(01-31-2014 08:07 PM)CollegeCard Wrote:  1. Louisville- Top salary, largest fan base, best arena, absolute commitment from AD (For the next few months, then move everyone up one)
2. Memphis- Great city fan support, good salary, close 2nd arena in FedEx Forum, excellent in-city recruiting
3. UConn- Good salary, argument for #2 but I feel the truly dedicated fan base is smaller than Memphis, arena situation falls behind top two
4. Cincy- Rates better historically but lack of resources for basketball facilities currently hurts. Fan base starting to regain form but still not close to Huggins days due to a minority that illogically never accept anyone but Bob.
5. Temple- Historically strong. Not sure about salary but Philly is good basketball town and not a lot of better options to be honest.

This is accurate and it drives us mad....the "Huggs Brigade" as we call them are folks that stopped supporting UC after Huggins was ousted and never came back. Really they have shown over time they were Huggins fans, not UC fans. It's not fair to Mick who has done an amazing job in a very short time....take a gutted and left for dead program with no recruits and no time to recruit into the Big East. Then rebuild said program in the Big East back to ncaa level. He doesn't get the credit due him imo.

(01-31-2014 10:10 PM)Knights_of_UCF Wrote:  

(01-31-2014 09:39 PM)upstater1 Wrote:  

(01-31-2014 08:24 PM)Knights_of_UCF Wrote:  1. Louisville - tons of money, fans, and heading to ACC
2. Memphis - perennial power, huge fan base, unlimited bball money, even at the expense of football
3. Uconn - See memphis. Rated memphis higher due to fed ex
4. Cinci - perennial top 25 contender.
5. Temple based on history, and willingness to win
6. SMU/UCF SMU has tons of $$$$$ for coaches, budget, recruits, etc.
8. USF
9. Houston
10. Rutgers

To the smu poster who thinks their facilities are better than UCF....just no. I know Moody just got a makeover, but really the only thing thats better about the arena than UCFs is the jumbo tron.

I sometimes wonder if you all ever look at the actual budgets.

I will next year now that memphis is on a level playing field. Uconn was getting BCS money the last decade while memphis was in CUSA making pennies.

Do you know what the BE conference payout was? $6.5m. Subtract $4.5m and you'll have UConn's number.

(01-31-2014 11:31 PM)TripleA Wrote:  

(01-31-2014 09:35 PM)Cubanbull Wrote:  Interestingly if you go by NCAA tourney record
1Louisville 70-40
2. UConn 52-29
3. Cincinnati 43-26
4. Temple 33-31
5. Houston 26-24
6. Memphis 19-19
7. Tulsa 12-14
8. SMU 10-12
9. Rutgers 5-7
10. Tulane 3-3
11. USF 2-3
12. ECU 0-2
13 UCF 0-4

Our actual NCAA record is 36-25. The NCAA decided to punish us to make up for not punishing Duke and Kentucky and Kansas, among others.

Ok that explains it. I was surprised by the 19-19 that was reported

(02-01-2014 12:57 AM)CollegeCard Wrote:  

(01-31-2014 09:37 PM)upstater1 Wrote:  

(01-31-2014 08:07 PM)CollegeCard Wrote:  1. Louisville- Top salary, largest fan base, best arena, absolute commitment from AD (For the next few months, then move everyone up one)
2. Memphis- Great city fan support, good salary, close 2nd arena in FedEx Forum, excellent in-city recruiting
3. UConn- Good salary, argument for #2 but I feel the truly dedicated fan base is smaller than Memphis, arena situation falls behind top two
4. Cincy- Rates better historically but lack of resources for basketball facilities currently hurts. Fan base starting to regain form but still not close to Huggins days due to a minority that illogically never accept anyone but Bob.
5. Temple- Historically strong. Not sure about salary but Philly is good basketball town and not a lot of better options to be honest.

You're underestimating UConn's fanbase.

UConn makes $25m a year in licensing. No other team in the AAC comes close to that. Louisville makes more in ticket sales. But the total amount that UConn makes from advertising with its coaches shows, Tier 3, etc., shows that the 3.5m residents of the state hold UConn as a top draw. Even the women will be the most highly rated show on television, network or cable. 3.5m is a really big fanbase for TV, bigger than Ville's.

