed more recently than UConn's deal). USF comes in at $1.67M with Under Armour; Houston at 500K with Nike; UCF, Memphis and BYU are not listed (but I imagine BYU has a comparable deal with Nike that UConn has).

5. Facilities - UConn boasts state of the art facilities for most of its athletic programs.

Football enjoys one of the nation's top facilities in the country, the Burton Family Football Complex and adjacent Mark R Shenkman Indoor Training Center. Both opened in the Summer of 2006. Football plays its home games at Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field, whose capacity is roughly 40,000, and is known for being one of the loudest stadiums in the country (ask Dave Wannstedt or Robert Griffin III). Footings were already built in the original stadium to easily support expansion of up to another 10-15,000 seats. In the summer of 2015, UConn and UTC/Pratt & Whitney reached a deal that gave UConn an additional 25 acres of parking land (enough to support an additional 10-15,000 fans) in exchange for naming rights to the stadium. Expanding "PAWSARF" would be very easy and very fast.

Both the men's and women's powerhouse basketball programs enjoy the newly opened Werth Family UConn Basketball Champions Center. Home games are split between the XL Center in downtown Hartford and Gampel Pavilion, located on campus. The state is currently discussing ways to renovate XL Center that would also allow UConn to increased revenue from ticket sales and concessions in exchange for continuing to play some of its games in Hartford.

UConn Soccer received an $8M gift for a soccer renovation to Joseph Marrone Stadium, a stadium that housed the #2 average attendance in the country in 2015.

UConn Baseball and UConn Hockey both will undergoing renovations in the near future. Hockey enjoys playing its home games at the XL Center in front of the #1 average attendance in Hockey East in 2014-15 while its on-campus facility, the Freitas Forum, is expanded to meet Hockey East's minimum seating capacity requirement of 4,500.




After running some of the numbers in the most important metrics, it is clear that UConn is the top candidate for Power Conference expansion. UConn's value far exceeds any of its competitors. UConn's value exceeds many grandfathered members inside the Power 5. UConn, and most of its 223,000 alumni, is located in the middle of the densely populated area in the country. UConn brings excellence in athletics and academics. UConn is a state, flagship university with no other "game" in the entire state of Connecticut to compete against for entertainment dollars. UConn's fans are amongst the most passionate in the country, sending some 15-20K fans to the Fiesta Bowl, as well as tens of thousands to its many other bowl games, and providing its basketball team with "home court" advantage whenever it plays in New York or Boston. UConn fans have also adopted Texas as its postseason home away from home, having won three national championships inside Texas' state lines.

If the B12 is offering the last lifeboat off of AAC Island, UConn leaders need to do everything possible to get a seat aboard one of those boats. There is no questioning the value and prestige that UConn would bring the Big 12. If coupled with Cincinnati, then an eastern wing of Cincinnati, UConn, and West Virginia would give the conference (and FOX) the ability to open up new and densely populated areas in the east. If coupled with BYU, the Big 12 could add the two largest and biggest brands readily available in UConn and BYU. Best of all, taking the best of the best UConn would seriously hamper any future expansion plans by its main "power conference competitor", the ACC conference, especially if adding an additional 11+M TV homes meant that a Big 12 Network gets launched before an ACC Network.

I still think that the B1G is the best fit for UConn and its long-term prospects, but if they are not offering invites for another decade without a partner, then UConn must do EVERYTHING necessary to get into the Big 12. While in the B12, both sides win. The B12 has more TV homes to launch a B12 Network and satisfies FOX's desire to move East. UConn is able to compete at the highest level, as it has done very successfully over the past 20 years, and contend for additional national championships.

(The following is courtesy of UConnJim)
Here are some B12 and rumored expansion candidate numbers of NFL, NBA, and MLB draft picks from 2005 to 2015:

NFL Draft Picks from 2005 to 2015:

57 Oklahoma
41 Texas
24 TCU
23 UConn
23 West Virginia
22 Baylor
22 Cincinnati
17 Oklahoma St.
16 USF
15 Kansas St.
15 Texas Tech
14 UCF
12 BYU
10 Iowa St.
9 Kansas
7 Temple
6 Houston
6 Memphis

NBA Draft Picks from 2005 to 2015:

18 Kansas
14 UConn
10 Texas
9 Memphis
6 Baylor
5 Oklahoma
5 Oklahoma St.
3 Iowa St.
3 West Virginia
3 Cincinnati
2 Temple
2 USF
1 KSU
1 BYU
1 UCF
0 TCU
0 Texas Tech
0 Houston

