(04-18-2014 12:58 AM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(04-18-2014 12:26 AM)perimeterpost Wrote:  I love the title of this thread "UConn's membership is AAC is unsustainable". Describing the situation as "unsustainable" as if UConn is just so awesome there's no way possible that they can be held down in a miserable conference like the AAC. It's laugh out loud funny.

You've misread the title. Read the initial post, which explains it.

It has nothing to do with UConn being too good for the AAC. It has to do with them being isolated in the extreme northeast corner of the conference, facing enormous travel distances to the rest of the members of the conference.

Their travel situation is very similar to the one faced by West Virginia, whose AD has been very vocal about the negative effect of the travel distances on their student athletes in non-revenue sports especially. That's what's unsustainable in the long run.

WVU is already doing what I have suggested UConn could do, i.e., minimize the number of team sports that it plays in the conference. WVU plays only football, baseball, men's and women's basketball, women's soccer and women's volleyball as team sports in the B12. It sponsors an NCAA minimum 7 men's sports, and only competes in 5 of those in the B12 (also an NCAA minimum to be counted as a full member of the conference). Even WVU could reduce further by moving one women's team sport to another conference as an affiliate member.

(04-18-2014 12:58 AM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(04-18-2014 12:26 AM)perimeterpost Wrote:  I love the title of this thread "UConn's membership is AAC is unsustainable". Describing the situation as "unsustainable" as if UConn is just so awesome there's no way possible that they can be held down in a miserable conference like the AAC. It's laugh out loud funny.

You've misread the title. Read the initial post, which explains it.

It has nothing to do with UConn being too good for the AAC. It has to do with them being isolated in the extreme northeast corner of the conference, facing enormous travel distances to the rest of the members of the conference.

Their travel situation is very similar to the one faced by West Virginia, whose AD has been very vocal about the negative effect of the travel distances on their student athletes in non-revenue sports especially. That's what's unsustainable in the long run.

UConn and WV to the MAC. Problem solved and solved.

(04-18-2014 07:20 AM)orangefan Wrote:  

(04-18-2014 12:58 AM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(04-18-2014 12:26 AM)perimeterpost Wrote:  I love the title of this thread "UConn's membership is AAC is unsustainable". Describing the situation as "unsustainable" as if UConn is just so awesome there's no way possible that they can be held down in a miserable conference like the AAC. It's laugh out loud funny.

You've misread the title. Read the initial post, which explains it.

It has nothing to do with UConn being too good for the AAC. It has to do with them being isolated in the extreme northeast corner of the conference, facing enormous travel distances to the rest of the members of the conference.

Their travel situation is very similar to the one faced by West Virginia, whose AD has been very vocal about the negative effect of the travel distances on their student athletes in non-revenue sports especially. That's what's unsustainable in the long run.

WVU is already doing what I have suggested UConn could do, i.e., minimize the number of team sports that it plays in the conference. WVU plays only football, baseball, men's and women's basketball, women's soccer and women's volleyball as team sports in the B12. It sponsors an NCAA minimum 7 men's sports, and only competes in 5 of those in the B12 (also an NCAA minimum to be counted as a full member of the conference). Even WVU could reduce further by moving one women's team sport to another conference as an affiliate member.

This is the sanest response yet. Let's face it, the Temple model of cutting sports is more in line with what non power schools will do in reaction to the P5 hogging all the cash.

TV revenue, bowl payouts, even apparel agreements! Look at Louisville's $8m a year contract!

For schools like WVU that make even more than Uconn, based on its geographic isolation and travel burdens, prudence in sponsoring certain sports and then placement of those sports in more geographic favorable conferences, is what Uconn will end up doing.

I'm not sure if it can be done, but what about cut sports, or if you want to keep them minimize travel by:

Uconn men's bb: AAC
Football: AAC
Baseball: AAC
Men's and women's outdoor and indoor Track and Field: AAC
Golf: AAC
8 sports in AAC

Big East for soccer, volleyball, men's/women's swimming, volleyball, field hockey, softball, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's tennis, rowing, lacrosse

13 in Big East

As it is now, lacrosse and field hockey are already in the Big East.