As I mentioned I think #2 & #3 can be debated but I stand by my comment on the fan base and it's not new from me, I've said the same in previous years on this board. UConn's attendance is unimpressive to me. I used the term dedicated fan base. If we're claiming all 3.5 million people in the state as UConn fans, why don't they come to games?

I've discussed it before so I know numbers in prior years were equally low, but UConn only has 77% capacity at home this year for the 11 games at XL/Gampel with no weather impact. I'm fully excluding the Temple game because my point stands even without the outlier.

UConn on the year is filling up home games at 88% capacity for Florida/Stanford/AAC teams, taking into account where the games were played (4 Gampel, 1 XL). Against less desirable opponents you only have 69% capacity. For comparison, UofL is at 98% capacity for AAC games (21,750), and despite not having any great non-conference home games averaged 94% for the 9 non-league games.

I fully realize it's impossible for UConn to compare to the raw attendance totals of UofL, Syracuse, Memphis, UK etc due to arena size. The question is why UConn can't come close to filling their arenas consistently even with the reduced seating capacity? For a program with 3 titles in the last 15 years, filling 69% of seats when the opponent is a low/mid major says there aren't enough fans willing to come to just see the home team like you have with more dedicated fan bases elsewhere.

You're emphasizing ticket sales as though that's the be-all and end-all. It's not. UConn has drawn the same amount of fans since forever. When most of the games are played in the dead period, it has always only drawn about 9-10,000 fans. The conference games pick up the average, and they have as they've all been pretty filled.

But ticket sales don't tell the whole story. Look at the rights licensing.

Also, it's stuff like this that makes you realize UConn is #1 in its state when even the women are blowing away ratings:

http://syracusefan.com/threads/looks-lik...yed.40752/

http://web.sny.tv/news/article.jsp?ymd=2...348&vkey=2

And this men's team is immensely more popular. The tier3 UConn games on SNY, where a large part of the licensing revs are generated, averages a 5 rating in the market with it gaining a 8-10 in the past for the occasional BE game on SNY.

I think it says something that SNY will opt to show a women's bball game over a BE basketball game when most of the Sports New York market is in Syracuse's wheelhouse.

If you go back and look at UConn's attendance over the years, it has always been the same through decades. Much of it is the legacy of BE weeknight basketball that brought the conference its notoriety. No one in the state is going to be able to drive two hours to catch a game at 7 pm on a weeknight unless they live in the Hartford area. I'm not sure if Louisville has that many fans that travel hours for weeknight games but it's never happened in Conn. The weekend games are sold out in Conn. We've noticed this over many years. If you lived in the state's population base of Fairfield, in say Stamford, it would take you 3 hours to get to Gampel.

(02-01-2014 09:29 AM)upstater1 Wrote:  

(01-31-2014 10:10 PM)Knights_of_UCF Wrote:  

(01-31-2014 09:39 PM)upstater1 Wrote:  

(01-31-2014 08:24 PM)Knights_of_UCF Wrote:  1. Louisville - tons of money, fans, and heading to ACC
2. Memphis - perennial power, huge fan base, unlimited bball money, even at the expense of football
3. Uconn - See memphis. Rated memphis higher due to fed ex
4. Cinci - perennial top 25 contender.
5. Temple based on history, and willingness to win
6. SMU/UCF SMU has tons of $$$$$ for coaches, budget, recruits, etc.
8. USF
9. Houston
10. Rutgers

To the smu poster who thinks their facilities are better than UCF....just no. I know Moody just got a makeover, but really the only thing thats better about the arena than UCFs is the jumbo tron.

I sometimes wonder if you all ever look at the actual budgets.

I will next year now that memphis is on a level playing field. Uconn was getting BCS money the last decade while memphis was in CUSA making pennies.

Do you know what the BE conference payout was? $6.5m. Subtract $4.5m and you'll have UConn's number.

not just the BCS money, which helps, but also the advantage of getting to play in the top bball conference against name opponents like louisville, syracuse, pitt, wvu, cinci, georgetown, etc etc etc. Memphis was playing the likes of rice, tulane, ecu, and ucf. Now that the playing field is level I think youll see why most have Memphis ahead of Uconn overall in terms of better place to coach. What they did in the 10th or 11th best conference was unreal.

Does everyone have a newish or newly renovated arena?