MLB Draft Picks from 2005 to 2015:

71 Oklahoma
71 Oklahoma St.
65 Texas
62 TCU
55 Texas Tech
49 Baylor
47 Kansas
42 Houston
38 Kansas St.
38 UCF
35 UConn
34 USF
27 West Virginia
26 BYU
21 Memphis
19 Cincinnati
4 Temple
0 Iowa St. (Dropped after 2001)

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap30...ams-with-the-most-alums-on-nfl-week-1-rosters

» The non-Power 5 conference school (plus Notre Dame) with the most players currently in the NFL? This one might surprise you. It's not Boise State, Fresno State, Central Florida, or any of the powerhouses of the MAC. It's Connecticut. UConn had 17 players players on 53-man Week 1 NFL rosters. That's impressive stuff for a program that hasn't won more than five games in a season since 2010 -- including a dismal 2-10 campaign in 2014. Coming out of that two-win season, UConn produced a first-round draft pick in 2015, cornerback Byron Jones. In the past three drafts, UConn had nine players drafted. That's more than high-profile traditional powers such as Texas (5), Auburn (7), Michigan (7), Tennessee (7) and Miami (8).
 
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Dooley

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If true, I believe Dooley accepts rule #1. Correct me if I'm wrong

I live and obey Rule #1. I am embracing myself for the inevitable "UConn football is showing too much of a pulse now...we need to invite 'XYZ' because they stink" reasoning.
 

Matrim55

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In response to @CL82 's message in a different thread http://the-boneyard.com/threads/jacobs-to-the-rescue.85506/page-2#post-1527877 , I tried putting together a list of some important numbers for UConn's P5 profile. There's been a lot of chatter in the last few days and weeks about UConn and the Big 12 has motivated me to do a deeper dive into UConn's power profile and how it could make sense for the Big 12 to come out east.

Anyone is free to take any of this and run with it, including any journalists. I tried to provide links to sites that support my data below.

1. TV/Markets (within 2 hour radius): http://www.tvb.org/media/file/2015-2016-dma-ranks.pdf
UConn would provide potential viewership into the following markets within a 2 hour radius-
#1 New York (which includes Southwest CT) - 7.3M TV homes (6.5% of U.S.)
#8 Boston/Manchester - 2.4M TV homes (2.1% of U.S.)
#30 Hartford/New Haven - 945K TV homes (.8% of U.S.)
#52 Providence/New Bedford - 600K TV homes (.5% of U.S.)
#116 Springfield/Holyoke - 246K TV homes (.2% of U.S.)

Total potential reach: 11.4M TV homes

Conversely, here are how some of our competitors stack up (and I'm trying to be as liberal as possible). I consider Houston, Cincinnati, BYU, UCF, and USF as UConn's top competitors -
#10 Houston - 2.4M TV homes (2% of U.S.)
#11 Tampa/St.Pete - 1.9M TV homes (1.6% of U.S.)
#19 Orlando/Daytona - 1.5M TV homes (1.3% of U.S.)
#18 Cleveland/Akron - 1.5M TV homes (1.3% of U.S.)
#27 Indianapolis - 1M TV homes (1% of U.S.)
#31 Columbus, OH - 900K TV homes (.8% of U.S.)
#34 Salt Lake, UT - 885K TV homes (.7% of U.S.)**
#36 Cincinnati - 860K TV homes (.7% of U.S.)
#50 Memphis - 636K TV homes (.5% of U.S.)
#61 Ft Myers, FL - 505K TV homes (.4% of U.S.)
#63 Lexington, KY - 472K TV homes (.4% of U.S.)
#64 Dayton - 460K TV homes (.4% of U.S)
#77 Toledo - 400K TV homes (.3% of U.S.)

Total potential COMBINED reach (Houston, Cincinnati, UCF, and USF): 12.3M TV homes

**BYU should also be counted as number of LDS members in the U.S.
There are a total of 6.46M LDS Church members in the U.S. http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/facts-and-statistics/country/united-states.

When combined with Salt Lake, UT, BYU brings a total potential reach of 7.2M TV homes.

CONCLUSION: UConn is the unquestioned #1 candidate for potential TV reach. I am by no means saying that every 11.4M TV home will watch UConn. But not every TV home listed in their respective demographics, including all 6.46M LDS members, will watch our B12 competition either. We are talking about potential TV reach which is important for any movement towards a B12 Network launch. If Texas decides who the 12th member will be (assuming that the "rumors" about Cincinnati being #11 is true), then we would bring the most potential TV homes to their Longhorn Network.


