It's a little short-sighted though. The American was greatly improving in basketball with some strong coaching hires. Memphis is going to have Final Four type talent, Wichita has Marshall, UCF may be here to stay under Dawkins, Sampson is a beast at Houston, and you always have Cincy. From a quality standpoint, the Big East and American are similar. Of course, the Big East has 5 of their old rivals but is that worth essentially killing football for when you'd figure they would be an ACC candidate when the next realignment takes place?
Uconn back to BE
- Thread starter TIGER-PAUL
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It's a little short-sighted though. The American was greatly improving in basketball with some strong coaching hires. Memphis is going to have Final Four type talent, Wichita has Marshall, UCF may be here to stay under Dawkins, Sampson is a beast at Houston, and you always have Cincy. From a quality standpoint, the Big East and American are similar. Of course, the Big East has 5 of their old rivals but is that worth essentially killing football for when you'd figure they would be an ACC candidate when the next realignment takes place?
I was impressed with what the AAC has done, but they needed the UConn brand badly. In basketball, the league just lost a really good coach in Cronin and their most recognizable brand. That’s not a great look. Penny is doing remarkable things at Memphis, so we’ll see if that’s enough to pull everyone else up a weight class.
I actually think this move helps their P5 chances. Basketball is their cash crop and it was dying on the vine in the AAC. Don’t be shocked if they are still bouncing around as a possible P5 option in 4-5 years.
No it isn't, Duke and UNC rule the ACC, two top dogs and 12 puppies, in the Big East back in the day, some years it could be 5-6 top dogs, capable of winning the blood and guts MSG Tournament, and Pitt was often right in the mix. OK UNC and Duke and Virginia for now, in my perfect world, I'd dump playing them in a heartbeat for UConn, Georgetown, Villanova, Syracuse, WVU, St. Johns, Providence, etc. when that league dominated the North East. Face it, do you get as excited to play VT or Clemson, like you did when Pitt was ranked and UConn, G'town or 'Cuse where coming up?
NOTE: I'm not talking about MONEY, I'm talking about what I'd rather watch.
I agree completely.
We need some villains to stir up some rivalries and, other than Boeheim, we really don’t have any in the ACC. Ewing, Wright, Hurley, Cooley, WoJo. We would have a fun time hating those guys.
As Capel hopefully gets recruiting on track, I hope to see some non-con games with those schools
Syracuse, Louisville, and UVA basketball have very good basketball histories and titles. The ACC is by far the best overall basketball conference and have a lot more than just 2 top programs.
Pitt developed a rivalry with some of the BE teams because both of us were good. UConn is a good example. If we become good again, then the same thing can happen in the ACC.
Pitt has no ACC rivals because we've been mediocre at best in both sports since we joined.
Would we be more engaged if we were 0-18 against the likes of Rutgers, Seton Hall, and Providence? Of course not.
The fact that there is not a viable Eastern all-sports conference is as much attributable to those b@st@rds as it is to Paterno.
Silly. The Big 5 had one Div.1 team. Nova wouldn't go back to that level. Rollie screwed Temple, but no eastern FB league could survive w/o psu. If Temple had been serious about FB, they would have been in the BE....and marooned when BC/VT & Miami bolted.
Performance is part of it, but I really have a tough time ever conjuring up any type of true animosity towards the southern schools. Maybe we just need more time, but there’s just not a lot of crossover.
Conversely, even if we were dreadful, you’d have a much easier time keeping the fans engaged with the Georgetown, Nova, UConn’s of the world than anyone outside of Duke/UNC and, if we’re awful, who really wants to go see us get rolled by 40 unless there’s a guy like Zion to make it interesting?
Obviously this is just a Bar discussion as, barring a seismic shift in NCAA/P5 structure, we’re not going anywhere but in a perfect world, our hoops program would fit like a glove back in the BE and would probably flourish
I have animosity towards NC State. They are like 10-0 vs us in head to head recruiting battles under various coaches and they shouldn't be.
Why would someone be more objectively “engaged” with Georgetown than UVa or VT?
Georgetown has been about as irrelevant lately as Pitt.
"Power school"? I hope this isn't a real term. The Big East is definitely a conference you can win a national title from in basketball. They're smart not to mix football in again because the economic interest of the shared bowl revenue/tv contract would inevitably cause a split again at some point.
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The BE may as well go in for football. They'd have a competitive FCS league with Butler, Dayton, Georgetown, Evillainova. . . . and YouCon.
