I think this would be perfect for us but apparently the only problem is finding a home for the football team. Would the American not let us keep our football program there?
UCONN to Big East
- Thread starter 12rtackerman12
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Saw the rumors, all the Big East angles have been discussed Ad nauseam on this board for years. Exit fee$, football , losing NCAA credit pay, issues etc, etc with the move.... The only advantage these rumors could give Uconn is with future TV negotiating leverage vs. ESPN, if they are concerned with losing Uconn to Fox Sports. ( WBB has been a ratings bonanza on the cheap lately for the ESPiN'er's )
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I am on record as being in favor of it if something can be figured out for football. This has been discussed as nauseaum in the past. Not much more to say on it.
To the NBE serves no logical purpose. Continue to schedule big games, stay on espn and win.
If Uconn is going to join a conference whose members are west of Pennsylvania then at least it could be a dramatic upgrade in competition.
If Uconn is going to join a conference whose members are west of Pennsylvania then at least it could be a dramatic upgrade in competition.
Let's not pretend the Big East isn't a huge upgrade over the AAC for basketball. That being said the AAC has potential to be better and let's not forget that UConn has been a middle of the pack team and has not dominated this conference. UConn's failure to dominate makes it a less attractive candidate for other conferences.
Uconn dominates the NY market and its recent success nationally as well as its performance in the tournament makes it an appealing add despite having 2 down years.
Additionally, we've already got the top of the NBE on the schedule, jumping to a different conference so we can play away games in Chicago vs Dayton is not the sort of upgrade I'm interested in, if we're talking traveling that distance to play Wisconsin or Florida I'd get over it.
Additionally, we've already got the top of the NBE on the schedule, jumping to a different conference so we can play away games in Chicago vs Dayton is not the sort of upgrade I'm interested in, if we're talking traveling that distance to play Wisconsin or Florida I'd get over it.
It is not about basketball if it was then the dominant basketball only schools should form a Bball only conference a la NBA type of way east teams and west teams etc...
Football is still considered big for UConn and has to be to get into B1G or any better conference soon!!
Football is still considered big for UConn and has to be to get into B1G or any better conference soon!!
Ozzie,
I appreciate that and Blades has said the same things but how much of this is wishful thinking and how much is reality. I don't believe Randy Edsall will turn the football team into a top 25 program and the agenda seems to be just be competitive. Will that be good enough to get a P5 conference invite? I don't know. I am not a big enough football fan. Honestly I would be OK if UCon dropped football as long as the basketball team could stay a top program. I of course realize football drives revenue but if schools like Villanova can do well without bigtime football then so can UConn. Villanova has 2 national titles in hoops, UConn has 4.
I appreciate that and Blades has said the same things but how much of this is wishful thinking and how much is reality. I don't believe Randy Edsall will turn the football team into a top 25 program and the agenda seems to be just be competitive. Will that be good enough to get a P5 conference invite? I don't know. I am not a big enough football fan. Honestly I would be OK if UCon dropped football as long as the basketball team could stay a top program. I of course realize football drives revenue but if schools like Villanova can do well without bigtime football then so can UConn. Villanova has 2 national titles in hoops, UConn has 4.
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Kara Wolters on SNY tonight said that Dave Benedict's public statement on this matter denying interest in the Big East is "dishonest." My reaction after reading his statement was that it was political spin. ADs and GMs are like politicians who put out statements but in the backrooms they are saying and doing things nobody knows about and nobody is supposed to know about.
Could care less what a nobody female basketball player thinks on this matter or some coach potato who doesn't go to any games, the AD's got bigger fish to fry than worrying about a couple of meaningless roundball centric gawkers thoughts, LOL !
Thank you Ozzie !
I'll steal some print from Jacobs article because I don't want to do this again ( why not, he steals stuff from these boards)... ....would the BE like to add Uconn ?... yes....their TV contract has been a ratings disaster for Fox so the Uconn brand could help, because the NBE is not the old BE... no one cares about a bunch of mid-western schools and the left overs minus Nova and G-Town. All of these TV deals were about over paying some schools to get control of the sum. A good % of the schools who benefited from the money in conference re-alignment have turned out not to be worth the paper the contracts were drawn on......and they know it.
....... Does Uconn talk to the BE periodically?... yes, they have to, they still are BE members in a few women's sports. Did Uconn talk to the BE in the last few years about parking some sports there ? Yes..... if the Big 12 did happen they would've needed a place for Men's and Women's soccer, etc, etc...... but then as Jacobs put it: " I don't pine for Seton Hall or St. John's. I'm not living in 1985. I do pine for Pittsburgh and Syracuse and Louisville. So maybe I'm living in 2011. Those three, and West Virginia and Notre Dame, also aren't walking through that Big East door today, folks."
Now regarding Benedict:
"I have had no conversations with anyone at the Big East regarding us joining their league," Benedict said at Rentschler Field. "Period."
Off the record? "Off the record, on the record," Benedict interjected. "I have had no conversations with anyone at the Big East regarding us joining their league."
In case any intrepid sleuth wants to differentiate between Benedict himself and representatives of the school, consult his official statement. He said UConn.
"Look at what we've been doing and [a Big East move right now] would be counterproductive," Benedict said. "We are trying to build our football program to get extremely competitive. Right now, the AAC is our best opportunity to grow all our sports. "No one knows what the future holds. Whether it's the last 10 years or the last 100 years, there is consistent change in college athletics. I wish there was someone who could predict the future, but there isn't. Right now, we are 100 percent committed to our football program and men's and women's basketball, as well as all our sports. Right now, the AAC is our best opportunity to grow all our sports."
And from Jacobs in his very long article:
The Big East, whose spokesman, John Paquette also denied there had been conversations with UConn, does not have a football league.
"That's the only thing that's standing in the way of a marriage," a source told Rothstein. " And the fact that I'm 61 years old and not cool is the only thing standing in the way of Beyonce leaving Jay Z to chase me. "
"If you remember no other sentence in this piece, remember this one: Right now, the UConn hierarchy does not want to weaken football to the point where, if the Power Five (or whatever form the monopoly has) comes looking in future years, the program would be so irrelevant that the conferences would say forget UConn."
"Rejoining the Big East certainly is not a new argument...... Yet Wednesday, after the Big East denied discussions and Benedict so adamantly denied them, I have to believe there's nothing to it right now."......." Or maybe the Group of Five schools with the biggest budgets, which includes UConn, challenge the Power Five legally for inclusion before they tap themselves out.....Any of that kind of stuff could happen. Or none of it could happen......Nothing changed this week except that the debate surely will grow louder. "
full read: Courant / Jacobs: UConn-Big East Talk
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