2. Academics - if Texas is the school that has ultimate veto power and academics are important to them, then UConn is the unquestioned #1 candidate by academic profile. UConn would weigh in as the #2 ranked school, behind Texas, by the U.S. News & World Report. http://www.usnewsuniversitydirectory.com/undergraduate-colleges/national-universities.aspx

Here are the 2016 US N&WR rankings:

#52 Texas *AAU
#57 UConn
#66 BYU

#72 Baylor
#82 TCU
#108 Oklahoma
#108 Iowa St *AAU
#115 Kansas *AAU
#140 Cincinnati
#146 Kansas St
#149 Oklahoma St
#156 USF
#168 UCF

#168 Texas Tech
#175 WVU
#187 Houston

Of course, there are other factors when measuring a school's academic strength. By in large, U.S. News & World Report is used as the "gold standard" for U.S. school rankings, hence my use here. UConn's overall ranking and Top 20 public university ranking certainly bodes well for UConn's academic strength. With the research expansion projects taking place, thanks to the $1.5B bonding allocation from the state of Connecticut, and aggressive faculty hiring initiative (with the goal to increase student body and alumni while creating a better student:faculty ratio, of course) puts UConn on track to rise in the rankings even further.

*AAU members are noted

3. Athletics - we are obviously talking about athletic conference expansion. This category also bodes well for UConn.

As cited by Jacobs in today's article, UConn has won 4 national championships in the two major sports (football and men's basketball) since 1999. The only other school to have done that is Florida (2 football, 2 men's hoops). As we all know, UConn has won men's and women's basketball titles in the same year twice ('04 and '11). No other school has ever done that. There is no questioning the strength of UConn basketball. UConn would easily become the top basketball program for men's and women's in the B12.

Without question, UConn is a "basketball school". Thankfully, there is room inside of the P5 for "basketball schools". For "basketball schools" to be successful (and bring money to a conference), it must be competitive in football. By no means do basketball schools need to bring a national championship pedigree to the gridiron. BUT, like I said, basketball schools have to competitive in most seasons. Let's look at how other "basketball schools" have fared since UConn made the move up to being a full D-1 football member in 2002, with specific attention paid towards schools with basketball programs that are in or around the same class as UConn (Kansas, Kentucky, Arizona, Duke, North Carolina, Syracuse, Louisville).

UConn: First, a brief look into our D-1 football history. I broke it down to pre-Pasqualoni and post-Pasqualoni eras and then a total record.
Edsall: 65-46 record. 2 shared Big East Conference championships. 1 BCS bowl appearance. 5 total bowl games.
Pasqualoni-present: 21-40. 1 bowl game.
Total: 86-86. .500 record since becoming a full-time D-1 football program. As you will see, this stacks up VERY favorably to the "basketball schools" currently in a P5 conference.

Syracuse: 58-105. 5 wins vacated by NCAA for rampant cheating. 4 total bowl games (2 as member of Big East member with UConn; 2 as member of ACC) - invited to ACC before program turnaround where, ironically, they have had more success in the ACC than Big East with/against UConn.

Kansas: 62-108. 1 Big 12 Championship. 1 BCS bowl game. 4 total bowl games.

Kentucky: 71-100. 5 total bowl games, although they were 7-5 bowl eligible in 2002 but were under NCAA sanction and prohibited from postseason play.

Duke: 58-113. 4 total bowl games (last 4 seasons including 2 ACC Championship Games). Their record would be MUCH worse if it weren't for an impressive 33-20 record in the past 4 seasons.

North Carolina: 70-89. 16 wins and 2 bowl games vacated because of ridiculous amount of cheating. 6 total bowl games, including 1 ACC Championship Game.

Arizona: 83-91. 7 total bowl games; 1 BCS bowl game (1 PAC Championship Game).

Louisville: 97-56. By far, the most impressive of the "basketball schools". 8 total bowl games; 2 BCS games. If it weren't for a Pasqualoni-esque 15-21 Steve Kragthorpe era, their record since 2002 would probably be even more impressive.

Other Olympic Sports:
B12 sponsored sports: http://www.big12sports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=10410&ATCLID=208327961

Soccer is sponsored by 9 of the 10 B12 members (KSU does not). UConn finished #2 in the country in attendance in 2015 and offers national championships and appearances.

