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Author Topic: UConn to BE Rumors  (Read 154357 times)

skianth16

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Re: UConn to BE Rumors
« Reply #525 on: January 07, 2020, 12:37:19 PM »
Adding a 12th team and eliminating the possibility of the round robin schedule wouldn't impact scheduling much and probably wouldn't have much of an impact of SOS either. But it could grow the presence of the league into new areas, which has a number of benefits.

I think a lot of the talk about who could be added comes off as a little snobby now that we're full cemented as a power conference contender too. Before MU joined the Big East, I'm sure fans of established programs like Georgetown and UConn questioned whether we would improve the caliber of their conference. And now look where we are. I know I was a little worried about the league when we had to rely on the additions of Creighton and Butler, former mid-major darlings. And now these are teams that are regularly competing in the top half of the league.

Things change over time, and given the right scenario, I'm sure there are plenty of current mid-majors that could thrive in the Big East. Maybe 11 will be fine permanently. But there are realistic options to add more schools.

Pakuni

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Re: UConn to BE Rumors
« Reply #526 on: January 07, 2020, 12:45:13 PM »
Adding a 12th team and eliminating the possibility of the round robin schedule wouldn't impact scheduling much and probably wouldn't have much of an impact of SOS either. But it could grow the presence of the league into new areas, which has a number of benefits.

I think a lot of the talk about who could be added comes off as a little snobby now that we're full cemented as a power conference contender too. Before MU joined the Big East, I'm sure fans of established programs like Georgetown and UConn questioned whether we would improve the caliber of their conference. And now look where we are. I know I was a little worried about the league when we had to rely on the additions of Creighton and Butler, former mid-major darlings. And now these are teams that are regularly competing in the top half of the league.

Things change over time, and given the right scenario, I'm sure there are plenty of current mid-majors that could thrive in the Big East. Maybe 11 will be fine permanently. But there are realistic options to add more schools.

I wouldn't preclude adding a 12th team, but the conference needs to be exceptionally choosy and, yes, snobby. They need to ensure that the existing members benefit at least as much from the addition as the program being added. If not, there's no point.

As for MU to the Big East, remember the invite came just months after a Final Four appearance, with a guy considered an up-and-comer at the helm, with the construction of a $31 million athletics facility underway and with the addition of a top 40 media market. I'm sure some in the old BE may have turned up their noses, but Marquette actually had a lot to offer.

Benny B

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Re: UConn to BE Rumors
« Reply #527 on: January 07, 2020, 01:14:24 PM »
Some push back:

In 2018 (where Nova and X were both #1s), every other program had a seed #8 or lower; hardly promising to get to the second weekend (which is what the league's new goal should be: more teams deeper with regularity).

In 2017, where the BE had seven bids (again, very impressive), Nova was a #1, but we only had one other top-4 seed (Butler); Creighton was a #6 (upset by Rhode Island), and the rest were #8 seeds or lower (again low probability of getting out of first weekend).

In 2016, we had two #2's and a #6, as well as two #9's. 

We can definitely improve upon the seeds, not bids, that the Big East is currently getting.  I guess the "problem" is that it becomes most difficult in a round robin where you consistently have strong teams playing each other, especially in a year that lacks a true bottom.  How does the ACC regularly get multiple teams to the Sweet 16 every year?  Not only do they get the bids, but they get the high seeds as well (#1-#4).  Do higher seeds guarantee a deeper run?  Of course not, but it definitely increases the odds.

The only way to increase the seeds would be to go past 11 and (most likely) eliminate the round robin. 

The Big East is committed to the RR for the foreseeable future, no doubt.  I guess it will just be interesting to see the data once UConn is in tow, and what adjustments (if any) there is to the league's postseason success.

Exactly.  Without a bunch of bottom-feeders, it is going to be more challenging for the BE than it is for the ACC (et al) to earn multiple protected seeds (i.e. #1-4) in any given year.  The reason is simple: there aren't enough marbles to go around....


