(09-08-2020 07:52 PM)ChrisLords Wrote:  

(09-08-2020 06:16 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(09-08-2020 05:12 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(09-08-2020 09:11 AM)CliftonAve Wrote:  

(09-08-2020 08:52 AM)bullet Wrote:  Wasn't a renegotiation. Their contract expired. I don't know what ESPN's thinking was, but looking at the BE contract and the rest of the G5 contracts, I'm guessing the AAC was paid only slightly more than the rest of the G5 for football, but was paid well for basketball. Their ratings have been good, so now they are getting a significant premium for football over the rest of the G5.

UConn is a huge loss for basketball. You're delusional if you think it doesn't. A few rough seasons doesn't erase 4 national titles. That puts them ahead of Kansas and behind only UCLA, UK, UNC, Duke and Indiana. And football is more about the top half of the conference than the bottom, so it doesn't help losing them in football.

Their football Tv ratings were the worst in the league for many years now Even Tulsa and Tulane did better. . I don’t understand why you are being so obtuse on this issue.

Yes, it sucks for hoops, but in the grand scheme of things ESPN gave this conference a new media deal and there has been no indication there will be a per team pay cut after UConn left.

The simple point is that you are dissing UConn because they decided the Big East was better than the AAC. Basketball was better and they think their football schedule will be better (obviously didn't work too well this year!). If you weren't so hung up on getting left behind, again, you would have understood what I said in the first paragraph. The AAC ratings were good, so they got paid better. Your interpretation claiming I said UConn had great fb ratings makes no sense whatsoever from the words or the context. Learn to read without your prejudices clouding your interpretations.

Yes, before UConn split, AAC fans typically held them up as a major member of the conference. Once they left, now it's "good riddance, they were dragging our football down". It's the butt-hurt of the jilted.

Truth is, despite their football ineptitude, UConn was the biggest brand-name in the AAC. That's just how it was.

I don't think anyone that follows CFB thinks UConn was the biggest brand in the AAC. Cincy, Houston and UCF all have multiple major bowl appearances since 2005 BE expansion. UConn had one, but back doored into it in a 4 or 5 way tie for first where they had the tie breakers, and got blown out by Oklahoma, and sold less than 4000 tickets. Not the standard for an elite program.

I think Quo meant UConn was the AAC's "biggest brand name" in an all-around sense (academics, hoops, historical associations with big-time athletic programs from the Big East days, baseball, state flagship, etc.).

However, I would contend the "biggest brand name" in the AAC is Navy — because a military academy "brand" goes way beyond sports.

And quite frankly — and admittedly I'm biased because I root for the Bearcats — losing Cincinnati because of its one-two hoops/football punch and its very respectable academics (med school and strong endowment, for examples) would have been worse for the American than having lost UConn.