Baseball is sponsored by 9 of the 10 B12 members (ISU does not). With a recent infusion of former UConn players in the MLB (Scott Oberg, George Springer, Nick Ahmed, Matt Barnes, Mike Olt) in addition to having dozens of players drafted, UConn Baseball adds a competitive program for B12 baseball.

Field Hockey is not sponsored by the B12, so UConn would keep its nationally elite program in the Big East.

Ice Hockey is not sponsored by the B12, so UConn would keep its program in the Hockey East.


4. Brand Value - again, UConn holds a VERY sizeable advantage over every other of its competitors.

http://ope.ed.gov/athletics/ (thank you @Bonz_44 and @CL82)
2014 revenue by school by AAC (*includes BYU):
1. Connecticut - $72,155,789
*BYU - $59,032,406
2. SMU - $55,349,010
3. Central Florida - $51,871,022
4. East Carolina - $48,743,915
5. South Florida - $46,895,838
6. Houston - $45,437,943
7. Cincinnati - $42,861,532
8. Memphis - $41,420,631
9. Tulane - $41,004,900
10. Tulsa - $40,329,852
11. Temple - $39,888,882

Yes, UConn has the 3rd highest subsidy for athletics at $27.2M. But that also shows the level of commitment to athletics that UConn strives for each and every season. If you put UConn in a P5 conference (with P5 TV money!), then the subsidy naturally shrinks by $10-$20M and is replaced with TV money income. At the end of the day, you can put UConn's P5 revenue potential (replacing subsidy with TV money) at around the $80-$90M range. In other words, firmly within the P5 structure as-is with room for upward growth.

Before Tier 3 media rights became a thing of the past, UConn also stacked up with its P5 peers. UConn signed a Tier 3 media deal with IMG valued at $80M over 10 years, which, at the time, placed UConn in the top half of similar deal values. UConn also signed a Tier 3 media contract with SNY for women's basketball only, valued at $1.14M/yr. Combined, this put UConn's Tier 3 media rights well over $9M/yr which would be valued in the upper half of P5 member values. UConn also signed an apparel contract with Nike at around the same time as its IMG Tier 3 medial contract, and that contract was valued at $2.775M in 2014-15. This would put UConn at 27th, ahead of Cincinnati ($2.625M with Under Armour...which was signed more recently than UConn's deal). USF comes in at $1.67M with Under Armour; Houston at 500K with Nike; UCF, Memphis and BYU are not listed (but I imagine BYU has a comparable deal with Nike that UConn has).

5. Facilities - UConn boasts state of the art facilities for most of its athletic programs.

Football enjoys one of the nation's top facilities in the country, the Burton Family Football Complex and adjacent Mark R Shenkman Indoor Training Center. Both opened in the Summer of 2006. Football plays its home games at Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field, whose capacity is roughly 40,000, and is known for being one of the loudest stadiums in the country (ask Dave Wannstedt or Robert Griffin III). Footings were already built in the original stadium to easily support expansion of up to another 10-15,000 seats. In the summer of 2015, UConn and UTC/Pratt & Whitney reached a deal that gave UConn an additional 25 acres of parking land (enough to support an additional 10-15,000 fans) in exchange for naming rights to the stadium. Expanding "PAWSARF" would be very easy and very fast.

Both the men's and women's powerhouse basketball programs enjoy the newly opened Werth Family UConn Basketball Champions Center. Home games are split between the XL Center in downtown Hartford and Gampel Pavilion, located on campus. The state is currently discussing ways to renovate XL Center that would also allow UConn to increased revenue from ticket sales and concessions in exchange for continuing to play some of its games in Hartford.

UConn Soccer received an $8M gift for a soccer renovation to Joseph Marrone Stadium, a stadium that housed the #2 average attendance in the country in 2015.

UConn Baseball and UConn Hockey both will undergoing renovations in the near future. Hockey enjoys playing its home games at the XL Center in front of the #1 average attendance in Hockey East in 2014-15 while its on-campus facility, the Freitas Forum, is expanded to meet Hockey East's minimum seating capacity requirement of 4,500.




