USC and UCLA to the BIG Ten

[Duncan Idaho]

Rutgers hit the powerball mega and all lotteries combined.

The Clampetts of D1 athletics

 

[uconnric]

They have a GOR. It's going to be more difficult. However, I could see ND bolting as their TV contract for football is separate.

With the money that will be on the table, Clemson, FSU, UNC and probably Miami are looking to bolt. The GOR will be a negotiated exit payment. Cuse, BC, Pitt, Ga Tech, NC State, Wake will have to pick up the pieces, but it will be a second tier conference. Not sure what happens to Va Tech and UVA. The SEC and the B1g have expanded to take in the marquee names and will continue to do so.

We should be in pretty good shape when the dust settles. Better than being in college football's no man's land.

 

[uconndogs]

There will be two conferences with a significant if not insurmountable financial advantage. In the age of NIL that just about assures them an enormous advantage in attracting and retaining the best talent. This is professional athletics in every sense. Regularly putting kids on an aircraft to travel up to 3,000 miles to play games has nothing to do with the "college experience" and to the extent academics has meant anything recently it most certainly means nothing now. This is 40 or so programs playing at an elite level that the rest of college athletics can not. Why they would agree to continue oversight by the NCAA is beyond me.

That all said, for the remainder of athletic departments there may be something left that resembles the college athletics we have enjoyed for so many years. This may be the opportunity UCONN needs to get back on a level playing field with the rest of the pack. That's probably looking at the glass half full, but what the heck..........

 

[huskymedic]

 

[Chin Diesel]

There will be two conferences with a significant if not insurmountable financial advantage. In the age of NIL that just about assures them an enormous advantage in attracting and retaining the best talent. This is professional athletics in every sense. Regularly putting kids on an aircraft to travel up to 3,000 miles to play games has nothing to do with the "college experience" and to the extent academics has meant anything recently it most certainly means nothing now. This is 40 or so programs playing at an elite level that the rest of college athletics can not. Why they would agree to continue oversight by the NCAA is beyond me.

Kids won't "regularly" be traveling 3k miles. Even when they do travel, this isn't the 1970's. They have laptops, tablets, cell phones and ebooks and can do some reading and basic coursework while flying (Even wihtout wifi onboard).

Part of college is prepping you for "real life" and plenty of current workers travel and have to get work don on the fly (Nice pun Chin).

 

[uconndogs]

Kids won't "regularly" be traveling 3k miles. Even when they do travel, this isn't the 1970's. They have laptops, tablets, cell phones and ebooks and can do some reading and basic coursework while flying (Even wihtout wifi onboard).

Part of college is prepping you for "real life" and plenty of current workers travel and have to get work don on the fly (Nice pun Chin).

My primary point being that all of this is being done with little consideration for the student athlete........and as these athletic departments essentially become pro franchises these kids will be professional athletes with little if any regard for academics.

........and yeah, I get that aircraft have wifi........

 

[Chin Diesel]

My primary point being that all of this is being done with little consideration for the student athlete........and as these athletic departments essentially become pro franchises these kids will be professional athletes with little if any regard for academics.

........and yeah, I get that aircraft have wifi........

I understand but a 3 hour plane ride isn't much more harsh than a bus ride from Seton Hall back to Storrs. Especially if they are taking charter flights.

I also think for the Olympic and non-revenue sports will go to a regional pod system within the conference and then teams come together for the conference championships.

 

[cohenzone]

So down the road it will be the NCAA league with a different name. How many divisions is one league? The question is when will the monster devour itself. D1 College sports are becoming a big turnoff to me. Trinity students are pretty satisfied to beat Wesleyan.

 

[kibblesnbits]

Well, this certainly makes the Gonzaga to the Big East talk sound less absurd. I hoped that at some point there would be a reorganization into regional leagues in an attempt to mimimize travel costs and try to pretend that D-1 athletes are actually student-athletes. Now I believe we are looking at a hybrid with 2-3 leagues with national audiences and massive footprints with the left-overs creating regional alliances. I will bet some of the best attorneys in the nation will be racking up billable hours in the next few months developing legal theories for dissolving a GOR.

 

[huskysupporter]

Would love if UCONN can get into a regional conference for all sports, including football.

Leftovers from ACC would be perfect.

 

[UConnRock]

Would love if UCONN can get into a regional conference for all sports, including football.

Leftovers from ACC would be perfect.

Shoot for the stars…..Football gets respectable, men’s hoops make a couple of nice tourney runs, women’s hoops stays on track, new president gets UConn into AAU. Then the B1G decides they want to fully conquer NYC and New England. Don’t get me wrong, I would take ACC leftovers, but you have to dream B1G.

 

[Sportsman5]

Shoot for the stars…..Football gets respectable, men’s hoops make a couple of nice tourney runs, women’s hoops stays on track, new president gets UConn into AAU. Then the B1G decides they want to fully conquer NYC and New England. Don’t get me wrong, I would take ACC leftovers, but you have to dream B1G.

Definitely possible.

However, from a $$ perspective UConn doesn't add as much value to the BIG 10 as it does other conferences who have no northeast presence. TV subscriptions and games in New York or Boston are very valuable to conferences not named the ACC or BIG 10. Ex. UConn might give up 1 home football game and 2 basketball games per year to neutral sites in a major north east city for a certain number of years as part of getting invited into a better conference. UConn would probably give up all home football games for 10 years to get an SEC invite haha.

