Kolek planning to go pro
TAMUI do know, Newsie is right on you knowing ball.
The Big East has scored an important victory by getting U Conn back in the fold under terms of surrender. While U Conn basketball is down , I view it as a temporary thing , more a function of them absorbing the next coach after a legend and less of their being in a sub-optimal conference. I think with Coach Hurley they should be healthy enough to begin making the tournament in the next few years. The on court benefits and rivalry aspects that enhance attendance are pretty straightforward. However , I believe there is an intangible aspect that also helps the league . The fact that we are now seen as not only a survivor ,but desirable is a very important consideration. On top of that the atmosphere outside MSG at the BET will be enhanced with several thousand more Huskie fans milling around. BET has been gaining momentum selling 99.7 of capacity and I think this development will only enhance the tournament appeal to the see and bee seen types . When the BET becomes a see and bee seen type event that is important to league media hype. New York City is the media capital and amplifies these things. When contract renewal comes around, I expect ESPN, and potentially NBC Sports, to make a very healthy bid against Fox. In the short run the league has been gaining more broadcast network exposure on Fox and CBS and this new development will only enhance that trend.
Would be nice to get perhaps at least a small deal with ESPN to have some games. That way they can promote the Big East more without worrying they are just touting a fox asset
Great post - I agree 100%.Looking forward to some exciting MU-UConn games again.
Looking to attending more "home games" for me!
Agree - couldn't be more excited about this from a local perspective.
Hearing UConn ticket office is being overworked. They tripled for NEW season ticket holders sales in the past three days.
You know, on first blush, I thought UConn was going to have to drop football to make the finances work, but I think they may come out of this looking like geniuses.
Geniuses? Only in contrast to their foolish decision-making regarding football. UConn has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into a strategy that nobody outside the state saw as viable. They seem to have finally hit bottom, come to their senses and recognized the situation for what it is. That's good -- but hardly genius-level.
Do you think Xavier would let Cincinnati back in if the asked or is their football program that good it could be invited to the Big XII?I still don't know how Rutgers managed to get into the B1G.
Cincy blocked X for so long with the BE there's no chance X would vote for them to join. It's similar to BC blocking UConn to the ACC (retribution for the lawsuit when BC left the BE). Cincy wouldn't want to do that. Their new president spent millions to try and get a B12 invite leading up to 2016 and will continue to fight to go down that road. Football is a major investment for them too that is actually successful, unlike UConn.https://www.uc.edu/content/dam/uc/president/docs/CaseStatement-Big12.pdfAs for Rutgers: Getting the BTN on local cable TV in NYC and the metro area. Rutgers only got in due to location. I'm not sure can call the BE a "winner' in a "round" in which they were the only ones playing...unless you're also taking into account UMKC ditching the WAC for the Summit Conference.
Super proud of our Big East leaders . They drove a hard bargain and got U Conn to agree to a very large exit fee , sliding scale starting at 30 million scaling to 10 bars on years based on years, fully acknowledging potential disruptions . 3.5 million up front prior to press conference .https://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-huskies/hc-sp-clb-uconn-big-east-contract-20190626-20190626-44voas7itffazjtcnrseuaspeu-story.html
Chicos answered this one a million times. There's 10 million people in New Jersey and that's a lot of cable subscribers to increase the Big 10 Network carriage fee (versus say 3.5 million people in Connecticut). (Of course this was before people started switching to streaming.)