After running some of the numbers in the most important metrics, it is clear that UConn is the top candidate for Power Conference expansion. UConn's value far exceeds any of its competitors. UConn's value exceeds many grandfathered members inside the Power 5. UConn, and most of its 223,000 alumni, is located in the middle of the densely populated area in the country. UConn brings excellence in athletics and academics. UConn is a state, flagship university with no other "game" in the entire state of Connecticut to compete against for entertainment dollars. UConn's fans are amongst the most passionate in the country, sending some 15-20K fans to the Fiesta Bowl, as well as tens of thousands to its many other bowl games, and providing its basketball team with "home court" advantage whenever it plays in New York or Boston. UConn fans have also adopted Texas as its postseason home away from home, having won three national championships inside Texas' state lines.

If the B12 is offering the last lifeboat off of AAC Island, UConn leaders need to do everything possible to get a seat aboard one of those boats. There is no questioning the value and prestige that UConn would bring the Big 12. If coupled with Cincinnati, then an eastern wing of Cincinnati, UConn, and West Virginia would give the conference (and FOX) the ability to open up new and densely populated areas in the east. If coupled with BYU, the Big 12 could add the two largest and biggest brands readily available in UConn and BYU. Best of all, taking the best of the best UConn would seriously hamper any future expansion plans by its main "power conference competitor", the ACC conference, especially if adding an additional 11+M TV homes meant that a Big 12 Network gets launched before an ACC Network.

I still think that the B1G is the best fit for UConn and its long-term prospects, but if they are not offering invites for another decade without a partner, then UConn must do EVERYTHING necessary to get into the Big 12. While in the B12, both sides win. The B12 has more TV homes to launch a B12 Network and satisfies FOX's desire to move East. UConn is able to compete at the highest level, as it has done very successfully over the past 20 years, and contend for additional national championships.
Great post. One point I'm interested in is alumni demographics. You mention that we have 223k graduates, and I'm assuming they're largely spread between the NYC-to-Boston corridor. Is that correct?

How many alumni do the other schools have? Where are they primarily located? I'm guessing they're local to those particular schools (and I'm also guessing it's not exactly easy to figure that out, so feel free to tell me to f&*%$ off it it suits you).
 
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In response to @CL82 's message in a different thread http://the-boneyard.com/threads/jacobs-to-the-rescue.85506/page-2#post-1527877 , I tried putting together a list of some important numbers for UConn's P5 profile. There's been a lot of chatter in the last few days and weeks about UConn and the Big 12 has motivated me to do a deeper dive into UConn's power profile and how it could make sense for the Big 12 to come out east.

Anyone is free to take any of this and run with it, including any journalists. I tried to provide links to sites that support my data below.

1. TV/Markets (within 2 hour radius): http://www.tvb.org/media/file/2015-2016-dma-ranks.pdf
UConn would provide potential viewership into the following markets within a 2 hour radius-
#1 New York (which includes Southwest CT) - 7.3M TV homes (6.5% of U.S.)
#8 Boston/Manchester - 2.4M TV homes (2.1% of U.S.)
#30 Hartford/New Haven - 945K TV homes (.8% of U.S.)
#52 Providence/New Bedford - 600K TV homes (.5% of U.S.)
#116 Springfield/Holyoke - 246K TV homes (.2% of U.S.)

Total potential reach: 11.4M TV homes

Conversely, here are how some of our competitors stack up (and I'm trying to be as liberal as possible). I consider Houston, Cincinnati, BYU, UCF, and USF as UConn's top competitors -
#10 Houston - 2.4M TV homes (2% of U.S.)
#11 Tampa/St.Pete - 1.9M TV homes (1.6% of U.S.)
#19 Orlando/Daytona - 1.5M TV homes (1.3% of U.S.)
#18 Cleveland/Akron - 1.5M TV homes (1.3% of U.S.)
#27 Indianapolis - 1M TV homes (1% of U.S.)
#31 Columbus, OH - 900K TV homes (.8% of U.S.)
#34 Salt Lake, UT - 885K TV homes (.7% of U.S.)**
#36 Cincinnati - 860K TV homes (.7% of U.S.)
#50 Memphis - 636K TV homes (.5% of U.S.)
#61 Ft Myers, FL - 505K TV homes (.4% of U.S.)
#63 Lexington, KY - 472K TV homes (.4% of U.S.)
#64 Dayton - 460K TV homes (.4% of U.S)
#77 Toledo - 400K TV homes (.3% of U.S.)

Total potential COMBINED reach (Houston, Cincinnati, UCF, and USF): 12.3M TV homes

**BYU should also be counted as number of LDS members in the U.S.
There are a total of 6.46M LDS Church members in the U.S. http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/facts-and-statistics/country/united-states.