Benny's Marbles

Hearkening back to a much earlier post of mine, consider that each season starts with every team having a finite number of marbles... these marbles represent the collective metrics the selection committee uses to determine the Field of 68. Because of this, there is a level of bias involved, and so some teams (i.e. Duke, UNC, UK, KU, etc.) will start out the season with a few more marbles on average while most of the low-majors start out with a few less than average.  Nevertheless, the winning team takes a number of the losing team's marbles depending on the quality of the win, and at the end of the season, the 36 teams with the most marbles on Selection Sunday get an at-large bid. 

The #1 takeaway here is that by the time conference play rolls around, apart from a "bracket-buster" type game, marbles are only changing hands only within the respective conferences.  So even if half your conference might otherwise be March-worthy, if your conference goes into January with half the marbles of the other conferences, there's just not going to be enough marbles to go around to get your deserving half in.

This is where the bottom-feeders come in... even a Nebraska or a Northwestern is going to bring some marbles into the conference, but will subsequently give all of them up to their conference mates before the season is over.  The Big East figured this out in 2005 by adding the basketball-only schools.

The Big East is widely lauded as the best basketball conference top-to-bottom, but it's a double-edge sword.  While the quality of basketball is going to be better on a nightly basis from January to early March, it also means that the marbles - even though there are more of them this year - are more likely to be spread more evenly among the teams than they are in the ACC, B?G, etc. 
Wow, I'm very concerned for Benny.  Being able to mimic Myron Medcalf's writing so closely implies an oncoming case of dementia.

GoldenWarrior11

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Re: UConn to BE Rumors
« Reply #528 on: January 07, 2020, 02:39:15 PM »
No.  You can increase the seeds by playing a stronger non-con schedule.  Not only by playing more top teams, but by playing less sub-200 teams.

Don't f*ck with the round robin schedule.

Conference play, especially with a round-robin, is a zero sum game.  The wins and losses get equally spread out to everyone.  If you do not have a round robin, there is flexibility you can have with the scheduling (i.e. scheduling expecting top-seed to have guaranteed home/home with expected bottom seeds, to help project more conference wins; that ultimately helps out the middle if they don't play the top of the league equally).  Imagine, under a 20-game scenario, if a preseason #1 team Villanova only needed to play #2 Seton Hall and #3 Xavier once each (instead of two).  They would, conversely, be guaranteed to play more of the middle, or even the bottom teams, more.

To be clear, preseason predictions should not be used to "game" the conference schedule, but the example of spreading out the losses and also adding some wins still holds.  We have not seen many 7-11 conference teams (or, likely, 8-12 teams) make the tournament.  At the end of the day, teams still need to perform in conference play to secure bids. 

The Big East this year had, undeniably, its best OOC year since its reconfiguration.  That will help the seeds immensely come tournament time, but only as long as the top-3 teams create somewhat of a separation.  If five teams go 10-8 (and the other five go 8-10), it does not help the seeds at all.  Perhaps Georgetown and St. John's can "soak up" most up the conference L's to help elevate the middle and top for better positioning.  I do think Providence ultimately comes back down to Earth (as I do DePaul). 

Herman Cain

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Re: UConn to BE Rumors
« Reply #529 on: January 07, 2020, 02:45:33 PM »
Exactly.  Without a bunch of bottom-feeders, it is going to be more challenging for the BE than it is for the ACC (et al) to earn multiple protected seeds (i.e. #1-4) in any given year.  The reason is simple: there aren't enough marbles to go around....


Benny's Marbles

Hearkening back to a much earlier post of mine, consider that each season starts with every team having a finite number of marbles... these marbles represent the collective metrics the selection committee uses to determine the Field of 68. Because of this, there is a level of bias involved, and so some teams (i.e. Duke, UNC, UK, KU, etc.) will start out the season with a few more marbles on average while most of the low-majors start out with a few less than average.  Nevertheless, the winning team takes a number of the losing team's marbles depending on the quality of the win, and at the end of the season, the 36 teams with the most marbles on Selection Sunday get an at-large bid. 

The #1 takeaway here is that by the time conference play rolls around, apart from a "bracket-buster" type game, marbles are only changing hands only within the respective conferences.  So even if half your conference might otherwise be March-worthy, if your conference goes into January with half the marbles of the other conferences, there's just not going to be enough marbles to go around to get your deserving half in.

