Courant's Mike Anthony puts together the pieces of the BE deal and FB Independence in his article today as most of next years FB schedule is released.
Excerpts:
"UConn’s 2020 football schedule is just about finalized. It will feature five Power Five opponents (Virginia, Indiana, Illinois and another ACC team-TBA), a trip to Ole Miss in late October, seven home games, and a game against Army at Rentschler Field to close out the season in late November.........Despite all the obvious challenges involved, the university’s chosen path of football independence does provide the freedom to create a schedule with an appeal that a slate of mostly AAC opponents lacked...... Football in the AAC — for UConn, by UConn — was boring.....(with) one losing season after another and eventually little reason remained to care about standings. Nothing was at stake, ultimately."
" So with that in mind, and the need to get men’s basketball into the Big East, an uncertain football future had to be embraced. It all came together over a long period of time, behind the scenes. Not even football coach Randy Edsall knew what was coming until the 11th hour "
“That ( the BE move) was an extremely confidential process and there were very few people involved,” athletic director David Benedict said. “That's just the way it had to be.”......Basically, Benedict chose not to let affected parties know because A) there was a risk the Big East deal would fall apart, as a prior one had a few years ago; and B) he couldn’t let word leak. "
" UConn (FB ) couldn’t do much of anything until opponents were lined up. Any interested TV outlets, if there are to be any, need to see what the product is (to) gauge what it’s worth....... “It's ongoing,” Benedict said. “Can we easily put together a digital deal? Yeah. Now, we want to put together something that’s better than a straight digital deal and I think we'll be able to do that over time.”
" UConn’s guarantee games in the future will come mostly against top teams from the SEC and Big Ten. ( the BOT just addressed giving the AD quicker access to sign $1 to $5 mil payout road game contracts for FB now that they're independent - SEE POST BELOW)
.....It will be balanced with home-and-home series with mid-level Power 5 teams and regionalized with expected annual games against Boston College, UMass, Syracuse and Army. BYU is expected to be a regular opponent."
FULL READ: Mike Anthony: The 2020 UConn football schedule is interesting, and the program needs interest more than ever..