When combined with Salt Lake, UT, BYU brings a total potential reach of 7.2M TV homes.

CONCLUSION: UConn is the unquestioned #1 candidate for potential TV reach. I am by no means saying that every 11.4M TV home will watch UConn. But not every TV home listed in their respective demographics, including all 6.46M LDS members, will watch our B12 competition either. We are talking about potential TV reach which is important for any movement towards a B12 Network launch. If Texas decides who the 12th member will be (assuming that the "rumors" about Cincinnati being #11 is true), then we would bring the most potential TV homes to their Longhorn Network.


2. Academics - if Texas is the school that has ultimate veto power and academics are important to them, then UConn is the unquestioned #1 candidate by academic profile. UConn would weigh in as the #2 ranked school, behind Texas, by the U.S. News & World Report. http://www.usnewsuniversitydirectory.com/undergraduate-colleges/national-universities.aspx

Here are the 2016 US N&WR rankings:

#52 Texas *AAU
#57 UConn
#66 BYU

#72 Baylor
#82 TCU
#108 Oklahoma
#108 Iowa St *AAU
#115 Kansas *AAU
#140 Cincinnati
#146 Kansas St
#149 Oklahoma St
#156 USF
#168 UCF

#168 Texas Tech
#175 WVU
#187 Houston

Of course, there are other factors when measuring a school's academic strength. By in large, U.S. News & World Report is used as the "gold standard" for U.S. school rankings, hence my use here. UConn's overall ranking and Top 20 public university ranking certainly bodes well for UConn's academic strength. With the research expansion projects taking place, thanks to the $1.5B bonding allocation from the state of Connecticut, and aggressive faculty hiring initiative (with the goal to increase student body and alumni while creating a better student:faculty ratio, of course) puts UConn on track to rise in the rankings even further.

*AAU members are noted

3. Athletics - we are obviously talking about athletic conference expansion. This category also bodes well for UConn.

As cited by Jacobs in today's article, UConn has won 4 national championships in the two major sports (football and men's basketball) since 1999. The only other school to have done that is Florida (2 football, 2 men's hoops). As we all know, UConn has won men's and women's basketball titles in the same year twice ('04 and '11). No other school has ever done that. There is no questioning the strength of UConn basketball. UConn would easily become the top basketball program for men's and women's in the B12.

Without question, UConn is a "basketball school". Thankfully, there is room inside of the P5 for "basketball schools". For "basketball schools" to be successful (and bring money to a conference), it must be competitive in football. By no means do basketball schools need to bring a national championship pedigree to the gridiron. BUT, like I said, basketball schools have to competitive in most seasons. Let's look at how other "basketball schools" have fared since UConn made the move up to being a full D-1 football member in 2002, with specific attention paid towards schools with basketball programs that are in or around the same class as UConn (Kansas, Kentucky, Arizona, Duke, North Carolina, Syracuse, Louisville).

UConn: First, a brief look into our D-1 football history. I broke it down to pre-Pasqualoni and post-Pasqualoni eras and then a total record.
Edsall: 65-46 record. 2 shared Big East Conference championships. 1 BCS bowl appearance. 5 total bowl games.
Pasqualoni-present: 21-40. 1 bowl game.
Total: 86-86. .500 record since becoming a full-time D-1 football program. As you will see, this stacks up VERY favorably to the "basketball schools" currently in a P5 conference.

Syracuse: 58-105. 5 wins vacated by NCAA for rampant cheating. 4 total bowl games (2 as member of Big East member with UConn; 2 as member of ACC) - invited to ACC before program turnaround where, ironically, they have had more success in the ACC than Big East with/against UConn.

Kansas: 62-108. 1 Big 12 Championship. 1 BCS bowl game. 4 total bowl games.

Kentucky: 71-100. 5 total bowl games, although they were 7-5 bowl eligible in 2002 but were under NCAA sanction and prohibited from postseason play.

Duke: 58-113. 4 total bowl games (last 4 seasons including 2 ACC Championship Games). Their record would be MUCH worse if it weren't for an impressive 33-20 record in the past 4 seasons.

North Carolina: 70-89. 16 wins and 2 bowl games vacated because of ridiculous amount of cheating. 6 total bowl games, including 1 ACC Championship Game.

Arizona: 83-91. 7 total bowl games; 1 BCS bowl game (1 PAC Championship Game).

