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UCONN going back to the Big East

I don’t think this makes much sense. AAC is close to the caliber of the Big East and now the football team is looking like they will drop to FCS
 
UConn isn't a private Catholic school. They won't be allowed to molest like the rest.
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I don’t think this makes much sense. AAC is close to the caliber of the Big East and now the football team is looking like they will drop to FCS

That is the funniest thing I have heard in a while. A Kia must be close to the calibur of a Mercedes too then, right?
 
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Big East is a little deeper but the top halves of the conferences are very similar.

Its not about the caliber of competition. Its about a school who's identity is basketball, and that identity was built in large part around the glory years of the Big East. Playing Villanova, Georgetown, Providence, Seton Hall, and St. John's along with playing their conference tournament in the garden means something to that fanbase.
 
Big East is a little deeper but the top halves of the conferences are very similar.

Its not about the caliber of competition. Its about a school who's identity is basketball, and that identity was built in large part around the glory years of the Big East. Playing Villanova, Georgetown, Providence, Seton Hall, and St. John's along with playing their conference tournament in the garden means something to that fanbase.

Fact
 
Its not about the caliber of competition. Its about a school who's identity is basketball, and that identity was built in large part around the glory years of the Big East. Playing Villanova, Georgetown, Providence, Seton Hall, and St. John's along with playing their conference tournament in the garden means something to that fanbase.

This moves reeks of a school looking backwards, not forwards
 
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This moves reeks of a school looking backwards, not forwards

I’m not sure, they are just such an oddball in the AAC. While many AAC schools are better on the court than SJU, Providence, SHU, and Georgetown, there is just nothing interesting to UConn fans about playing Memphis, Wichita, ECU, and Houston. Those fans were brought up on the Big East, and then suddenly they are in some conference with schools they have mostly never thought about before because of the football program they care nothing or very little about needs it to stay afloat.

UConn will now have nearby rivals, easy road trips to away games and a conference tournament in a location that is very important to their community. They will also get back on TV in the tri state area as the Big East TV deal offers more exposure than the AAC which should help them recruit.
 
I’m not sure, they are just such an oddball in the AAC. While many AAC schools are better on the court than SJU, Providence, SHU, and Georgetown, there is just nothing interesting to UConn fans about playing Memphis, Wichita, ECU, and Houston. Those fans were brought up on the Big East, and then suddenly they are in some conference with schools they have mostly never thought about before because of the football program they care nothing or very little about needs it to stay afloat.

UConn will now have nearby rivals, easy road trips to away games and a conference tournament in a location that is very important to their community. They will also get back on TV in the tri state area as the Big East TV deal offers more exposure than the AAC which should help them recruit.

The fans are disinterested because the team has sucked the last few years. Moving to the Big East won't change that. Their best hope was to improve the football program and get in the ACC or Big Ten.
 
This moves reeks of a school looking backwards, not forwards

I’m not sure, they are just such an oddball in the AAC. While many AAC schools are better on the court than SJU, Providence, SHU, and Georgetown, there is just nothing interesting to UConn fans about playing Memphis, Wichita, ECU, and Houston. Those fans were brought up on the Big East, and then suddenly they are in some conference with schools they have mostly never thought about before because of the football program they care nothing or very little about needs it to stay afloat.

UConn will now have nearby rivals, easy road trips to away games and a conference tournament in a location that is very important to their community. They will also get back on TV in the tri state area as the Big East TV deal offers more exposure than the AAC which should help them recruit.

Those old big east teams hold maybe Pitt, Cincy, WVU and Louisville all should have stuck together. Uconn and Syracuse, namely, never should have disjointed the BEast. When you get that deep into the eastern coastline around NYC, DC, CT, Boston, Philly, etc, basketball rules the roost.

Nothing could touch the old tourney in MSG.
 
Those old big east teams hold maybe Pitt, Cincy, WVU and Louisville all should have stuck together. Uconn and Syracuse, namely, never should have disjointed the BEast. When you get that deep into the eastern coastline around NYC, DC, CT, Boston, Philly, etc, basketball rules the roost.

