Reputable Boneyard Posters: UConn To Big East For 2021...

[scoscox]

Without a doubt, I think this hits st john's and providence the hardest as far as northeast recruiting and overall momentum

[Xudash]

Who will the AAC take to replace them? ESPN article theorizes Army football, and then possibly a basketball-only school? VCU would probably be the natural fit there, or possibly UD, although both of those would have the risk of jumping to us if we ever decided to expand further (I'm guessing that would be highly unlikely, although with our private school club being broken, if VCU went on a few runs they'd probably be next up if Georgetown let them in).

Believe me, if a Big East Member truly has a full veto vote over any particular prospective program, and exercising such a vote would be enough to keep a program out of the Big East, then UD will never be a member of the Big East. Xavier simply will not allow that to happen.

In the case of Georgetown's disposition towards VCU, I'm still not getting it. I truly see Georgetown as a major, national brand and VCU as kind of an energetic climber when it comes to basketball programs. Backed by a big school in a solid state, Richmond is a nice town, built success in the CAA and kept it going in the A10, but still a mid-major in the eyes of most people. I don't care that Georgetown has had a few off years. Between Georgetown being Georgetown, the investment it recently made in its athletic facility, and Patrick being back and demonstrating that he just may be the guy to bring the Hoyas back to full power, I don't see the threat - - be it a threat involving recruiting or anything else.

Then again, that's one man's perception/opinion I guess.

[scoscox]

Believe me, if a Big East Member truly has a full veto vote over any particular prospective program, and exercising such a vote would be enough to keep a program out of the Big East, then UD will never be a member of the Big East. Xavier simply will not allow that to happen.

And in case anyone doubts Xavier's commitment to that, at a banquet last week, Travis specifically brought up keeping Dayton out of the Big East in perpetuity as a talking point.

[adoraz]

Crazy how after the AAC's second best season, after their new contract, etc... and after the Big East's worst season... we still poach their #1 basketball school.

AAC also just lost all of their national championships (in all sports).

I don't care how bad UConn has been in football and even basketball the past few years. This is catastrophic for the AAC. It'd be even worse than the Big East losing Georgetown tomorrow. Total perception killer.

[GoldenWarrior11]

Crazy how after the AAC's second best season, after their new contract, etc... and after the Big East's worst season... we still poach their #1 basketball school.

AAC also just lost all of their national championships (in all sports).

I don't care how bad UConn has been in football and even basketball the past few years. This is catastrophic for the AAC. It'd be even worse than the Big East losing Georgetown tomorrow. Total perception killer.

The AAC lost its top basketball brand. As much as we gain from the addition of UConn, the perception for the AAC has plummeted significantly. They will likely need to now go to a round robin set-up, which means home/home games for everyone against Tulane and ECU - the dreaded RPI/NET killers.

[ecasadoSBU]

Welcome back CONNECTICUT! I missed you so much!

Lets go Huskies!!!

Not sure I would go that far...

I root for Stony Brook (my alma mater) and Connecticut (my wife's alma mater) outside the Big East. Some of my best college memories were at Storrs. UConn won the Nat Championship when wifey was a freshman (2010), and they won it again when she was a senior (2014). Too many great memories

If this thing is real - from now on my Big East team will be UConn. Sorry SHU/SJU lol

[Jet915]

This is an interesting post:

I was an insider here many, many years ago. I haven't posted here in over half a decade, but decided to check in on Friday, when I got word UConn was going to get an invite. And honestly, a lot of the responses/reactions are surprising. So I wanted to offer some feedback and maybe a ray of hope for those that feel this is the wrong move.

Just as an fyi, my clients are people at ABC/ESPN, Fox, CBS, inside the Big 12, SEC, ACC, and Big Ten (but not the Pac-12 or NBE). So while I'm not privy to every detail, I know & understand a lot of the mechanations of realignment.