Louisville: 97-56. By far, the most impressive of the "basketball schools". 8 total bowl games; 2 BCS games. If it weren't for a Pasqualoni-esque 15-21 Steve Kragthorpe era, their record since 2002 would probably be even more impressive.

Other Olympic Sports:
B12 sponsored sports: http://www.big12sports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=10410&ATCLID=208327961

Soccer is sponsored by 9 of the 10 B12 members (KSU does not). UConn finished #2 in the country in attendance in 2015 and offers national championships and appearances.

Baseball is sponsored by 9 of the 10 B12 members (ISU does not). With a recent infusion of former UConn players in the MLB (Scott Oberg, George Springer, Nick Ahmed, Matt Barnes, Mike Olt) in addition to having dozens of players drafted, UConn Baseball adds a competitive program for B12 baseball.

Field Hockey is not sponsored by the B12, so UConn would keep its nationally elite program in the Big East.

Ice Hockey is not sponsored by the B12, so UConn would keep its program in the Hockey East.


4. Brand Value - again, UConn holds a VERY sizeable advantage over every other of its competitors.

http://ope.ed.gov/athletics/ (thank you @Bonz_44 and @CL82)
2014 revenue by school by AAC (*includes BYU):
1. Connecticut - $72,155,789
*BYU - $59,032,406
2. SMU - $55,349,010
3. Central Florida - $51,871,022
4. East Carolina - $48,743,915
5. South Florida - $46,895,838
6. Houston - $45,437,943
7. Cincinnati - $42,861,532
8. Memphis - $41,420,631
9. Tulane - $41,004,900
10. Tulsa - $40,329,852
11. Temple - $39,888,882

Yes, UConn has the 3rd highest subsidy for athletics at $27.2M. But that also shows the level of commitment to athletics that UConn strives for each and every season. If you put UConn in a P5 conference (with P5 TV money!), then the subsidy naturally shrinks by $10-$20M and is replaced with TV money income. At the end of the day, you can put UConn's P5 revenue potential (replacing subsidy with TV money) at around the $80-$90M range. In other words, firmly within the P5 structure as-is with room for upward growth.

Before Tier 3 media rights became a thing of the past, UConn also stacked up with its P5 peers. UConn signed a Tier 3 media deal with IMG valued at $80M over 10 years, which, at the time, placed UConn in the top half of similar deal values. UConn also signed a Tier 3 media contract with SNY for women's basketball only, valued at $1.14M/yr. Combined, this put UConn's Tier 3 media rights well over $9M/yr which would be valued in the upper half of P5 member values. UConn also signed an apparel contract with Nike at around the same time as its IMG Tier 3 medial contract, and that contract was valued at $2.775M in 2014-15. This would put UConn at 27th, ahead of Cincinnati ($2.625M with Under Armour...which was signed more recently than UConn's deal). USF comes in at $1.67M with Under Armour; Houston at 500K with Nike; UCF, Memphis and BYU are not listed (but I imagine BYU has a comparable deal with Nike that UConn has).

5. Facilities - UConn boasts state of the art facilities for most of its athletic programs.

Football enjoys one of the nation's top facilities in the country, the Burton Family Football Complex and adjacent Mark R Shenkman Indoor Training Center. Both opened in the Summer of 2006. Football plays its home games at Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field, whose capacity is roughly 40,000, and is known for being one of the loudest stadiums in the country (ask Dave Wannstedt or Robert Griffin III). Footings were already built in the original stadium to easily support expansion of up to another 10-15,000 seats. In the summer of 2015, UConn and UTC/Pratt & Whitney reached a deal that gave UConn an additional 25 acres of parking land (enough to support an additional 10-15,000 fans) in exchange for naming rights to the stadium. Expanding "PAWSARF" would be very easy and very fast.

Both the men's and women's powerhouse basketball programs enjoy the newly opened Werth Family UConn Basketball Champions Center. Home games are split between the XL Center in downtown Hartford and Gampel Pavilion, located on campus. The state is currently discussing ways to renovate XL Center that would also allow UConn to increased revenue from ticket sales and concessions in exchange for continuing to play some of its games in Hartford.

UConn Soccer received an $8M gift for a soccer renovation to Joseph Marrone Stadium, a stadium that housed the #2 average attendance in the country in 2015.

UConn Baseball and UConn Hockey both will undergoing renovations in the near future. Hockey enjoys playing its home games at the XL Center in front of the #1 average attendance in Hockey East in 2014-15 while its on-campus facility, the Freitas Forum, is expanded to meet Hockey East's minimum seating capacity requirement of 4,500.