This is where the bottom-feeders come in... even a Nebraska or a Northwestern is going to bring some marbles into the conference, but will subsequently give all of them up to their conference mates before the season is over.  The Big East figured this out in 2005 by adding the basketball-only schools.

The Big East is widely lauded as the best basketball conference top-to-bottom, but it's a double-edge sword.  While the quality of basketball is going to be better on a nightly basis from January to early March, it also means that the marbles - even though there are more of them this year - are more likely to be spread more evenly among the teams than they are in the ACC, B?G, etc.

Again, the NCAA selection per their interviews have placed value on winning tough games and does not necessarily penalize for losing tough games provided your team is not blown out. This new metric has been developed with that in mind. Teams like Seton Hall that take risk in their schedule are getting rewarded.  A great example  of the opposite , was  last years NC State squad, they had a terrible non con schedule littered with cupcakes and they got stiffed from the tournament  despite a decent overall record and high NET ranking.

Big East as recently as 2018 had two #1 Seeds , Nova and X. The key to that was they both  performed well non conference  against tough teams and they dominated the conference.

The issue we have now in the Big East is that there no more bottom feeder teams. That is why I put such a huge emphasis on how we do non conference. Also , as others have pointed out, the quality of our conference opponents non con games matter too.  The bottom feeder teams have been balancing the need to put wins on the board with improving the quality of their schedule. That trend will have to continue into the future as we need all our conference victories to be either Q1 or Q2 if possible.
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MU Fan in Connecticut

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Re: UConn to BE Rumors
« Reply #530 on: May 11, 2020, 01:35:21 PM »
From today's New Haven Register.


UCONN ATHLETICS
The long road home
A look at the anatomy of the Huskies’ return to the Big East
By David Borges

PHOTOS
Richard Drew / Associated Press
UConn Director of Athletics David Benedict, left, men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley, center, and women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma applaud during the announcement that UConn is re-joining the Big East Conference last June at Madison Square Garden.

Jessica Hill / Associated Press
UConn officially returns to the Big East on July 1.

Richard Drew / Associated Press
Geno Auriemma’s friendship with Big East commissioner Val Ackerman played a role in UConn’s return to the conference.


On June 19, 2019, UConn athletic director David Benedict spent 2 1/2 hours on a conference call with the American Athletic Conference finance committee.

There was a lot on the agenda, so much that Benedict, the committee chairman, suggested they arrive early to the AAC’s football media day in Newport, R.I. in a couple of weeks to get in some more work. He’d even arrange for a golf outing.

Benedict is the type of person who likes to be as direct and transparent as possible with people. However, he was harboring a secret that no one at the AAC, and only a very small circle of people at UConn, knew. A secret that would make his involvement with the AAC finance committee moot.

UConn was leaving the American and going back to the Big East.

It was remarkable the secret had been kept under wraps for so long, especially with UConn in the midst of a presidential transition, and with several other people and entities needing to sign off on the deal.

One national basketball writer just about had the story and had been calling Benedict nearly every day for three weeks, but could never quite confirm it. However, on June 21 — a Friday evening — the news broke via a most unlikely source.

Terry Lyons, a St. John’s alum who worked in NBA public relations for 25 years and now runs his own website, Digital Sports Desk, had gotten wind of UConn’s move earlier in the week — first at the NBA Draft, then at the Travelers Championship in Cromwell.

By Saturday morning, Lyons’ story had the attention of national media and fans alike. After years of rumors, UConn’s return to the Big East — which had nearly happened a few years earlier, only to die on the vine due to UConn’s continued hope of someday joining a Power Five conference, only to gain steam again when the school finally decided to abandon those hopes — was actually happening.

Huskies fans were ecstatic. AAC officials were shocked. Sure, they knew UConn wasn’t overly happy about its conference situation. Long-term employees dating back to the original Big East had also witnessed West Virginia, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and later Louisville, Rutgers and the “Catholic 7” depart the league.

But they didn’t see this one coming.

Needless to say, Benedict wasn’t invited to the finance committee meeting in Newport, and there was no golf event. He did show up to the AAC football media day. In fact, UConn’s departure has largely been handled with class by both sides.

