Uconn is not happy!

[Tugg Speedman]

As I said repeatedly, the losers in this process are decent basketball programs with mediocre football programs.  On that list are Uconn, Cincy, Temple, Memphis, USF, etc.

One of those losers is speaking out.

-----------

http://www.courant.com/sports/other/hc-jacobs-1214-20121213,0,639077.column

No Sympathy For Big East
Conference Let The Power Get Away

If the Big East football schools had shown a modicum of foresight over the years, if they had demonstrated any sense of committed leadership and the backbone to follow their own collective dream, we wouldn't be writing this in December 2012. But we are, and here it is:

It doesn't get any lower for the UConn brand. When Seton Hall, DePaul and Providence tell you to get lost, you know you're scraping the bottom of the conference realignment barrel.

Two years removed from a third national basketball championship … two years removed from a BCS Bowl appearance … three years removed from a seventh women's basketball national championship with the prospects of a couple more on the horizon … yet today it feels as if even the Patriot League would tell the Huskies 'thanks but no thanks.'

UConn President Susan Herbst has to be smarting. Despite his calming words on WTIC, UConn athletic director Warde Manuel has to be hurting. Certainly, the UConn fan base is burning. When the likes of Seton Hall, DePaul and Providence commandeer the wheel of your athletic future, it is more than infuriating. It is humiliating.

Jonathan the Husky has his tail between his legs today. He's up for adoption at the local shelter. The ACC? Sorry. No home on Tobacco Road, not yet anyway. The Big Ten? So sorry. And now a handful of the charter members of the Big East have left Jonathan abandoned, begging for a warm, permanent home. Wait. Wait. He does have an owner. He does have a dog collar. And it reads, "Please return to Son of Conference USA."

When the sun had set Thursday, when the seven Catholic, non-FBS schools reportedly had decided to leave the Big East, UConn stood as the only remaining school from the original 1979-80 basketball season. The original eight-team football conference from 1991? All gone or leaving. In all, 17 schools have decided to abandon the Big East since all hell began to break loose nearly a decade ago.

Instead of a four-lane ride to Duke or Carolina, the Huskies have a Tulane to New Orleans. They will be part of a glorified USA Conference. And the view, to be honest, is lousy.

UConn is left with Cincinnati and South Florida in a fragmented football conference that has severely limited appeal for TV networks and is only as good as Boise State's word that it'll still show up in 2013. Geno Auriemma could win a national championship with a conference run out of his garage. Yet the men's basketball program, which has won as many NCAA titles as anyone in the past 20 years, is staring at a much less attractive amalgamation of teams that undoubtedly will call for a boffo nonconference schedule in order to attract top recruits and advance its RPI status.

Look, it makes for great romance to reminisce about Dave Gavitt's dream and the glory days of the '80s. Those days also are long gone. And you know who is less romantic and maudlin about those days than anybody? The seven basketball schools that have made new commissioner Mike Aresco appear as ineffectual as his predecessor John "Fredo" Marinatto.

There is no greater fib than the one that paints the Catholic basketball schools as victims in the Big East saga. Ha. Ha. Ha. LOL. Amen. In the midst of the Big East's getting eight, nine, 10, even 11 bids, DePaul hasn't made an NCAA Tournament since joining the league. St. John's? One NCAA since 2000. Providence? No NCAAs since 2004. Seton Hall? Six years without an NCAA appearance.

Catholic basketball schools made money they never would have been able to make elsewhere. Yes, conference realignment caused anxiety. No, it wasn't always fair that the basketball tail couldn't wag the football dog. But when your share of the media rights is $1.6 million annually and you compare it to $350,000 the Atlantic 10 schools got last year, well, that additional $1.25 million surely helped soothe the nerves. And let's face it. They got clout and cred in the NCAA they never would have gotten elsewhere.

Let's also face some more facts. As soon as the Catholic schools caught wind that the new deal Aresco has been working on wasn't the windfall they expected, or wanted, it didn't take too long to put a bullet in the head of their beloved Big East. UConn, like the other football schools, found out about the Catholic school meeting Sunday after the fact. Heartlessness, as Big East defections have shown, is a two-way street.

Remember last year when the Big East, led by Pittsburgh President Mark Nordenberg, turned down a nine-year, $1.17 billion deal, worth $130 million annually? That deal that would have earned football schools $13.8 million and the basketball schools $2.43 million a year. It would have kept Seton Hall, et al, satisfied. But when all the football defections led to projections of only $50 million to $80 million a year for a new Big East deal, well, it was time to pack up and head for homogeneity. Their big concerns today are whether to dissolve the league or break away. Their big concerns now are legal, exit fees, protecting their automatic NCAA bid, etc. Hey, if the Holy 7 can grab Xavier, St. Louis, Butler, etc., for a 12-team hoops league and get a nice buck out of it, God bless them.

The real Big East is already dead. It died the day Syracuse and Pittsburgh left. And in the end, there should be no hard feelings either way. They all did it for the loot. They all used each other. The Christians were no better or worse than the pagans. This divorce should have happened many years ago. Certainly UConn would be in a better place.