Nothing could touch the old tourney in MSG.

I understand the nostalgia but every school that left for a P5 conference made the right decision
 
The new BE is not the old BE. And I'm not sure the new BE will be able to keep up, in the long run, with the financial fire power of the P5 football schools. When schools like Arkansas, BC, Rutgers, ect., are getting 40, 50, or more million from their conference, not including ticket sales, that money will spread past their football programs and into basketball. What happens when these schools have better facilities and a larger staff budget then the Catholic schools + UCONN? This isn't mentioning the OhioSt. Mich., Alabama, Texas of the world who may eventually have the capital to dominate in every sport.

UCONN problem wasn't the conference per se, but a revenue issue. Spending a lot more they they were making. Not sure that issue is resolved by joining the new BE. The new BE schools get about $4million a year in conference payout. That's currently less then the AAC. My understanding is that they will get to renegotiate that contract with FOX now that UCONN is coming aboard, so it'll be interesting to see how much they get. Can they get enough to keep up?

Eventually you'll see UCONN FB dropping down a level. That can't survive as an independent.
 
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I understand the nostalgia but every school that left for a P5 conference made the right decision

But UConn didn’t make the cut, and instead of sitting in a conference with a bunch of schools they have nothing in common with arguably at the expense of basketball they went back to their roots. IMO it’s like KU or Duke getting left behind in a shakeup because of subpar football and going to the AAC to try and save football rather than just send the football program to FCS or the MAC and rejoin a league with traditional rivals for basketball and other sports. I think if this scenario was playing out with KU or Duke with basketball fading into obscurity in a midmajor conference and struggling to be on TV in relevant timeslots while football continues to be irrelevant I think you would see a similar move out of those schools. At the end of the day, a few million in TV revenue means little if your brand is in the crapper and donations, ticket sales, and royalties are all heavily declining.
 
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Another factoid many are missing is that with UConn in the Big East, Big East programs now claim 4 national titles in the last decade from two programs. The B1G, PAC, XII all have like 1 or 2 in the past 30 years. If UConn returns to form and provides legitimate competition for Villanova year over year it is a pretty stout league with nationally relevant firepower at the top.
 
Another factoid many are missing is that with UConn in the Big East, Big East programs now claim 4 national titles in the last decade from two programs. The B1G, PAC, XII all have like 1 or 2 in the past 30 years. If UConn returns to form and provides legitimate competition for Villanova year over year it is a pretty stout league with nationally relevant firepower at the top.

Yes and 6 since 99.

UConn has 4
Nova 2
 
But UConn didn’t make the cut, and instead of sitting in a conference with a bunch of schools they have nothing in common with arguably at the expense of basketball they went back to their roots. IMO it’s like KU or Duke getting left behind in a shakeup because of subpar football and going to the AAC to try and save football rather than just send the football program to FCS or the MAC and rejoin a league with traditional rivals for basketball and other sports. I think if this scenario was playing out with KU or Duke with basketball fading into obscurity in a midmajor conference and struggling to be on TV in relevant timeslots while football continues to be irrelevant I think you would see a similar move out of those schools. At the end of the day, a few million in TV revenue means little if your brand is in the crapper and donations, ticket sales, and royalties are all heavily declining.

You’re making an assumption that UConn basketball is fading because of their conference affiliation. I don’t agree with that. At all
 
The new BE is not the old BE. And I'm not sure the new BE will be able to keep up, in the long run, with the financial fire power of the P5 football schools. When schools like Arkansas, BC, Rutgers, ect., are getting 40, 50, or more million from their conference, not including ticket sales, that money will spread past their football programs and into basketball. What happens when these schools have better facilities and a larger staff budget then the Catholic schools + UCONN? This isn't mentioning the OhioSt. Mich., Alabama, Texas of the world who may eventually have the capital to dominate in every sport.