Benedict was confident he had made the right decision for his athletic program. That point was hammered home a few weeks later, while attending one of his son’s baseball games. A man Benedict recognized asked him to come meet his 7-year-old son, who had something to tell him.

“I thought he was gonna give me a high-five or something,” Benedict recalled.

Benedict bent down, and the youngster knocked off the AD’s UConn hat while proclaiming, “St. John’s is gonna kick your butt!”

“That is the stuff we’ve been missing,” Benedict related. “That father and son, even though they’re not our fans, they’re gonna be in our arena when we play St. John’s. We haven’t had that. I can’t wait to see our fan base show up at Providence or Seton Hall, and I also can’t wait for them to be in our arenas.”

The feeling, apparently, is mutual.

“I think it’s a great thing,” said Providence athletic director Robert Driscoll. “I’ve always been a UConn fan. It’s a blue-blooded college basketball program. Having been in the Big East for 20 years, I think it was a real loss when we were no longer playing them. With our fans, it’ll be the biggest game on our schedule.”

After a long and winding seven-year road, UConn, a charter member of the Big East, officially returns home on July 1.

“It’ll actually be even better than it was before, in one sense, because of the excitement that goes with being back,” said UConn’s Hall of Fame women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma. “Because we’ve been gone so long, going back to it … I can’t imagine you’re gonna be able to get a ticket to any men’s Big East game.”

A NEAR-DEAL GOES DEAD IN THE WATER

If there was one theme to Susan Herbst’s eight years as UConn’s 15th president, in terms of athletics, it was getting the school’s conference situation right.

“We were like a feather in the wind of conference realignment,” Herbst, who stepped down as president in 2019 and is now a professor at UConn’s Stamford campus, told Hearst Connecticut Media. “I felt like we were getting battered and blown around. It wasn’t any particular person’s fault, or commissioner or league. We were caught in kind of a perfect storm.”

In 2012, UConn was beaten out by Louisville for a final spot in the ACC, a crushing blow. A few years later, there was a flirtation with the Big 12 that ultimately fell short when that league decided not to expand. Always, a return home loomed.

“In my gut,” said Herbst, “there was always this feeling that it’s not gonna be right until we’re back in the Big East.”

Within a month of replacing Warde Manuel as UConn’s AD in March, 2016, Benedict was in Jim Calhoun’s office at the Werth Family Champions Center, asking for the Hall of Fame former Husky coach’s thoughts about returning to the Big East.

“There was no doubt in my mind that there was nothing wrong with the American, and I mean that very honestly,” Calhoun recalled. “I used the example that Gonzaga did just fine. But, with the emergence of Villanova being a national power … and other programs moving up, I just thought the Big East was one of the three or four best basketball leagues in the country, and what a good thing it would be for us. And you take all the other things — from recruiting to where you’re gonna play to travel — it would be a great thing.”

Calhoun also had informal conversations with Herbst, board of trustees member Tom Ritter and others.

“I wasn’t asked about football, just basketball,” Calhoun added. “UConn basketball is much, much better in the Big East.”

By several accounts, UConn’s return to the Big East started picking up steam around 2017. The Big East seemed very receptive, but was worried about one thing: If the ACC or another Power Five conference came calling, would UConn bolt?

UConn couldn’t give any assurances. It had a football program to worry about, and the allure of Power Five dollars was simply too great. According to sources, the Big East looked for ways to ensure UConn would stay put, in the form of either exorbitant entry or exit fees — or both. UConn wouldn’t go for it.

Football was a deal-breaker. UConn’s return to the Big East was dead in the water. In fact, any potential move was hardly broached — if at all — when Dan Hurley interviewed for the UConn men’s job in March, 2018, following Kevin Ollie’s dismissal.

Soon, however, there was a gradual realization that UConn wasn’t getting a P5 invite any time soon. There was also dissatisfaction with the AAC’s new TV deal, which essentially gave all of the conference’s rights to ESPN and put the UConn women’s basketball team’s important partnership with SNY in jeopardy — though Benedict called the widely-held notion that the TV deal was the defining factor to leave the AAC “wholly inaccurate.”

“What does that have to do with the impact (being in the AAC) has on recruiting in men’s basketball?,” he asked, rhetorically. “It has nothing to do with that. It has nothing to do with the excitement our fan base has in returning to the Big East, playing against longtime rivals.”