(02-01-2014 12:12 PM)firmbizzle Wrote:  Does everyone have a newish or newly renovated arena?

Pretty much.

(02-01-2014 11:47 AM)Knights_of_UCF Wrote:  

(02-01-2014 09:29 AM)upstater1 Wrote:  

(01-31-2014 10:10 PM)Knights_of_UCF Wrote:  

(01-31-2014 09:39 PM)upstater1 Wrote:  

(01-31-2014 08:24 PM)Knights_of_UCF Wrote:  1. Louisville - tons of money, fans, and heading to ACC
2. Memphis - perennial power, huge fan base, unlimited bball money, even at the expense of football
3. Uconn - See memphis. Rated memphis higher due to fed ex
4. Cinci - perennial top 25 contender.
5. Temple based on history, and willingness to win
6. SMU/UCF SMU has tons of $$$$$ for coaches, budget, recruits, etc.
8. USF
9. Houston
10. Rutgers

To the smu poster who thinks their facilities are better than UCF....just no. I know Moody just got a makeover, but really the only thing thats better about the arena than UCFs is the jumbo tron.

I sometimes wonder if you all ever look at the actual budgets.

I will next year now that memphis is on a level playing field. Uconn was getting BCS money the last decade while memphis was in CUSA making pennies.

Do you know what the BE conference payout was? $6.5m. Subtract $4.5m and you'll have UConn's number.

not just the BCS money, which helps, but also the advantage of getting to play in the top bball conference against name opponents like louisville, syracuse, pitt, wvu, cinci, georgetown, etc etc etc. Memphis was playing the likes of rice, tulane, ecu, and ucf. Now that the playing field is level I think youll see why most have Memphis ahead of Uconn overall in terms of better place to coach. What they did in the 10th or 11th best conference was unreal.

Good points but you're not going to make up $25m on UConn. It's not going to happen like that.

You're underestimating UConn but I'm going to assume it's because of lack of familiarity.

(02-01-2014 12:12 PM)firmbizzle Wrote:  Does everyone have a newish or newly renovated arena?

BBall arena?

No, not UConn. Gampel was renovated a decade ago and seats added. So, not a recent renovation. I think the XL Center is undergoing renovations currently but that's not a UConn building, and the renovations will be $40 million or so.

(01-31-2014 10:12 PM)jvllepirate Wrote:  

(01-31-2014 07:50 PM)GrayBeard Wrote:  1. SMU -- Will pay huge money and you don't have to give a chit (See June)
2. Tulane -- Anyone know who their coach is?
3. ECU -- Limited pressure

what is wrong with our fans

That was sarcasm. Very subtle sometimes, but pretty funny.

(02-01-2014 12:53 PM)upstater1 Wrote:  

(02-01-2014 11:47 AM)Knights_of_UCF Wrote:  

(02-01-2014 09:29 AM)upstater1 Wrote:  

(01-31-2014 10:10 PM)Knights_of_UCF Wrote:  

(01-31-2014 09:39 PM)upstater1 Wrote:  I sometimes wonder if you all ever look at the actual budgets.

I will next year now that memphis is on a level playing field. Uconn was getting BCS money the last decade while memphis was in CUSA making pennies.

Do you know what the BE conference payout was? $6.5m. Subtract $4.5m and you'll have UConn's number.

not just the BCS money, which helps, but also the advantage of getting to play in the top bball conference against name opponents like louisville, syracuse, pitt, wvu, cinci, georgetown, etc etc etc. Memphis was playing the likes of rice, tulane, ecu, and ucf. Now that the playing field is level I think youll see why most have Memphis ahead of Uconn overall in terms of better place to coach. What they did in the 10th or 11th best conference was unreal.

Good points but you're not going to make up $25m on UConn. It's not going to happen like that.

You're underestimating UConn but I'm going to assume it's because of lack of familiarity.

With one program playing in the top basketball conference since 1979, winning 3 national championships, and appearing in 4 Final Fours in that time period; having as many respondents with Memphis at #2 is the most surprising part of this thread.

An "all-in" engaged fan base can make a huge difference in the perception of a program.