First, for those believing UConn shouldn't have given up the P5 dream..that dream was never going to come to fruition. Unfortunately, P5 realignment is all about dollars. And dollars are delivered by eye balls. Simply put, UConn doesn't deliver the eye balls necessary to justify the paycheck they'd receive from a conference like the ACC or Big 12. The Big 12 vetted UConn heavily a number of years ago. What they learned was UConn's value to their TV partners (ABC/ESPN/Fox) was well less than the paycheck they would have to pay UConn as an equal member. This is why the Big 12 came out and announced they were vetting schools, then opted to not expand. Point blank, their partner networks came back and said the per team payout would drop if they added UConn, UCF, USF, BYU, Houston, Cincy, or Memphis (the 7 schools they vetted). Networks run all kinds of numbers when it comes to TV...regional viewership, national viewership, cross-promotional viewership (i.e. fans of other teams that watch your games b/c they either hate you or your Ws/Ls impact their team), etc. UConn's numbers are way too low, with very little prospect of ever getting them up. It's just a small fan base where it counts (football). And in case anyone's thinking the obvious, yes, I would imagine the ACC regrets some of their expansion decisions. The ACC makes less money today on a per member basis than it'd have made had they not expanded with BC, Syracuse and Pitt. Those were really poor additions and the TV numbers in their regions and within their fan bases has been abysmal.

Second, the NBE has outperformed their TV contract handily. And not only have their TV #s been way better than forecast, they've won 2 National Championships in the last 4 years. So the conference's contract is way under-valued. The problem is, they signed a long-term contract that doesn't expire until spring 2026. The only way their contract can be opened back up for revaluation by Fox, is if there is a change in their membership. Adding UConn allows the Big East to bring their contract up to market value based on the Big East's performance on TV the past 5-6 years + UConn's value. So that contract is going to seriously, seriously jump in value. And, UConn is going to provide a significantly greater boon to the NBE's TV payout than they ever would have in the ACC or Big 12, simply b/c if you look at the historical ratings for basketball, the highest annual TV rating (b-ball) for most programs in the OBE was against UConn. The NBE adding UConn for basketball would be a poor man's version of the Big Ten adding Notre Dame for football. There's so much history & bad blood there, the ratings will be outstanding. So if you're looking at the current AAC payout and comparing it to the current NBE payout, and thinking "this sucks, what the **** are they thinking?!?!.....when the dust settles, UConn will make MORE money in the NBE (+ whatever they do for football) than they were making in the AAC.

From a financial perspective, this is going to be a huge win for UConn. The big question is how this affects ticket sales for football. But looking at recent attendance data, I assume UConn's leadership felt a move of the football program out of the AAC couldn't hurt that revenue stream enough to off set the huge jump they'll get from the NBE side.

Lastly, I get that when you're emotionally invested and grew up a die hard fan, the NBE feels like kissing your sister. But outside the region, the NBE is very, very well respected. It's not a little brother conference in the eyes of college sports fans. I'm in TX and can tell you the NBE is respected right alongside the ACC. Adding UConn is only going to bolster that. And from a perception & recruiting standpoint, it will be a HUGE benefit for UConn. Obviously, coaching is key #1, but it just became a lot easier for Hurley to sell the program to recruits. There was no chance for UConn to flourish in any sport in the AAC. Sure, they could win some games in football and basketball, the same as UCF, etc. But UCF is still pulling in peon recruits on the level of the worst P5 programs, even with two straight years of elite production. So all UConn could ever hope for is to be a big fish in a small pond, who's TV viewership numbers are too small to ever get a P5 call up. At least in the NBE, UConn basketball can get back to being one of the flagship programs in college basketball. That wasn't going to happen playing Tulane and SMU.

Also, you can expect the NBE to stay at 11 teams. They're going to want a round robin schedule, which is doable with 11, but problematic with 12.

[kayako]

AAC also just lost all of their national championships (in all sports).

https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/status/1142465612804972547

It looks pretty bad when even Rothstein tweets about them needing to reboot. Uconn has won more NCAA tournaments than all other aac members combined in the last 6 years, despite sucking, and there are lunatics that think a VCU will upgrade their basketball... that'd be like saying Dayton can replace Nova.

[kayako]

20 conference games is going to be rough on the guys, especially with our Big 5 games.

I think it's safe to assume that the Big 5 as we know it is over.

20 conference games
4 Exempt Tournament
4 Big 5
Gavitt (assuming)
Big12
1 buy game

That'd be 31 out of 31 games, with only 5 ooc home games if we're to assume 50:50 home/away ratio for the 2 conference challenge games. Jay can love the Big 5, but that's unworkable.

[GumbyDamnit!]

I’m glad they’re back. I’ve openly admitted that I missed some of the old BE rivalries. You can’t have a conference of just Luke Skywalkers; you need a Darth Vader or two. Though I’m really hoping that HLOH doesn’t become insufferable with some of their delusional fans.