There was some thought that the Big East’s presidents might vote for UConn’s return to the league at their annual meeting in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. in the summer of 2018. It didn’t happen, but over the ensuing months, particularly the following winter, talks rekindled and things started to take off. The decision-making was done among the Big East presidents; basketball coaches in the league were almost entirely in the dark.

Over the final few months, negotiations went “pretty smoothly,” according to Herbst. By June, 2019, it was essentially a done deal. Thanks to Terry Lyons’ travel itinerary from the NBA Draft to Cromwell, it soon became public.

‘IT’S A WIN-WIN’

“There was no one source or one person,” Lyons said of his scoop. “What I can say, it wasn’t Big East people. Most people think it was the Big East, but it was not. It was around the edges, that’s all I’ll say.”

Lyons’ big scoop was short on details, like what would happen with football? The program would go independent, and though that seemed risky, Benedict has done some impressive scheduling for the program for the next several years.

Still, this move was essentially about one sport.

“I don’t think anybody would disagree that this is primarily a men’s basketball move,” Auriemma acknowledged, “because it’s so important for our men’s basketball program and how crucial its success is to our university. That ends up benefiting everybody else in the athletic department.”

For Auriemma, it means leaving a league where, privately, even AAC officials admit to being disappointed no other program could step up and be competitive (the UConn women never lost a league game in their seven seasons in the AAC, though Auriemma rightly points out that in four of those seasons, the Huskies would have gone undefeated in any league in the country).

And UConn women’s games — about 16-18 per year — will remain on SNY.

Of course, the Big East didn’t need UConn back. The league was doing just fine as a 10-team unit. Villa-nova won a pair of national titles, the league earned numerous NCAA tournament bids per year and consistently ranked as one of the best in the country, its championship tournament at Madison Square Garden routinely selling out.

“We could have stayed pat,” PC’s Driscoll pointed out, “but we want to be the best basketball conference in the nation.”

If any school may have earned reservations about the UConn men returning to the Big East, it’s Providence. At Big East Media Day last October, PC coach Ed Cooley said he felt the league “gave Connecticut new life, gave their fan base new life,” and criticized UConn for chasing football dollars the past seven years, adding, “Shame on (UConn) for making that decision upfront.”

Cooley reckoned Hurley and his staff will become even more of a recruiting force on the East Coast and, indeed, the Huskies have already reeled in a pair of prime 2020 New York/New Jersey recruits in Andre Jackson and Adama Sanogo — the latter snatched right from Seton Hall’s grasp.

“It’ll make it tougher, because now we’ve got a real competitor in the Northeast again,” Driscoll conceded. “But I’m OK with that. I think it really helps the Big East brand. Our brand has been phenomenal, probably better than anyone thought when we reconvened. But bringing UConn back only adds to that national cache. I think it’s a win-win.”

Understandably, the move comes with initial costs to UConn. There is a $3.5 million entry fee (potentially as much as a third of the Big East’s asking price a few years earlier) as well as a $17 million exit fee from the American. UConn’s first two “down payments” toward that fee come from the AAC withholding the program’s year-end, conference-related distributions from 2018-19 and 2019-20 (the latter of which won’t be known until June). UConn will then pay about $1 million a year until the balance is paid off.

Then there’s the $30 million exit fee UConn must pay if it leaves the Big East — a number that gradually decreases after six years.

“We didn’t join the Big East to leave,” Benedict pointed out. “They didn’t bring us in to leave, and we didn’t join to leave.”

There are many who deserve credit for UConn’s return: Herbst and other UConn administrators, Big East commissioner Val Ackerman — and don’t discount Auriemma’s longtime friendship with Ackerman.

And Benedict, who deserves as much credit as anyone.

“He worked hard at it,” said Driscoll. “He built a lot of relationships and did a good job of convincing us, ‘We’re gonna be a good teammate.’”

On July 1, UConn officially returns to the Big East.

