(06-22-2019 06:23 AM)HuskyU Wrote:  Hi new/old friends.

(06-22-2019 03:23 PM)Golden Jedi Knight Wrote:  If UConn and the Big East both determine that they should be together, great. My question is, do the benefits of moving to the Big East outweigh staying in the American? I understand UConn's football program is tanking, and they lost rivalries with programs like Georgetown after the conference split. But is it worth sending UConn football to C-USA, the MAC, or maybe a return to being independent, and ending hope that they might be part of a power conference again? I'm not convinced that this is a wise move for UConn in the long-term. Maybe some of the Big East or UConn fans here can make a case and point out something I'm missing.

(06-27-2019 10:55 AM)stever20 Wrote:  it does look right

and

(06-22-2019 09:42 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  

(06-22-2019 03:23 PM)Golden Jedi Knight Wrote:  If UConn and the Big East both determine that they should be together, great. My question is, do the benefits of moving to the Big East outweigh staying in the American? I understand UConn's football program is tanking, and they lost rivalries with programs like Georgetown after the conference split. But is it worth sending UConn football to C-USA, the MAC, or maybe a return to being independent, and ending hope that they might be part of a power conference again? I'm not convinced that this is a wise move for UConn in the long-term. Maybe some of the Big East or UConn fans here can make a case and point out something I'm missing.

While I would hardly label the move as a no-brainer, UConn Athletics was running out of borrowed time. They bought themselves an extra realignment cycle (2013-2019) by utilizing the Big East war chest funds to help finance their athletic department during this time. Now that it ended, and the new AAC TV deal wasn't as much as these payouts, they were going to lose even more money long term by continuing to commit a path that was simply unsustainable for football and for its Olympic sports.

I think one of the key pieces of information today is the decision by UConn to keep football at the FBS level, ideally in another conference. They do not wish to drop it, nor do they need to at this point. However, if UConn still has a P5 dream (which they should), they need to right football - and there was just no way that was going to happen in the American. UConn Football had been lapped and overtaken by a majority of the AAC in the past five years. UCF, USF, Houston, Memphis and Cincinnati have all risen their football programs to the top of the AAC (for which UConn was expected to be a top program when the league formed); they each are in fertile football recruiting areas (of which Connecticut is not); each AAC football program has attracted young, up-and-coming coaches to lead their programs - and several programs have reached sustained success through multiple head coaches (UConn failed miserably with Diaco and, now, Edsall 2.0). In the AAC East, the only program that has arguably under-performed as much is ECU (but ECU was still able to hire an experienced and successful head coach this past offseason). Couple that with the scheduled OOC games (with usually a P5 or two thrown in there), and it makes it very challenging to create a sustained and competitive football program year-to-year. From this standpoint, UConn Football has a better chance at beating other weaker programs until it can take another level again (not unlike Temple in the Big East years ago).

Financially, everyone wants to point to the $10 million exit fee. My guess is that Fox will gladly cover a majority of that to get UConn on board for next season (it makes way too much sense not to). UConn was running a substantial athletic budget deficit that was created mainly due to football. By moving Olympic sports back home to the Big East, it significantly cuts down travel costs, reignites geographic and historic rivalries (gets back fan interest), gets access to the BET at MSG, and (most importantly) probably gets its Tier 3 rights back - which the new AAC TV deal did not account for. The next argument many will make is the $7 million vs. $4 million annual payouts between conferences. Well, UConn was spending $7 million alone annually on travel costs being in the American; the costs clearly made any revenue irrelevant. Fox will most likely assist in getting them some exposure for their football programs (and the Big East has greater connections to the B1G and Big 12 than the AAC did). Additionally, our next TV deal will now undoubtedly be higher thanks to UConn coming on board (so they are not only making more money on Olympics, and cutting down costs from travel purposes, but they are also increasing the value of their new conference as well).

From an exposure standpoint, Fox has done a wonderful job building and promoting the Big East from Day 1. We don't have announcers openly ridiculing our status as "power conference", nor do they openly campaign for our members to go to other conferences (especially on a competitor's network). Fox isn't also pushing us to all of its secondary streaming platforms to fill up content. ESPN's AAC TV deal is locked-in until 2030's; when the AAC is making $7 million annually then, each of the power conferences will have gotten new deals and only widened the gap. We had over twenty games last year on Fox/CBS alone, and that number will only go up. As a side-note, if somebody told ESPN that the Big East would be as strong today in 2012, that it would still have UConn AND that its rights would be fully owned by Fox, I doubt anyone would have believed them.

I get that there are some hard feelings/ill-will from many AAC fans (and even some UConn fans) regarding this move. However, this was always a strong possibility for UConn ever since the C7 reorganized the Big East in 2013. They played their best hand at the P5 table but had to fold; however, they still get to come home with some winnings (which is a lot better than had they continued to play the game; they may not have had anything left).