After running some of the numbers in the most important metrics, it is clear that UConn is the top candidate for Power Conference expansion. UConn's value far exceeds any of its competitors. UConn's value exceeds many grandfathered members inside the Power 5. UConn, and most of its 223,000 alumni, is located in the middle of the densely populated area in the country. UConn brings excellence in athletics and academics. UConn is a state, flagship university with no other "game" in the entire state of Connecticut to compete against for entertainment dollars. UConn's fans are amongst the most passionate in the country, sending some 15-20K fans to the Fiesta Bowl, as well as tens of thousands to its many other bowl games, and providing its basketball team with "home court" advantage whenever it plays in New York or Boston. UConn fans have also adopted Texas as its postseason home away from home, having won three national championships inside Texas' state lines.

If the B12 is offering the last lifeboat off of AAC Island, UConn leaders need to do everything possible to get a seat aboard one of those boats. There is no questioning the value and prestige that UConn would bring the Big 12. If coupled with Cincinnati, then an eastern wing of Cincinnati, UConn, and West Virginia would give the conference (and FOX) the ability to open up new and densely populated areas in the east. If coupled with BYU, the Big 12 could add the two largest and biggest brands readily available in UConn and BYU. Best of all, taking the best of the best UConn would seriously hamper any future expansion plans by its main "power conference competitor", the ACC conference, especially if adding an additional 11+M TV homes meant that a Big 12 Network gets launched before an ACC Network.

I still think that the B1G is the best fit for UConn and its long-term prospects, but if they are not offering invites for another decade without a partner, then UConn must do EVERYTHING necessary to get into the Big 12. While in the B12, both sides win. The B12 has more TV homes to launch a B12 Network and satisfies FOX's desire to move East. UConn is able to compete at the highest level, as it has done very successfully over the past 20 years, and contend for additional national championships.

Everyone here should be emailing this link to BOTH Warde and Herbst as well as tweeting it to them. Remember it was propaganda not facts that got Louisville the ACC nod over UCONN. Let's do whatever we can to help and if they do nothing, well it's simple, it'll be #FireWarde and #FireHerbst
 
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I think someone should seriously consider emailing Dooley's post above to every Big 12 President and Athletic Director. And of course take out the last paragraph about preferring the Big Ten lol.

Seeing playing football in big city baseball stadiums is the new craze perhaps we could offer the possibility of playing an Oklahoma or Texas at Yankee Stadium or Fenway? East coast exposure. Eyeballs.
 

Dooley

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Great post. One point I'm interested in is alumni demographics. You mention that we have 223k graduates, and I'm assuming they're largely spread between the NYC-to-Boston corridor. Is that correct?

How many alumni do the other schools have? Where are they primarily located? I'm guessing they're local to those particular schools (and I'm also guessing it's not exactly easy to figure that out, so feel free to tell me to f&*%$ off it it suits you).

http://uconn.edu/content/uploads/2015/02/UConn_Facts_2015_Final.pdf

Alumni numbers are on Page 2. 223,000 alumni; 126,000 live in Connecticut. Does not say how many live in NYC or Boston. Interesting note that this also gives an "official" number to our endowment cracking the $400M mark ($402.4M).

This link also gives some other cool info like Research expenditures, past project allocations, enrollment (over 31,000 including post-grad), and fundraising efforts. Just quick snapshots but cool nonetheless. Other schools have these "Fact Sheets" too but I found most alumni numbers were around the same total as ours.
 

Dooley

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If UConn hasn't already produced a similar presentation, and likely one with dramatically more detailed information, I would be absolutely stunned.

As would I. I know I saw something a while back that Mike Enright put together about UConn alumni in Boston but I couldn't, for the life of me, find it anywhere. Just wasn't using the right Google search terms maybe. If that number is available (NYC too), then that should only help promote UConn as being a northeast presence...not just Connecticut.
 

UConnDan97

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Awesome stuff, Dooley! Well done...
 

CL82

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Great job @Dooley! I hope the columnists/reporters who visit the board use this as time saving start.
 
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As would I. I know I saw something a while back that Mike Enright put together about UConn alumni in Boston but I couldn't, for the life of me, find it anywhere. Just wasn't using the right Google search terms maybe. If that number is available (NYC too), then that should only help promote UConn as being a northeast presence...not just Connecticut.

Nice job!

I saw a breakdown of alumni by state on the UCONN foundation site, on phone else I would link it.
 
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