(04-18-2014 07:20 AM)orangefan Wrote:  

(04-18-2014 12:58 AM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(04-18-2014 12:26 AM)perimeterpost Wrote:  I love the title of this thread "UConn's membership is AAC is unsustainable". Describing the situation as "unsustainable" as if UConn is just so awesome there's no way possible that they can be held down in a miserable conference like the AAC. It's laugh out loud funny.

You've misread the title. Read the initial post, which explains it.

It has nothing to do with UConn being too good for the AAC. It has to do with them being isolated in the extreme northeast corner of the conference, facing enormous travel distances to the rest of the members of the conference.

Their travel situation is very similar to the one faced by West Virginia, whose AD has been very vocal about the negative effect of the travel distances on their student athletes in non-revenue sports especially. That's what's unsustainable in the long run.

WVU is already doing what I have suggested UConn could do, i.e., minimize the number of team sports that it plays in the conference. WVU plays only football, baseball, men's and women's basketball, women's soccer and women's volleyball as team sports in the B12. It sponsors an NCAA minimum 7 men's sports, and only competes in 5 of those in the B12 (also an NCAA minimum to be counted as a full member of the conference). Even WVU could reduce further by moving one women's team sport to another conference as an affiliate member.

WVU place every one of its sports sponsored by the Big 12 in the Big 12. That's usually a requirement of most conferences unless they work out a deal for an exception. The sports that compete elsewhere is not by choice, it's because the Big 12 doesn't sponsor them. If the Big 12 started up men's soccer for next season, WVU soccer would be there.

(04-18-2014 08:50 AM)prp Wrote:  

(04-18-2014 07:20 AM)orangefan Wrote:  

(04-18-2014 12:58 AM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(04-18-2014 12:26 AM)perimeterpost Wrote:  I love the title of this thread "UConn's membership is AAC is unsustainable". Describing the situation as "unsustainable" as if UConn is just so awesome there's no way possible that they can be held down in a miserable conference like the AAC. It's laugh out loud funny.

You've misread the title. Read the initial post, which explains it.

It has nothing to do with UConn being too good for the AAC. It has to do with them being isolated in the extreme northeast corner of the conference, facing enormous travel distances to the rest of the members of the conference.

Their travel situation is very similar to the one faced by West Virginia, whose AD has been very vocal about the negative effect of the travel distances on their student athletes in non-revenue sports especially. That's what's unsustainable in the long run.

WVU is already doing what I have suggested UConn could do, i.e., minimize the number of team sports that it plays in the conference. WVU plays only football, baseball, men's and women's basketball, women's soccer and women's volleyball as team sports in the B12. It sponsors an NCAA minimum 7 men's sports, and only competes in 5 of those in the B12 (also an NCAA minimum to be counted as a full member of the conference). Even WVU could reduce further by moving one women's team sport to another conference as an affiliate member.

WVU place every one of its sports sponsored by the Big 12 in the Big 12. That's usually a requirement of most conferences unless they work out a deal for an exception. The sports that compete elsewhere is not by choice, it's because the Big 12 doesn't sponsor them. If the Big 12 started up men's soccer for next season, WVU soccer would be there.

What you say is true. However, it could be the case that WVU tailored their athletic department accordingly.

In other words, they could have intentionally dropped many of the sports that the Big XII sponsors in favor of sports not sponsored.

Edit: If there are any WVU fans out there that know, please chime in.

(04-18-2014 08:39 AM)BE4evah Wrote:  

(04-18-2014 07:20 AM)orangefan Wrote:  

(04-18-2014 12:58 AM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(04-18-2014 12:26 AM)perimeterpost Wrote:  I love the title of this thread "UConn's membership is AAC is unsustainable". Describing the situation as "unsustainable" as if UConn is just so awesome there's no way possible that they can be held down in a miserable conference like the AAC. It's laugh out loud funny.

You've misread the title. Read the initial post, which explains it.

It has nothing to do with UConn being too good for the AAC. It has to do with them being isolated in the extreme northeast corner of the conference, facing enormous travel distances to the rest of the members of the conference.