UCONN problem wasn't the conference per se, but a revenue issue. Spending a lot more they they were making. Not sure that issue is resolved by joining the new BE. The new BE schools get about $4million a year in conference payout. That's currently less then the AAC. My understanding is that they will get to renegotiate that contract with FOX now that UCONN is coming aboard, so it'll be interesting to see how much they get. Can they get enough to keep up?

Eventually you'll see UCONN FB dropping down a level. That can't survive as an independent.

Great post. They aren’t joining the old Big East
 
You’re making an assumption that UConn basketball is fading because of their conference affiliation. I don’t agree with that. At all

It could just be bad coaching, but I live in the area and before the AAC move their games were on TV locally if they weren't on nationally, that seems to have stopped with the AAC move. They had local coverage on SNY before the AAC move, outside of OOC games their games are difficult to find. Also the average Joe Fan doesn’t know what the AAC is in this part of the country, but they do know the Big East.
 
It could just be bad coaching, but I live in the area and before the AAC move their games were on TV locally if they weren't on nationally, that seems to have stopped with the AAC move. They had local coverage on SNY before the AAC move, outside of OOC games their games are difficult to find. Also the average Joe Fan doesn’t know what the AAC is in this part of the country, but they do know the Big East.

The big east might allow for more flexibility with the networks but they aren’t bringing in the kind of TV revenue that UConn needs. The average Joe fans might be excited at first but once he realizes that they will be playing Butler, Creighton, etc they will realize they won’t be playing Syracuse any time soon just because they moved to the Big East. I think it’s a move by a panicked administration that is looking to the past and not the future for answers
 
The big east might allow for more flexibility with the networks but they aren’t bringing in the kind of TV revenue that UConn needs. The average Joe fans might be excited at first but once he realizes that they will be playing Butler, Creighton, etc they will realize they won’t be playing Syracuse any time soon just because they moved to the Big East. I think it’s a move by a panicked administration that is looking to the past and not the future for answers

What TV revenue does UConn "need"? If they had a football program they actively cared about, I would agree, but if they are essentially waving the white flag on football and going all in on basketball then the Big East TV deal will suit them just fine, as I said between Nova and UConn they have won more NCs than the B1G/XII/PAC/SEC this decade without truckloads of football money. Regarding Syracuse, they can always try to get games against Syracuse OOC, its not like the two programs will never cross paths again. The bottom line is they get to play Nova, Georgetown, Providence, SHU and SJU annually, they also reconnect with Marquette and DePaul who they atleast have a decade of history with opposed to playing schools that are for the most part not drivable, and have never been cared about by UConn fans ever at any point in their history unless they crossed paths in an NCAAT at some point. They will also be on TV again in their own market for conference games, and they will be part of a brand that is relevant to their part of the country. I think so long as they are content with the football pipedream being permanently shut down then the move is a no brainer.
 
What TV revenue does UConn "need"? If they had a football program they actively cared about, I would agree, but if they are essentially waving the white flag on football and going all in on basketball then the Big East TV deal will suit them just fine, as I said between Nova and UConn they have won more NCs than the B1G/XII/PAC/SEC this decade without truckloads of football money. Regarding Syracuse, they can always try to get games against Syracuse OOC, its not like the two programs will never cross paths again. The bottom line is they get to play Nova, Georgetown, Providence, SHU and SJU annually, they also reconnect with Marquette and DePaul who they atleast have a decade of history with opposed to playing schools that are for the most part not drivable, and have never been cared about by UConn fans ever at any point in their history unless they crossed paths in an NCAAT at some point. They will also be on TV again in their own market for conference games, and they will be part of a brand that is relevant to their part of the country. I think so long as they are content with the football pipedream being permanently shut down then the move is a no brainer.

That's great and all but Calhoun is no longer coaching UConn and they haven't won a title without him or the one year when they had all his players and systems in place.

UConn is now coming off 3 losing seasons in a row and is giving up on football (the only hope to get into a major conference) and moving to a conference that's best days are behind them.
 
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