This day was coming for a long time. Everybody knew it. Everybody smelled it. Since the Big East presidents made the monumentally stupid decision to turn down a request from Penn State to join the Big East in 1989, the Naismith-centric schools made it clear where they stood. Guess who led the fight against Penn State? Georgetown. St. John's. Villanova. They gave in to allow football in 1991 to save the conference from splitting, yet there were the hoopsters again in 1994. It took a UConn-brokered compromise to get Rutgers and West Virginia, then football schools, in as full members. The vote was 7-3. Against it? Georgetown. Seton Hall. Providence. At that point the football schools had just signed a five-year, $65 million contract with CBS and were considering leaving.

Somewhere along the line those football schools should have said, we have the money, we have the power. Instead, they kept on giving in to a fragmented, antiquated Austo-Hungarian Empire of a sports league. They should have banded together and left. They should have gotten a commissioner who was fighting entirely for them. They didn't.

On July 9, 2003 in Newark the six remaining football schools went so far as to vote unanimously to accept a recommendation from their athletic directors that an eight- or nine-school all-sports conference be established. The minutes of that meeting show the following was drafted: "We as a group genuinely believe that the breakup of the Big East Conference is inevitable and probably the best overall scenario for all parties concerned." Bingo. They even talked about approaching Penn State again. Miami and Virginia Tech were gone to the ACC. Boston College was still in the room and Father Leahy later expressed consternation that he found out within a few weeks that other presidents were no longer committed to the plan. BC left. In came five schools, including DePaul and Marquette who tip the balance of power in 2012.

The football schools could have showed backbone. They could have forged ahead united, taken Louisville, Cincinnati, USF and when things got crazy in the BCS could have hunted down the likes of Boise State, Utah and TCU. Some of it would have worked. Some of it wouldn't. Some might disagree, but I submit they would have been just as strong as the ACC in football, kept a terrific basketball conference and girded for the changing landscape. They could have hired former Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg instead of Marinatto. They could have fought together formidably. They didn't. Instead one by one, they chose to flee. Almost all of them can sit back today and laugh at the mess they left behind. Not UConn. The music stopped on what used to be the Big East. They are left standing. Alone. Humiliated.

Copyright © 2012, The Hartford Courant

[Benny B]

Dear UCONN:

#1 - Providence has carried disproportionate weight since Day 1.  Don't act surprised.

#2 - SHU, PC and DePaul ain't driving this bus.

#3 - While you're stuck on the lack of bids DePaul has earned since '05, that other school who took your #3 butt down in its first Big East game - the only perennial NCAA participant from the Big East - is going to run you out the door you've been angling to get through for two years.

Sincerely,

That other basketball school.

[Dr. Blackheart]

As everyone knows here this is a joke.

• The basketball schools have not yet officially left...nor did they leave in the middle of the night.
• TV revenue?  Ahem...I am pretty sure the New York and Chicago TV market schools earned the Big East much more than Hartford
• Susan Herbst was out on every street corner selling UCONN to any other conference willing to pay her...which were none
• The basketball schools appreciate the heads up on the vote to include Tulane.
• UCONN, thanks for all those NCAA dollars you will be earning in the post-season while on probation for cheating...great for revenue for the basketball schools and great for the public image of the BE during media negotiations.

[StillAWarrior]

From the article:

Somewhere along the line those football schools should have said, we have the money, we have the power. Instead, they kept on giving in to a fragmented, antiquated Austo-Hungarian Empire of a sports league. They should have banded together and left. They should have gotten a commissioner who was fighting entirely for them. They didn't.

And this is exactly why the basketball schools had to get out.  They didn't [band together and leave] then, but eventually they would have.  The football schools would always have the money and the power, and eventually they would have used both to screw the basketball schools.  It's a great thing that now we'll be in a conference where that won't be hanging over our heads.

[AZWarrior]

Well, UConn can ditch their football program and then apply to join our conference.....   

[chapman]

As everyone knows here this is a joke.

• The basketball schools have not yet officially left...nor did they leave in the middle of the night.
• TV revenue?  Ahem...I am pretty sure the New York and Chicago TV market schools earned the Big East much more than Hartford
• Susan Herbst was out on every street corner selling UCONN to any other conference willing to pay her...which were none
• The basketball schools appreciate the heads up on the vote to include Tulane.
• UCONN, thanks for all those NCAA dollars you will be earning in the post-season while on probation for cheating...great for revenue for the basketball schools and great for the public image of the BE during media negotiations.

Amen.  Sorry we couldn't hold their hand until they got on the ACC bus.  If this was surprising to them then Storrs really is isolated from everything even moreso than I've been led to believe.

[79Warrior]

What exactly does UCONN expect to happen. Cry wolf now is such a joke. They would be long gone had they been offered by any football conference. The article is complete sour grapes.

[The Process]

Somebody call the waaahhhhhhbulance!