Their travel situation is very similar to the one faced by West Virginia, whose AD has been very vocal about the negative effect of the travel distances on their student athletes in non-revenue sports especially. That's what's unsustainable in the long run.

WVU is already doing what I have suggested UConn could do, i.e., minimize the number of team sports that it plays in the conference. WVU plays only football, baseball, men's and women's basketball, women's soccer and women's volleyball as team sports in the B12. It sponsors an NCAA minimum 7 men's sports, and only competes in 5 of those in the B12 (also an NCAA minimum to be counted as a full member of the conference). Even WVU could reduce further by moving one women's team sport to another conference as an affiliate member.

This is the sanest response yet. Let's face it, the Temple model of cutting sports is more in line with what non power schools will do in reaction to the P5 hogging all the cash.

TV revenue, bowl payouts, even apparel agreements! Look at Louisville's $8m a year contract!

For schools like WVU that make even more than Uconn, based on its geographic isolation and travel burdens, prudence in sponsoring certain sports and then placement of those sports in more geographic favorable conferences, is what Uconn will end up doing.

I'm not sure if it can be done, but what about cut sports, or if you want to keep them minimize travel by:

Uconn men's bb: AAC
Football: AAC
Baseball: AAC
Men's and women's outdoor and indoor Track and Field: AAC
Golf: AAC
8 sports in AAC

Big East for soccer, volleyball, men's/women's swimming, volleyball, field hockey, softball, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's tennis, rowing, lacrosse

13 in Big East

As it is now, lacrosse and field hockey are already in the Big East.

I posted the NCAA rule before, but basically, UConn must play 5 men's and 5 women's sports in the AAC, including football, men's and women's basketball and one other women's teams sport. The other AAC sports in which it competes can be non-team sports in which there is no regular season championship - so men's and women's x-country, indoor track, outdoor track, swimming, and golf could get you 10, and you only need 6.

I should add, UConn is fortunate to be located in an area with a large number of D1 schools. Connecticut has 7 D1 schools, Rhode Island -4, Massachusetts - 7, New York State - 22, and New Jersey - 8. All of these schools are within a 3 hour bus ride of UConn. The advantage is that UConn's entire OOC schedule can be constructed of nearby opponents. In basketball, for instance, UConn could easily schedule OOC home and homes with BC, St. John's, Providence, Rutgers or UMass. In non-revenue sports, the available road games are even more plentiful because you don't need to find P5 level opponents. That takes a large part of the sting out of the travel requirements of being in a spread out conference.

UConn's options are far greater than Syracuse's, for instance, which only has 8 or 9 schools within 3 hours, and only 3 within 90 minutes. UMaine (where I went to grad school) has zero (0) potential opponents with in 3 hours (UNH is just over 3 hours) and they manage sponsor 18 D1 sports, send the baseball and softball teams to Florida for weeks at a time, bus teams four hours to Boston all the time, and fly teams to play conference and OOC games.

West Virginia moved their soccer team to the MAC in 2012.

(04-15-2014 02:30 PM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  Long term membership in the AAC is unsustainable as the conference is currently structured. It isn't about football and it isn't about basketball. It's about travel for Olympic sports.

UCONN helped build this conference and has become its cornerstone. If it wanted more northeastern members, it could have demanded such additions. UMASS and Buffalo would have gladly taken the place of two current/future members. The conference likely would have accommodated UCONN if it had made being on a northeastern island an issue. However, I doubt UCONN thought it would be sticking around for a while. Therefore, you only have your school to blame for agreeing to the geographical makeup of the conference…..

(04-18-2014 10:06 AM)orangefan Wrote:  

(04-18-2014 08:39 AM)BE4evah Wrote:  

(04-18-2014 07:20 AM)orangefan Wrote:  

(04-18-2014 12:58 AM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(04-18-2014 12:26 AM)perimeterpost Wrote:  I love the title of this thread "UConn's membership is AAC is unsustainable". Describing the situation as "unsustainable" as if UConn is just so awesome there's no way possible that they can be held down in a miserable conference like the AAC. It's laugh out loud funny.

You've misread the title. Read the initial post, which explains it.