Doesn't help them at all. In their BE contract they are not allowed to talk with a P5 football conference.
nova didn't ruin an All-Eastern League....they kept Temple out of the BE. There was one reason that league never formed...and he's dead.
If a P5 league came for UConn, they will bolt from the Big East in mere seconds.
Uconn FB circling back to independent
UConn will become an FBS independent in football & reaches agreement with American, will pay $17 million exit fee to leave league & join Big East In Olympic sports on July 1, 2020
UConn will become an FBS independent in football & reaches agreement with American, will pay $17 million exit fee to leave league & join Big East In Olympic sports on July 1, 2020
Much more irrelevant than Pitt.
Hell, people forget that 14 of the final 16 BETs were won by football-also schools. Georgetown beat us in 2007 and St. John's won one.
Before Georgetown beat us they had not won a BET since 1989. Football schools started to take over in 1996 when UConn won. The Hoyas have two in 30 years.
Of the 32 teams to play in those final 16 championship games only seven were basketball-only schools.
That being said, I loved the Big East. But if we get our house in order I will love the ACC.
I should qualify that a little better. 14/16 before the split were won by football-also schools.
Bad program addes nothing to the ACC
Lack of commitment to football ( watch out PITT with some slippage PITT could go down the UConn path)
No fanbase or media market that would help the ACC
Facilities not up to ACC standard
They bring a lot of NYC eyes (Cuse and UConn always had the most fans at BE tourneys) and their facilities are fine.
They were about 5-10 years late on elevating the football program to D-1 A, end of story. The schools that got in had rich football history (Us, Cuse, BC, Miami, etc) or picked the absolute perfect time to dance with the Devil (LVille). It will be interesting to see how they fare going Independent.
If the ACC was forced to expand, say if ND was added, UConn would still be on the very short list.
Others to consider would be:
Temple (if they get their own stadium)
Navy (football only)
UCF (Miami and FSU probably wouldn't allow)
Maryland (they may want back in eventually)
WVU
Definitely not Cincinnati as some suggest. Good football and basketball, sure, but not a big enough market and too far from the East Coast.....yea I know Louisville but they are a juggernaut.
The NBE benefited greatly from Nova's rise. If Nova had just been decent the last 4-5 years, I'm not sure many would be taking that league seriously. I look at that league, and I see a bunch of VCU level programs. Nice, but hardly elite. Villanova gives a lift to the entire league. UConn's move would have been a much more difficult decision to make had Nova been struggling instead of soaring.
I agree. I wonder though, does Villanova rise to that level if the split never happens?
Cuse and UConn get lots of fans at BE tourney games because basketball fans come into the city from NY State (Cuse), NJ, PA and CT to watch them play. Syracuse is the main attraction.
NY State ( other than Albany St Gov people) and NYCity people are two different and distinct groups of people and don't usually like the same things. In fact NY State people wanted different color license plates to differentiate themselves from NY City people.
I would bet the majority of BE tourney fans aren't from NYC. Lots come to town from NYState, NJ, PA, to watch Syracuse and from CT for UConn. UConn will get the CT fans but that's a small market. It looks big at the Big East tourney but its a small market for the ACC.
NYCity doesn't have a big time local team except for St John's so they like other D1 conferences especially the BIG10. Although Setan Hall from S. Orange NJ gets a lot of NYCity support since they recruit NYCity players.
NYCity has a large transient population who come to work in the city from entry level to high executive jobs and they bring their home town teams with them.
Pratt & Whitney field in East Hartford is like a low level d1 or mac program stadium.
I can't see the ACC wanting a football program on the decline. Worst than Rutgers with a small market!
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OK, YouCon, how ya gonna pay for it?
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-b...27302641/legislator-donors-pay-uconn-aac-exit
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-b...27302641/legislator-donors-pay-uconn-aac-exit
Hate to tell you this but nobody goes to the Big East tournament to see Syracuse. They are long gone.
If the ACC was able to land to ND for football, they won't be backfilling with those options. Certainly NOT UConn.
Well, if they did land ND, they'd first try to land Texas, Penn State, Maryland, programs like that but if they couldn't, UConn would be on a very very short list. Pretty much just them, Temple, or Navy if Miami/FSU didn't allow UCF or USF.
I would even wonder if they'd take WVU over like UConn or Temple. That may sound wacky but with ND, you don't really need another strong football program and when you consider WVU's academic profile and the fact they bring in a small market compared to Philly or CT/NY, I might go for the others
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Who would go to the Big East tourney in the dirty, expensive, city of NY anyway?
The reason it is expensive is because a whole lot of people want to live and vacation there so your statement makes no sense.
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