[bobnoxious]

This article made me chuckle till my stomach was sore, sounds just like the guy who's trying to juggle multiple women and gets caught and they both leave in disgust

[JD]

"You cryin' boy, you cryin' boy?"  "why don't you got to McDonalds and getch yourself a whamburger and some french cries?" 

[muwarrior69]

Wow! 3-time National Champion out in the cold with no place to go.

[GGGG]

He makes a lot of good points.  Can't blame UConn fans for being bitter.

[ChicosBailBonds]

UCONN may find when all the spinning ends they end up in a decent spot.  Today, doesn't look so good but that doesn't mean tomorrow has to be.  Same for Cincinnati.

[ecompt]

The Conn men would have bailed on the BE in a heartbeat had not Boston College told the ACC they wanted no part of the Huskies in the conference. No sympathy whatsoever.

[bobnoxious]

The Conn men would have bailed on the BE in a heartbeat had not Boston College told the ACC they wanted no part of the Huskies in the conference. No sympathy whatsoever.

Didn't the Uconn fans throw bottles at the BC bus and almost start a riot when they played them the last time before the ACC move?

[forgetful]

They can drop crappy football and join if they want.  If they insist on fielding a bad football team, then they should be relegated to a bad football conference.

[tower912]

By the time this shakes out, after the ACC has been raided again, they will find themselves in the ACC.   It does suck to be them right now.   Or any other college with lousy football. 

[Pakuni]

[The Process]

He makes a lot of good points.  Can't blame UConn fans for being bitter.

Right, but that bitterness would best be aimed at their administration for overplaying their hand.

Not our fault that we all jumped in the last lifeboat on the Titanic and left them and Cincy all alone in the cold.  Hope they like icebergs and Celine Dion.

[mufansince72]

By the time this shakes out, after the ACC has been raided again, they will find themselves in the ACC.   It does suck to be them right now.   Or any other college with lousy football. 

I agree.  I expect the Big 10 to keep expanding.  I bet they end up with North Carolina and Florida State when all is said and done. 

[Dr. Blackheart]

A more balanced UCONN reaction...

http://www.theday.com/article/20121215/OP01/312159995#.UMx56Xy9KSM

[dgies9156]

Dear UConn:

Back in 1960, we at Marquette had a football team. To say the least, it was terrible. Our once proud program, which played in the first Cotton Bowl (1936) and as recently as 1960 produced Dallas Cowboy star George Andre, had fallen on very bad times. We were losing money big time. Our stadium was in a place called the "Industrial Valley" and was crumbling at the seams. It was not the kind of place 75,000 people were going to drop everything and head for on a bright, sunshiney fall afternoon.

The Jesuits (yeah, those are the funny guys in robes who run our place) may have taken a vow of poverty, but they know money management better than about anyone. They made a decision -- a tough one -- to drop football. A few years later, we hired a guy named Al McGuire. Perhaps you have heard of him? We focused on basketball and with the exception of a couple of bad years in the 1980s, we've been pretty good at it. Made our decision to focus on basketball a smart one. Like you, we have a banner in our arena we're proud of. It's getting a bit old, but with our Buzz, we're expecting a few more just like it.

Our point is we made our bed. It's a king size extra nice one now! So did you! Like us, you're a basketball school. But, unlike us, you have delusions of grandeur in football. You really think you can compete with Alabama, Texas, Penn State or Michigan? We're sane in the Midwest! We know better. So before someone euthanizes Jonathan the Husky, think about what we did in 1960 -- and why. Some of us muse about what we would be like with a football team right now. I did for a while, but now I know.

We'd be like you! Out in the cold with NO PLACE to go. Good luck and when the FBS Schools gas Jonathan the Husky, we'll send flowers! Or maybe a used basketball from a wonderful day in  the early 2000s when, as a previous poster noted, we kicked your #3 butt back to Storrs.

[classof70]

The Conn men would have bailed on the BE in a heartbeat had not Boston College told the ACC they wanted no part of the Huskies in the conference. No sympathy whatsoever.

Correct. It is ironic and hypocritical that the Husky would complain right after it tried to run out on the ones of which it now whines.   

[LauxForThree]

One mans rebuttal to Uconn

http://youtu.be/Avx2ZDZMhFM

[Marcus92]

I have no interest in UConn joining the C7, football or no football. And that's not to diminish the importance of 3 national championships. But I think the long-term success of any new league depends on all the schools sharing the strongest possible bond.

Yes, winning matters. So does revenue. But it's also true that private, Catholic universities have a different outlook than public universities. When making strategic decisions, MU considers unique factors (mission, faith, service) that don't apply to a school like UConn. And vice-versa. The common ties with Georgetown and the other schools make a difference.

Just as important, I also think UConn has a serious integrity problem. A 3-year probation for recruiting violations was a black eye for the Huskies, the university and the Big East. UNLV faced a similar situation 20+ years ago and arguably still hasn't fully recovered. Marquette can do better.