It has nothing to do with UConn being too good for the AAC. It has to do with them being isolated in the extreme northeast corner of the conference, facing enormous travel distances to the rest of the members of the conference.

Their travel situation is very similar to the one faced by West Virginia, whose AD has been very vocal about the negative effect of the travel distances on their student athletes in non-revenue sports especially. That's what's unsustainable in the long run.

WVU is already doing what I have suggested UConn could do, i.e., minimize the number of team sports that it plays in the conference. WVU plays only football, baseball, men's and women's basketball, women's soccer and women's volleyball as team sports in the B12. It sponsors an NCAA minimum 7 men's sports, and only competes in 5 of those in the B12 (also an NCAA minimum to be counted as a full member of the conference). Even WVU could reduce further by moving one women's team sport to another conference as an affiliate member.

This is the sanest response yet. Let's face it, the Temple model of cutting sports is more in line with what non power schools will do in reaction to the P5 hogging all the cash.

TV revenue, bowl payouts, even apparel agreements! Look at Louisville's $8m a year contract!

For schools like WVU that make even more than Uconn, based on its geographic isolation and travel burdens, prudence in sponsoring certain sports and then placement of those sports in more geographic favorable conferences, is what Uconn will end up doing.

I'm not sure if it can be done, but what about cut sports, or if you want to keep them minimize travel by:

Uconn men's bb: AAC
Football: AAC
Baseball: AAC
Men's and women's outdoor and indoor Track and Field: AAC
Golf: AAC
8 sports in AAC

Big East for soccer, volleyball, men's/women's swimming, volleyball, field hockey, softball, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's tennis, rowing, lacrosse

13 in Big East

As it is now, lacrosse and field hockey are already in the Big East.

I posted the NCAA rule before, but basically, UConn must play 5 men's and 5 women's sports in the AAC, including football, men's and women's basketball and one other women's teams sport. The other AAC sports in which it competes can be non-team sports in which there is no regular season championship - so men's and women's x-country, indoor track, outdoor track, swimming, and golf could get you 10, and you only need 6.

I should add, UConn is fortunate to be located in an area with a large number of D1 schools. Connecticut has 7 D1 schools, Rhode Island -4, Massachusetts - 7, New York State - 22, and New Jersey - 8. All of these schools are within a 3 hour bus ride of UConn. The advantage is that UConn's entire OOC schedule can be constructed of nearby opponents. In basketball, for instance, UConn could easily schedule OOC home and homes with BC, St. John's, Providence, Rutgers or UMass. In non-revenue sports, the available road games are even more plentiful because you don't need to find P5 level opponents. That takes a large part of the sting out of the travel requirements of being in a spread out conference.

UConn's options are far greater than Syracuse's, for instance, which only has 8 or 9 schools within 3 hours, and only 3 within 90 minutes. UMaine (where I went to grad school) has zero (0) potential opponents with in 3 hours (UNH is just over 3 hours) and they manage sponsor 18 D1 sports, send the baseball and softball teams to Florida for weeks at a time, bus teams four hours to Boston all the time, and fly teams to play conference and OOC games.

The benefit of such a plan is that in some of the sports that Uconn would keep in the AAC (track and field) compete more in meets than one on one.

So of Uconn's 22 sports, ice hockey, lacrosse, field hockey are already in the Big East (or soon to be Hockey East for ice hockey).

Would this work?

Keep in the AAC:
men:
basketball, football, golf, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field
women:
women's basketball, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field, rowing, swimming

(04-18-2014 12:53 AM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(04-18-2014 12:39 AM)Kaplony Wrote:  

(04-17-2014 11:55 PM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  Nonsense. I expect football at UConn to do quite well under new coach Diaco - just as it did under Edsall.

That's a huge problem right there.

http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/div..._polls.php

Quote:The talent availability is not a problem.

Yes it is.
http://247sports.com/Season/2015-Footbal...bled=False

South Carolina has just one player shy of double the number of 4 & 5 star recruits than Connecticut has players total and even with that and 17 3 star players South Carolina doesn't produce enough talent to support two programs at a high level without going out of state for around half of a recruiting class.