“Now,” said Susan Herbst, “it’s about every day, making the Big East feel as though we belong with them, we matter, and we’re an incredibly good partner.”

david.borges  @hearstmediact.com

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Re: UConn to BE Rumors
« Reply #531 on: May 11, 2020, 01:49:44 PM »
UConn has apparently signed a football broadcast deal with SNY and CBS Sports.  If that brings them any value whatsoever, this was likely beneficial for them.  As I said earlier, it is much easier to be a football independent now than it was 10 years ago.
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Re: UConn to BE Rumors
« Reply #532 on: May 11, 2020, 03:40:09 PM »
UConn has apparently signed a football broadcast deal with SNY and CBS Sports.  If that brings them any value whatsoever, this was likely beneficial for them.  As I said earlier, it is much easier to be a football independent now than it was 10 years ago.

Apparently (4) home games on CBS Sports Network will be televised with the remaining (3) home games on SNY.

Financial specifics weren’t available but the CBS deal, which is over seven figures for the four years, will benefit UConn in ways similar to the average of deals in place for teams in conferences such as Conference USA, the MAAC and Mountain West. Every FBS game UConn plays in the life of the deal will be on linear TV. There is a possibility that the one annual FCS game will be available on a digital-only platform.

UConn expects to know the start time for every game in advance of a season, and most will be in the noon-3:30 window on Saturdays, with the likelihood for one Friday night game a year. The UConn/CBS Sports deal was done through Learfield IMG College, which holds UConn’s multimedia rights.

“All I can tell you is we're getting paid,” Benedict said. “We are being compensated and they're obviously covering the costs of production.”
(Apparently in the AAC deal UConn would have to cover the costs of production.)

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Re: UConn to BE Rumors
« Reply #533 on: May 11, 2020, 06:58:38 PM »
UConn's four-year deal with CBSSN reportedly will pay the Huskies more than $1M total. And they don't have to produce the games.

CBS Sports Network will televise four home games during the 2020 season and all home games through the 2023 season. This will help filled the gap that CBSSN lost in the 12 or so AAC games that gets moved to ESPN Plus.
« Last Edit: May 11, 2020, 07:04:32 PM by Mr. Nielsen »
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Re: UConn to BE Rumors
« Reply #534 on: May 11, 2020, 09:01:29 PM »
UConn's four-year deal with CBSSN reportedly will pay the Huskies more than $1M total. And they don't have to produce the games.

CBS Sports Network will televise four home games during the 2020 season and all home games through the 2023 season. This will help filled the gap that CBSSN lost in the 12 or so AAC games that gets moved to ESPN Plus.

So the $250K per year helps cut the $13.3 million deficit somewhat.

I wonder what they made on the AAC deal.
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GoldenWarrior11

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Re: UConn to BE Rumors
« Reply #535 on: May 11, 2020, 10:49:12 PM »
UConn spent $9+ million on travel alone in 2019 ($7+ million in 2018).  You'd have to imagine that gets cut down considerably too. 

Years from now, many will be wondering why UConn didn't do this (move to the Big East) sooner. 

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Re: UConn to BE Rumors
« Reply #536 on: May 11, 2020, 11:01:17 PM »
UConn spent $9+ million on travel alone in 2019 ($7+ million in 2018).  You'd have to imagine that gets cut down considerably too. 

Years from now, many will be wondering why UConn didn't do this (move to the Big East) sooner.

It depends on who they can schedule. I wonder if AAC teams will refuse to schedule them, as some BE teams did when BC, Miami and Va Tech left.
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Re: UConn to BE Rumors
« Reply #537 on: May 12, 2020, 01:43:30 AM »
It depends on who they can schedule. I wonder if AAC teams will refuse to schedule them, as some BE teams did when BC, Miami and Va Tech left.

What difference does it make?  UConn had no natural rivals in the AAC.  There were some good teams - UCF, Memphis, Cincinnati - but none of them are more attractive than any of the Power 5 teams they have been able to schedule.  Really, outside of perhaps the pre-breakup Big East teams, there are no must play teams for UConn, and I do not know how enthusiastic their fans are about playing Pitt, Syracuse, and West Virginia.  Certainly nobody is going to feel bad because East Carolina, Tulane, and Tulsa will not schedule them. 

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Re: UConn to BE Rumors
« Reply #538 on: May 12, 2020, 08:27:34 AM »
It depends on who they can schedule. I wonder if AAC teams will refuse to schedule them, as some BE teams did when BC, Miami and Va Tech left.