(06-28-2019 09:59 PM)HerdZoned Wrote:  

(06-22-2019 09:42 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  

(06-22-2019 03:23 PM)Golden Jedi Knight Wrote:  If UConn and the Big East both determine that they should be together, great. My question is, do the benefits of moving to the Big East outweigh staying in the American? I understand UConn's football program is tanking, and they lost rivalries with programs like Georgetown after the conference split. But is it worth sending UConn football to C-USA, the MAC, or maybe a return to being independent, and ending hope that they might be part of a power conference again? I'm not convinced that this is a wise move for UConn in the long-term. Maybe some of the Big East or UConn fans here can make a case and point out something I'm missing.

While I would hardly label the move as a no-brainer, UConn Athletics was running out of borrowed time. They bought themselves an extra realignment cycle (2013-2019) by utilizing the Big East war chest funds to help finance their athletic department during this time. Now that it ended, and the new AAC TV deal wasn't as much as these payouts, they were going to lose even more money long term by continuing to commit a path that was simply unsustainable for football and for its Olympic sports.

I think one of the key pieces of information today is the decision by UConn to keep football at the FBS level, ideally in another conference. They do not wish to drop it, nor do they need to at this point. However, if UConn still has a P5 dream (which they should), they need to right football - and there was just no way that was going to happen in the American. UConn Football had been lapped and overtaken by a majority of the AAC in the past five years. UCF, USF, Houston, Memphis and Cincinnati have all risen their football programs to the top of the AAC (for which UConn was expected to be a top program when the league formed); they each are in fertile football recruiting areas (of which Connecticut is not); each AAC football program has attracted young, up-and-coming coaches to lead their programs - and several programs have reached sustained success through multiple head coaches (UConn failed miserably with Diaco and, now, Edsall 2.0). In the AAC East, the only program that has arguably under-performed as much is ECU (but ECU was still able to hire an experienced and successful head coach this past offseason). Couple that with the scheduled OOC games (with usually a P5 or two thrown in there), and it makes it very challenging to create a sustained and competitive football program year-to-year. From this standpoint, UConn Football has a better chance at beating other weaker programs until it can take another level again (not unlike Temple in the Big East years ago).

Financially, everyone wants to point to the $10 million exit fee. My guess is that Fox will gladly cover a majority of that to get UConn on board for next season (it makes way too much sense not to). UConn was running a substantial athletic budget deficit that was created mainly due to football. By moving Olympic sports back home to the Big East, it significantly cuts down travel costs, reignites geographic and historic rivalries (gets back fan interest), gets access to the BET at MSG, and (most importantly) probably gets its Tier 3 rights back - which the new AAC TV deal did not account for. The next argument many will make is the $7 million vs. $4 million annual payouts between conferences. Well, UConn was spending $7 million alone annually on travel costs being in the American; the costs clearly made any revenue irrelevant. Fox will most likely assist in getting them some exposure for their football programs (and the Big East has greater connections to the B1G and Big 12 than the AAC did). Additionally, our next TV deal will now undoubtedly be higher thanks to UConn coming on board (so they are not only making more money on Olympics, and cutting down costs from travel purposes, but they are also increasing the value of their new conference as well).

From an exposure standpoint, Fox has done a wonderful job building and promoting the Big East from Day 1. We don't have announcers openly ridiculing our status as "power conference", nor do they openly campaign for our members to go to other conferences (especially on a competitor's network). Fox isn't also pushing us to all of its secondary streaming platforms to fill up content. ESPN's AAC TV deal is locked-in until 2030's; when the AAC is making $7 million annually then, each of the power conferences will have gotten new deals and only widened the gap. We had over twenty games last year on Fox/CBS alone, and that number will only go up. As a side-note, if somebody told ESPN that the Big East would be as strong today in 2012, that it would still have UConn AND that its rights would be fully owned by Fox, I doubt anyone would have believed them.

I get that there are some hard feelings/ill-will from many AAC fans (and even some UConn fans) regarding this move. However, this was always a strong possibility for UConn ever since the C7 reorganized the Big East in 2013. They played their best hand at the P5 table but had to fold; however, they still get to come home with some winnings (which is a lot better than had they continued to play the game; they may not have had anything left).

UConn can forget about ever being a so called P5 school. They were gifted a spot in the BE Football because of their conference. In 17 years of being IA UConn has a .498 winning %. They made 1 BCS bowl and lost 17.2 million dollars because of it. Since the formation of the AAC they are 18-55 in football and 1/3 of those wins came in 1 year, 2015. The ACC is never going to happen, the B12 is tooooo far away and the Big10 has always been a pipedream that was never even on the table.

I would hate to be the head football coach and try and get kids to come play for me that have other offers. They play 22 miles off campus, which is just ridiculous in my book. That alone killed any chance UConn could be successful at Football.

I see both UConn and UMass back in IAA before the next movement which will start in 2022 or 23.