(02-01-2014 01:48 PM)oldtiger Wrote:  

(02-01-2014 12:53 PM)upstater1 Wrote:  

(02-01-2014 11:47 AM)Knights_of_UCF Wrote:  

(02-01-2014 09:29 AM)upstater1 Wrote:  

(01-31-2014 10:10 PM)Knights_of_UCF Wrote:  I will next year now that memphis is on a level playing field. Uconn was getting BCS money the last decade while memphis was in CUSA making pennies.

Do you know what the BE conference payout was? $6.5m. Subtract $4.5m and you'll have UConn's number.

not just the BCS money, which helps, but also the advantage of getting to play in the top bball conference against name opponents like louisville, syracuse, pitt, wvu, cinci, georgetown, etc etc etc. Memphis was playing the likes of rice, tulane, ecu, and ucf. Now that the playing field is level I think youll see why most have Memphis ahead of Uconn overall in terms of better place to coach. What they did in the 10th or 11th best conference was unreal.

Good points but you're not going to make up $25m on UConn. It's not going to happen like that.

You're underestimating UConn but I'm going to assume it's because of lack of familiarity.

With one program playing in the top basketball conference since 1979, winning 3 national championships, and appearing in 4 Final Fours in that time period; having as many respondents with Memphis at #2 is the most surprising part of this thread.

An "all-in" engaged fan base can make a huge difference in the perception of a program.

Or, there are many CUSA fans on this board.

UConn has a bigger fanbase than Memphis. That's what I've been saying.

Who cares what the best coaching job is? The only coaching jobs that matter are the AAC schools, who actually need a new coach...

(02-01-2014 02:18 PM)HuskyU Wrote:   Who cares what the best coaching job is? The only coaching jobs that matter are the AAC schools, who actually need a new coach...

Agree.

They are all good jobs or the programs wouldn't be in the AAC.

I'm deleting my wisecracker response to upstater's one-upmanship comment.

(02-01-2014 02:28 PM)oldtiger Wrote:  

(02-01-2014 02:18 PM)HuskyU Wrote:   Who cares what the best coaching job is? The only coaching jobs that matter are the AAC schools, who actually need a new coach...

Agree.

They are all good jobs or the programs wouldn't be in the AAC.

I'm deleting my wisecracker response to upstater's one-upmanship comment.

Level-headed Memphis fan...that's why I like you guys.

(01-31-2014 08:24 PM)Knights_of_UCF Wrote:  1. Louisville - tons of money, fans, and heading to ACC
2. Memphis - perennial power, huge fan base, unlimited bball money, even at the expense of football
3. Uconn - See memphis. Rated memphis higher due to fed ex
4. Cinci - perennial top 25 contender.
5. Temple based on history, and willingness to win
6. SMU/UCF SMU has tons of $$$$$for coaches, budget, recruits, etc.
8. USF
9. Houston
10. Rutgers

To the smu poster who thinks their facilities are better than UCF....just no. I know Moody just got a makeover, but really the only thing thats better about the arena than UCFs is the jumbo tron.

USF has better overall basketball facilities than UCF. Our new SunDome is a top notch college basketball venue and at least on par with UCF's but our practice facilities are significantly better.

(02-01-2014 04:04 PM)CyberBull Wrote:  

(01-31-2014 08:24 PM)Knights_of_UCF Wrote:  1. Louisville - tons of money, fans, and heading to ACC
2. Memphis - perennial power, huge fan base, unlimited bball money, even at the expense of football
3. Uconn - See memphis. Rated memphis higher due to fed ex
4. Cinci - perennial top 25 contender.
5. Temple based on history, and willingness to win
6. SMU/UCF SMU has tons of $$$$$for coaches, budget, recruits, etc.
8. USF
9. Houston
10. Rutgers

To the smu poster who thinks their facilities are better than UCF....just no. I know Moody just got a makeover, but really the only thing thats better about the arena than UCFs is the jumbo tron.

USF has better overall basketball facilities than UCF. Our new SunDome is a top notch college basketball venue and at least on par with UCF's but our practice facilities are significantly better.

agree to disagree

I always find these threads funny because I would bet most if not all the posters on it have never been in anothers team's arena and/ or been inside their practice facilities. So all these my schools facilities are better than yours are mostly based on opinions and not based in facts. And by the way I'm including myself in that assessment.

I can tell you with confidence that Temple's facilities blow away Florida State's and Arizona State's.