Uconn back to BE
- Thread starter TIGER-PAUL
- Start date
Football should probably go independent. Not sure of CUSA allows football only but that is probably their ceiling at this point. Maybe more at the MAC level.
From our perspective, this isn’t going to make life on the recruiting trail easier. Hurley is going to be even more formidable selling the NBE instead of the AAC. We seem to be fishing out of the same pond as them more often than not, so we’re going to have deal with that. Big win for them
They may be dropping FB, too. Money loser, maybe?
I wonder if the Big East will now look to add Pitt, WVU, Syracuse, ND, and BC as non-football members. Kidding, kidding.
I wasnt the first to predict UConn back to the Big East but I am the first to predict this new football-only conference:
UConn
UMass
Army
Liberty
New Mexico State
Jacksonville State
Eastern Kentucky (those 2 want to move up but cant find a conference taker).
Some thoughts:
- I love conference realignment so for me, this is great
- this means Cincy and USF are the last 2 teams left in the old Big East (renamed to the American).
- The timing of this is odd because the American just landed a nice TV deal and the basketball conference is improving to the point of potentially being a legit power conference league better than the Big East with the Sampson at Houston, Penny at Memphis, and Dawkins at UCF, and Marshall at Wichita State. A couple years ago, I would have said UConn to the Big East was a no-brainer for them but with the American TV money + the improving basketball league.....I woulda stayed.
- I will finally say the ACC will never get MSG for last weekend conference tournament though I would do a Friday-Tuesday tournament if I were them once in awhile. The Big Ten's ended too early on that Sunday afternoon. Having the semis on Monday night and the Final on Tuesday night would be huge for TV ratings with no other big conferences playing.
- So who does SMF predict the American adds to get back to 12 and keep their championship game? You guessed it: Boise State. Process of elimination really. Other candidates:
- Wichita will be given the option to add football. They have a stadium already (which would need renovated) and did a D1 feasibility study even before the American was an option but they decided not to. Besides Boise, I think Wichita is most likely but I dont think they do it.
- They will want BYU but BYU likes independence.
- No on Liberty for many reasons
- No MAC, CUSA, or Sun Belt schools move the needle
- The American (called Big East then) wanted Boise as football-only before. Boise wanted all their sports in it but the BE wouldn't allow it but that was when the Catholic 7 was still in the league. A weird agreement was reached to allow Boise to being SDSU with them as non-football members and park all their other sports in the Big West but Boise would have to play the other Big West schools' travel costs. Since all this happened, the old Big East lost the Catholic 7 plus Louisville and now UConn so I am sure the other members will allow Boise in for all sports. The Mountain West will backfill with Idaho moving back up or Montana or North Dakota State.
- Other candidates: UMass would keep a major NE media market presence but they aren't nearly good enough and may never be. Army would be an easy plug and play as a football-only but I dont see that happening. Though adding Boise, Army, and Air Force to give them 14 football schools and all 3 service academy teams would be pretty interesting.
Kids dont care about conferences anymore. That's a thing of the past. Hurley was always going to light it up in recruiting. This doesn't change anything.
The AAC was used against UConn at every turn by regional schools (Cuse, Providence, Nova, etc.) That’s a big burden off their back in recruiting
Why can't the ACC take UConn? Seems more logical than playing football in a conference of misfit toys that you propose above.
The ACC "could" take UConn. The question is, why would they want to? It's not like UConn is bringing in any extra money with them. They would, for the most part, just be one more mouth to feed.
And they were recruiting just fine. Poor coaching and mis-evaluating did them in. Also, Cooley and Willard are very good recruiters so that didnt help them either. Kids don't care about conferences.
I was just going on the rivaly aspect with us,cuse and bc.And geographically it makes sense.But I get your point.
In my other post, I noted that the timing was strange considering the American signed a good TV deal financially. However, from what I have read, it seems that TV deal had as much to do with UConn leaving than anything because although the money was good, ESPN was going to be putting a lot of AAC basketball and football into stream-only ESPN+ which requires a paid subscription. The move off of linear TV and onto watching games on their phones and laptops didnt go over well with fans of UConn men's and women's basketball. I believe this was the final straw.
ESPN tried to steal their WBB product and bury it on ESPN The Ocho. As you can imagine, WBB is huge up there so that was not well received.
My buddy is pretty tied in up there and they are beyond thrilled with this. They’d put football in the WPIAL Quad North to save basketball. Also, PR might give them a run
The state put 90+m into the stadium. Been a giant fail after 15 years. UConn fb the only regular tenant stinks , they can’t attract any events and the only developments on the land is a Cabelas. That said, they’re not dropping fb.
Would be ILLOGICAL for the ACC; indeed the worst of the possibilities bandied about.
That plus the deal is 13 yrs long. All 3 of their major sports lost money last year. Plus the BE breakup payments also stopped.
They would have made more money in the American. I believe the ESPN deal would have been $8 million/year. The Big East's deal with Fox is about $5 million/year. Bottom line is they weren't happy in the American and taking games off of linear TV and putting them on an app was the final straw for them.
Yeah and the fact that they chose to build the stadium 30 miles away from campus and didn't even put in downtown Hartford or in an otherwise cool location doesn't help either. Ugly stadium in the middle of a giant parking lot.
You don’t think they enjoyed playing games in Texas , Louisiana, and Kansas?
If the ACC needed another strong basketball program, sure. UConn is just too much of a black hole football-wise. At least BC is consistently mediocre.
Give UConn BC's money and they'd be as good or better. BC doesn't even have an indoor facility. Penn Hills does.
The basketball matchups will be more traditional
Georgetown
St. Johns
Providence
Seton Hall
Villanova
If they are basketball first, the fans will love it. I'd actually prefer Pitt be in the old Big East too. for basketball, I preferred that to the ACC, maybe it's because we where usually good?
Georgetown
St. Johns
Providence
Seton Hall
Villanova
If they are basketball first, the fans will love it. I'd actually prefer Pitt be in the old Big East too. for basketball, I preferred that to the ACC, maybe it's because we where usually good?
This is actually something I’ve been thinking about. Obviously football and money drive the bus, but if you take those out of the equation for a moment, is the star appeal of playing Duke/UNC in the ACC higher than playing old rivals from the Big East?
I'm sure lots of schools would do better with other school's money.
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Of course Penn Hills is very close to being taken over by the state for financial mismanagement too.
I mean it's easy to have nice things if you aren't actually planning on paying for them. For a little while, anyway.
4>2
Want to compare the geographic spread and regional games in each?
Ya don’t .
Trade in Cincy for Villanova , providence, Georgetown seton hall, etc
Short bus rides versus hours long plane rides
I meant for ALL sports not just football.If you would have read my original follow up my reasoning was based on former rivalries and geography.
UConn’s travel budget was about 7M per year in the AAC. In the BE, you can probably cut that in half.
I don’t see how this is anything but a win for them, outside of football.
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