I'm not impressed with high school ratings - especially in football. But even if it were valid, it's irrelevant. No one is restricted to recruits just from their own state. If they were schools like Nebraska, Boise, and West Virginia would never have had any success.

Of course you aren't. Most people who are fans of schools like UConn who are perennially finishing in the bottom of the recruiting rankings aren't fans of recruiting rankings.

And comparing UConn to the three schools you listed is foolish. Nebraska is college football royalty, West Virginia is a decades long power ranked 24th all time in winning percentage, and Boise can take recruits that none of the major teams out west can because of their relaxed academic standards. Of course, now that I think about it you could compare to Boise since the APR issues UConn has had in basketball shows that the folks in Storrs only pay lip service to the student part of student athlete anyway.

(04-18-2014 10:42 AM)BE4evah Wrote:  The benefit of such a plan is that in some of the sports that Uconn would keep in the AAC (track and field) compete more in meets than one on one.

So of Uconn's 22 sports, ice hockey, lacrosse, field hockey are already in the Big East (or soon to be Hockey East for ice hockey).

Would this work?

Keep in the AAC:
men:
basketball, football, golf, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field
women:
women's basketball, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field, rowing, swimming

Yes, except you would need another women's team sport that plays a league schedule. Rowing can count as a team sport, but there has to be a league schedule. So replace rowing with soccer, softball or volleyball, and you're good.

As someone else pointed out, this may violate conference rules and may require a rule change or a waiver. However, this is consistent with NCAA minimum requirements for an FBS conference.

The AAC won't allow UConn to do that btw. Why would they? Folks have to remember, the AAC has ALL of the cards here. Football. UConn can't take their football anywhere else and not have it disintigrate. AAC knows it and UConn knows it.

I'm sorry if I missed something - I skipped a few pages when the mud slinging started.

I agree with the title of the thread but not the reasons stated in the original post. Travel is not the issue. ECU is the same distance as VT was. USF was in the BE for years. UCF is about the same distance as USF. Both are a lot closer than Miami which, by most accounts, everyone loved having in the oBE.

I think Underdog was the first to identify the issue - if Uconn has P5 aspirations, they must remain in a G5 conference. They might do well in the BE but I would not bet money on them moving from the BE to a P5 conference. From a bowls and scheduling perspective, I don't think independence is an option.

It is not relevant but as a point of clarification - I show Uconn at 25 sports (I counted swimming and diving as 2 separate sports since some schools only sponsor diving). That means 6 ACC schools sponsor more sports - BS 33, Duke 28, UNC 30, NCSU 26, ND 27, UVa 27. VT is at 23, FSU and UL have 22. 6 have 21 or less. In terms of numbers of sports, Uconn would be middle of the ACC.

edit: Uconn has 25 sports.

(04-18-2014 11:11 AM)stever20 Wrote:  The AAC won't allow UConn to do that btw. Why would they? Folks have to remember, the AAC has ALL of the cards here. Football. UConn can't take their football anywhere else and not have it disintigrate. AAC knows it and UConn knows it.

I doubt the Big East would go for it either. The sports that are in the Big East now are there because of the separation agreement between the C7 and the old Big East. They only have to take a sport from UConn (or Cincy and USF and previously, Rutgers and Louisville) if the AAC doesn't also sponsor the sport. Unless they need it to make up the numbers, I'm not sure why they would agree to it.

(04-18-2014 09:50 AM)nzmorange Wrote:  

(04-18-2014 08:50 AM)prp Wrote:  

(04-18-2014 07:20 AM)orangefan Wrote:  

(04-18-2014 12:58 AM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(04-18-2014 12:26 AM)perimeterpost Wrote:  I love the title of this thread "UConn's membership is AAC is unsustainable". Describing the situation as "unsustainable" as if UConn is just so awesome there's no way possible that they can be held down in a miserable conference like the AAC. It's laugh out loud funny.

You've misread the title. Read the initial post, which explains it.

It has nothing to do with UConn being too good for the AAC. It has to do with them being isolated in the extreme northeast corner of the conference, facing enormous travel distances to the rest of the members of the conference.