Supposedly they will be playing Memphis & Cincinnati in MBB.

The football team has a future game scheduled with UCF.

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Re: UConn to BE Rumors
« Reply #539 on: May 12, 2020, 08:42:50 AM »
It depends on who they can schedule. I wonder if AAC teams will refuse to schedule them, as some BE teams did when BC, Miami and Va Tech left.


The AAC is pretty darn close to mid-major without UConn, so I suspect they will still schedule them if possible because they can use all the good opponents they can get.

That wasn't true with the BE when BC, Miami and Va Tech left. The BE was still a solidly high-major conference that wasn't desperate for good opponents.

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Re: UConn to BE Rumors
« Reply #540 on: May 12, 2020, 08:46:50 AM »
Supposedly they will be playing Memphis & Cincinnati in MBB.

The football team has a future game scheduled with UCF.

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Re: UConn to BE Rumors
« Reply #541 on: May 12, 2020, 08:47:02 AM »
AAC still has plenty of solid programs without UConn.  The conference's biggest problem is they are very weak after you get past the likes of Wichita, Houston and Memphis. 
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Re: UConn to BE Rumors
« Reply #542 on: May 12, 2020, 08:58:04 AM »

AAC still has plenty of solid programs without UConn.  The conference's biggest problem is they are very weak after you get past the likes of Wichita, Houston and Memphis.


'Very weak' after three programs does not equal 'plenty of solid programs' in an eleven-member conference. Six or seven would be plenty, IMHO.

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Re: UConn to BE Rumors
« Reply #543 on: May 12, 2020, 09:25:11 AM »
'Very weak' after three programs does not equal 'plenty of solid programs' in an eleven-member conference. Six or seven would be plenty, IMHO.

Fluffy is wrong about most things.  But very similar to Chicos, he has to argue with everyone and pretend to be a know it all, all the while coming across as a complete dumbass.
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Re: UConn to BE Rumors
« Reply #544 on: May 12, 2020, 09:36:25 AM »
Fluffy is wrong about most things.  But very similar to Chicos, he has to argue with everyone and pretend to be a know it all, all the while coming across as a complete dumbass.

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Re: UConn to BE Rumors
« Reply #545 on: May 12, 2020, 09:37:10 AM »
'Very weak' after three programs does not equal 'plenty of solid programs' in an eleven-member conference. Six or seven would be plenty, IMHO.

I don't disagree.  I think that "pretty darn close to a mid-major" when you are usually a multi-bid league isn't necessarilty accurate either.  The AAC, along with a couple of other conferences, kind of hover just outside the P6 with a couple of programs who can beat any team on a given night.  It's hard for me to label them as mid-major though.
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Re: UConn to BE Rumors
« Reply #546 on: May 12, 2020, 10:45:01 AM »
Supposedly they will be playing Memphis & Cincinnati in MBB.

The football team has a future game scheduled with UCF.
You could maybe add Cincinnati and Houston on the football side.
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Re: UConn to BE Rumors
« Reply #547 on: May 12, 2020, 12:19:17 PM »
The problem for the AAC, both in its foundation and in present forms, is that it lacks "power-level" programs in football and men's basketball, and routinely has "anchors" in both sports.  It always has strong middle-to-high level programs, but their accomplishments and recognitions get dragged down both of these weaknesses.  Unfortunately for the AAC, neither is really fixable long-term, so they are doing what they currently are: marketing/branding as a P6 in hopes that it "covers up" its inadequacies in hopes that it is accepted as a peer (as a P conference).

UConn Basketball leaving the AAC, despite what AAC fans proclaim, was and is a huge blow to the perception of the league.  Yes, they still have programs like Houston, Cincinnati, Memphis and Wichita State (which are high-level programs), but they also still have ECU, Tulane, USF, UCF and SMU, all of which are historically weaker basketball programs and have little-to-postseason success (which was a major focal point on why the C7 did not want to associate with those programs in basketball).  Their bottom has just as many programs as their top does; add in other programs like Tulsa and/or Temple who go through re-builds, and it is clear that it is a 3-bid league annually. 

