(10-24-2019 09:49 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(10-24-2019 08:38 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  Tidbits from the article:

“That was an extremely confidential process and there were very few people involved,” athletic director David Benedict said. “That's just the way it had to be.” Basically, Benedict chose not to let affected parties know because A) there was a risk the Big East deal would fall apart, as a prior one had a few years ago; and B) he couldn’t let word leak.

So, UConn had prior talks with the Big East years ago (while in the AAC). This would align with reports from several college basketball commentators (including those on ESPN) that echoed and reported that belief.

"The AAC’s new TV contract, one of the reasons it was so intent on leaving the conference, would have pushed many UConn games onto ESPN-Plus."

Once again, the deciding factor that UConn chose to bolt: the AAC TV deal.

"UConn’s guarantee games in the future will come mostly against top teams from the SEC and Big Ten. It will be balanced with home-and-home series with mid-level Power 5 teams and regionalized with expected annual games against Boston College, UMass, Syracuse and Army. BYU is expected to be a regular opponent."

This type of annual schedule will be as good, if not better in some years, than what UConn had in the Big East. This will immensely help with a TV contract and recruiting.

The previous talks also would tend to end any debate that the new TV deal was the straw that broke the camels back. Clearly, UConn had already decided it wanted back in the Big East years before the new TV deal was even negotiated.

I know that there were several rumors of discussions between UConn and Big East over the past few years, so the AD's comments appear to confirm that those really did take place.

Granted, my interpretation is the the new TV deal confirmed the financial exposure for UConn, so they really couldn't leave until they saw the final figures. It's not so much that it was the straw that broke the camel's back because it was supposedly a terrible deal (which it isn't), but rather that the TV deal wasn't so *great* that it would compensate for the long-term positives of being in the Big East. If each AAC school was going to make $20 million in TV money per year, then UConn wasn't going to leave. When the AAC TV deal didn't represent a material change to UConn's financial condition, then that is what sealed the deal. The Big East TV deal is actually P5 level for *basketball* (which is the distinction that seems to be needed to be pointed out every time that people try to compare it to the football/basketball AAC deal), so UConn is looking at it from the standpoint that they can get to TV revenue neutral or better with an independent TV deal for football as a Big East member for other sports compared to being a full AAC member.

EDIT: it looks like quo made the exact same point while I was typing this.