I know it would have sounded insane just 1 week ago, but UConn probably has a better chance of being invited to the PAC 12 than it does the BIG 10 at this point. The jokes about UConn in the SEC seemed insane (and it still is insane) but UConn adds more value in regards to money and exposure to the SEC than it does to the ACC or BIG 10 because it gives them a presence between New York and Boston that contains 20+ million people.

The key for UConn is we (hopefully a few generous boosters) need to pump in NIL money to show that we can compete with the big boys in football. This is a measurable thing that we can use to pitch conferences. I know it would have sounded crazy a few years ago, but showing that we can pay 500k per year for a top 15 ranked high school QB recruit and being competitive every year is actually valuable.

 

[giddyup]

Some fans of the ACC pending junior league teams like BC, Syracuse, Pitt and VTech are already crying that they should be part of a B1G northeast division like the old Big East with PSU and Rutgers. The irony is too rich for words.

 

[RSTuthill]

UConn isn't getting an invite anywhere that is attractive. They will stay independent. JMHO.

 

[shizzle787]

UConn isn't getting an invite anywhere that is attractive. They will stay independent. JMHO.

If enough dominoes fall, we will be in the ACC. It won't take a miracle.

 

[UConnRock]

Some fans of the ACC pending junior league teams like BC, Syracuse, Pitt and VTech are already crying that they should be part of a B1G northeast division like the old Big East with PSU and Rutgers. The irony is too rich for words.

Would BC, Pitt, Syracuse or VT would be more attractive to B1G than UConn? An argument could be made for UConn.

 

[Redding Husky]

Didn’t 5 ACC schools turn us down? Miami, FSU, GT, Clemson, and BC. If some of them are gone, where else can the ACC go but UConn & WVU?

Or maybe the ACC leftovers combine with the Big 12 leftovers?

 

[RSTuthill]

If enough dominoes fall, we will be in the ACC. It won't take a miracle.

Remember the word I used was attractive. A far flung ACC patched together as a salvage project would not be too attractive.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Shoot for the stars…..Football gets respectable, men’s hoops make a couple of nice tourney runs, women’s hoops stays on track, new president gets UConn into AAU. Then the B1G decides they want to fully conquer NYC and New England. Don’t get me wrong, I would take ACC leftovers, but you have to dream B1G.

The B1G would extend an invite even if we were not yet in the AAU, on the understanding that eventually we would be. If UConn football see’s a a long overdue resurgence under Mora, then add two of the best (historically speaking) basketball programs in the country and Penders baseball crew, the academic standing of the school, then I think the B1G seriously looks at inviting UConn. If Mora can manage anything close to a 500 season, the ball starts rolling.

 

[shizzle787]

The B1G would extend an invite even if we were not yet in the AAU, on the understanding that eventually we would be. If UConn football see’s a a long overdue resurgence under Mora, then add two of the best (historically speaking) basketball programs in the country and Penders baseball crew, the academic standing of the school, then I think the B1G seriously looks at inviting UConn. If Mora can manage anything close to a 500 season, the ball starts rolling.

We are not worth $100 million per year. Washington and Oregon aren't even worth that.

 

[ShakyTheMohel]

If enough dominoes fall, we will be in the ACC. It won't take a miracle.

Agreed....but the ACC will look like the old Big East by that point.

By the time UConn gets an invite....FSU, Clemson, Miami, North Carolina will definitely be gone. Some combination of NC State, Duke, Virginia, Louisville might be gone. Of course ND will have ended the play 5 ACC teams commitment.

Still probably better than being independent....but it won't be anything near what the ACC is today.

I know that sounds pessimistic...but it's hard to be optimistic with anything regarding conference realignment and UConn.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

We are not worth $100 million per year. Washington and Oregon aren't even worth that.

We are worth that much if we are in the B1G. MSG basketball on the Big Ten Network, mens and womens, you do realize that recruiting for Mora, Hurley and Geno becomes 10 times easier. Ticket sales for women’s games alone throughout the B1G would see a huge increase. UConn has many friends in the B1G.

 

[Stinger92860]

We are not worth $100 million per year. Washington and Oregon aren't even worth that.

This why tiered payouts will be the norm in the not too distant future. What are we worth? 20-25M? Or more?

 

[shizzle787]

Agreed....but the ACC will look like the old Big East by that point.

By the time UConn gets an invite....FSU, Clemson, Miami, North Carolina will definitely be gone. Some combination of NC State, Duke, Virginia, Louisville might be gone. Of course ND will have ended the play 5 ACC teams commitment.

Still probably better than being independent....but it won't be anything near what the ACC is today.

I know that sounds pessimistic...but it's hard to be optimistic with anything regarding conference realignment and UConn.

I don't see the SEC or Big 10 going past 20. My bet is that 4 schools + ND leave the ACC. It would basically be the old Big East + Ga Tech, VaTech, Duke, NC State, Wake. Not playing against Clemson, UNC, Miami, or Florida State is not going to hurt my feelings.

 

[shizzle787]

This why tiered payouts will be the norm in the not too distant future. What are we worth? 20-25M? Or more?

Unlikely. European soccer leagues have already figured this out. The EPL makes more because every club gets the same base amount. However, there is a % determined by performance, which we may see going forward.