The P6 basketball conferences each have national championship-level programs to anchor it annually.  The ACC has UNC/Duke/Virginia; the Big 12 has Kansas; the PAC has UCLA/Arizona; we have Villanova/UConn (again).  The last time an AAC program won a national championship was over 50 years ago.  UConn leaving definitely knocked them down the ladder, so to speak.   

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Re: UConn to BE Rumors
« Reply #548 on: May 12, 2020, 12:29:33 PM »
The problem for the AAC, both in its foundation and in present forms, is that it lacks "power-level" programs in football and men's basketball, and routinely has "anchors" in both sports.  It always has strong middle-to-high level programs, but their accomplishments and recognitions get dragged down both of these weaknesses.  Unfortunately for the AAC, neither is really fixable long-term, so they are doing what they currently are: marketing/branding as a P6 in hopes that it "covers up" its inadequacies in hopes that it is accepted as a peer (as a P conference).

UConn Basketball leaving the AAC, despite what AAC fans proclaim, was and is a huge blow to the perception of the league.  Yes, they still have programs like Houston, Cincinnati, Memphis and Wichita State (which are high-level programs), but they also still have ECU, Tulane, USF, UCF and SMU, all of which are historically weaker basketball programs and have little-to-postseason success (which was a major focal point on why the C7 did not want to associate with those programs in basketball).  Their bottom has just as many programs as their top does; add in other programs like Tulsa and/or Temple who go through re-builds, and it is clear that it is a 3-bid league annually. 

The P6 basketball conferences each have national championship-level programs to anchor it annually.  The ACC has UNC/Duke/Virginia; the Big 12 has Kansas; the PAC has UCLA/Arizona; we have Villanova/UConn (again).  The last time an AAC program won a national championship was over 50 years ago.  UConn leaving definitely knocked them down the ladder, so to speak.

Also, every school would leave that league in a heartbeat if offered
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Re: UConn to BE Rumors
« Reply #549 on: May 12, 2020, 01:48:28 PM »
The problem for the AAC, both in its foundation and in present forms, is that it lacks "power-level" programs in football and men's basketball, and routinely has "anchors" in both sports.  It always has strong middle-to-high level programs, but their accomplishments and recognitions get dragged down both of these weaknesses.  Unfortunately for the AAC, neither is really fixable long-term, so they are doing what they currently are: marketing/branding as a P6 in hopes that it "covers up" its inadequacies in hopes that it is accepted as a peer (as a P conference).

UConn Basketball leaving the AAC, despite what AAC fans proclaim, was and is a huge blow to the perception of the league.  Yes, they still have programs like Houston, Cincinnati, Memphis and Wichita State (which are high-level programs), but they also still have ECU, Tulane, USF, UCF and SMU, all of which are historically weaker basketball programs and have little-to-postseason success (which was a major focal point on why the C7 did not want to associate with those programs in basketball).  Their bottom has just as many programs as their top does; add in other programs like Tulsa and/or Temple who go through re-builds, and it is clear that it is a 3-bid league annually. 

The P6 basketball conferences each have national championship-level programs to anchor it annually.  The ACC has UNC/Duke/Virginia; the Big 12 has Kansas; the PAC has UCLA/Arizona; we have Villanova/UConn (again).  The last time an AAC program won a national championship was over 50 years ago.  UConn leaving definitely knocked them down the ladder, so to speak.

AAC is primarily a football conference and that is where the league and the schools are putting their emphasis. Football is where the TV money is and has the ability to draw alumni support , so focusing on football  is their league's best course of action. AAC has been showing solid success at the individual program level in football. They had 3 top 25 teams this year and plenty of bowl teams.  The league negotiated an improved TV contract because of football ( although  still nowhere near the P5 deals).

Basketball for the AAC is for the most part going to be a function of the handful of schools that put a heavy emphasis on the sport. As pointed out above, too many anchors for AAC  basketball league to expand beyond what it is.  Now that U Conn has left the basketball league can go to a 20 game double round robin format.  That schedule format will probably benefit the top tier teams in their basketball league as they will have more winnable conference road games. One big flaw in the TV contract with ESPN is that most of the AAC basketball games are going to be on ESPN+, so their visibility for Basketball goes down.
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