Their travel situation is very similar to the one faced by West Virginia, whose AD has been very vocal about the negative effect of the travel distances on their student athletes in non-revenue sports especially. That's what's unsustainable in the long run.

WVU is already doing what I have suggested UConn could do, i.e., minimize the number of team sports that it plays in the conference. WVU plays only football, baseball, men's and women's basketball, women's soccer and women's volleyball as team sports in the B12. It sponsors an NCAA minimum 7 men's sports, and only competes in 5 of those in the B12 (also an NCAA minimum to be counted as a full member of the conference). Even WVU could reduce further by moving one women's team sport to another conference as an affiliate member.

WVU place every one of its sports sponsored by the Big 12 in the Big 12. That's usually a requirement of most conferences unless they work out a deal for an exception. The sports that compete elsewhere is not by choice, it's because the Big 12 doesn't sponsor them. If the Big 12 started up men's soccer for next season, WVU soccer would be there.

What you say is true. However, it could be the case that WVU tailored their athletic department accordingly.

In other words, they could have intentionally dropped many of the sports that the Big XII sponsors in favor of sports not sponsored.

Edit: If there are any WVU fans out there that know, please chime in.

West Virginia hasn't dropped any sports since joining the Big XII. If my memory is correct, I believe they've added a few.

(04-18-2014 07:20 AM)orangefan Wrote:  WVU is already doing what I have suggested UConn could do, i.e., minimize the number of team sports that it plays in the conference. WVU plays only football, baseball, men's and women's basketball, women's soccer and women's volleyball as team sports in the B12. It sponsors an NCAA minimum 7 men's sports, and only competes in 5 of those in the B12 (also an NCAA minimum to be counted as a full member of the conference). Even WVU could reduce further by moving one women's team sport to another conference as an affiliate member.

Except "reduce further" is a misleading way to phrase it, since it makes it sound like WVU had already reduced its sports in the Big12 once, in response to travel costs, which it never did.

And which it would be silly to do, since, after all, its conference payout has gone up dramatically more than its travel costs have risen.

This fantasy redesign of affiliated sports seems like a reaction to what seems like Power Conference realignment settling down for a while (as it normally does after each period of Power Conference realignment), so that those who have become addicted to realignment speculation need something to speculate about in the face of the fact that UConn is likely staying put for the next decade or so.

(04-18-2014 01:37 PM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(04-18-2014 09:50 AM)nzmorange Wrote:  

(04-18-2014 08:50 AM)prp Wrote:  

(04-18-2014 07:20 AM)orangefan Wrote:  

(04-18-2014 12:58 AM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  You've misread the title. Read the initial post, which explains it.

It has nothing to do with UConn being too good for the AAC. It has to do with them being isolated in the extreme northeast corner of the conference, facing enormous travel distances to the rest of the members of the conference.

Their travel situation is very similar to the one faced by West Virginia, whose AD has been very vocal about the negative effect of the travel distances on their student athletes in non-revenue sports especially. That's what's unsustainable in the long run.

WVU is already doing what I have suggested UConn could do, i.e., minimize the number of team sports that it plays in the conference. WVU plays only football, baseball, men's and women's basketball, women's soccer and women's volleyball as team sports in the B12. It sponsors an NCAA minimum 7 men's sports, and only competes in 5 of those in the B12 (also an NCAA minimum to be counted as a full member of the conference). Even WVU could reduce further by moving one women's team sport to another conference as an affiliate member.

WVU place every one of its sports sponsored by the Big 12 in the Big 12. That's usually a requirement of most conferences unless they work out a deal for an exception. The sports that compete elsewhere is not by choice, it's because the Big 12 doesn't sponsor them. If the Big 12 started up men's soccer for next season, WVU soccer would be there.

What you say is true. However, it could be the case that WVU tailored their athletic department accordingly.

In other words, they could have intentionally dropped many of the sports that the Big XII sponsors in favor of sports not sponsored.

Edit: If there are any WVU fans out there that know, please chime in.

West Virginia hasn't dropped any sports since joining the Big XII. If my memory is correct, I believe they've added a few.

I believe WVU added men's golf for the 2015 season as the B12 sponsors it.
I don't think they have picked up any other sports.