(12-06-2017 04:30 PM)Tigersmoke4 Wrote:  

(12-06-2017 03:29 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(12-06-2017 03:08 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  Interesting comments last night from Seth Greenberg (and also Dick Vitale) during the ESPN telecast of the Syracuse/UConn game.

Seth Greenberg: “If I was a UConn fan I’d do everything I can to make sure that UConn gets back in the Big East. UConn has got to get back to the Big East where they belong. No offense to the American Athletic conference but the Big East is a GREAT basketball conference."

Kind of odd to see ESPN commentators talk down one of their own properties. I can't remember seeing that before.

FTR, I don't think UConn is coming back to the Big East.

UConn is between a rock and a hard place. As long as there is even a tiny sliver of hope for a P5 invite down the road, then it simply cannot leave the AAC. P5 membership is based on football and independence simply isn't realistically viable for a school like UConn.

However, the money is simple: the Big East makes more TV money just based on basketball than the AAC (and every other G5 conference) makes on football and basketball *combined*. We can argue all day about whether the Big East would get the same contract again or the AAC will get a better contract in a few years and yada yada yada... but the fact is that the Big East completely CRUSHES the G5 conferences when it comes to TV money, which is essentially the entire crux of the conference realignment game. It says something that schools like DePaul and Seton Hall are making more TV money than schools like UConn outright... and when you consider that those Big East schools aren't having to deal with the costs of FBS football, the revenue/expense/P&L gap is a complete blowout.

I think that if UConn decided to drop FBS football, then they'd clearly want to be in the Big East (as it's simply the most desirable conference for *any* non-FBS Division I basketball school outside of the Ivy League). However, they're not dropping FBS football at any point soon, in which case it needs to do everything it can to do what's best for its FBS football program since that's the reality of today's college sports world. That means staying in the AAC and praying that there's a P5 invite in a few years.

More money combined??! Well let's see.
1.8 million a year from existing tv contract
20+ million a year from current cfp contracted allotment
20+ million a year for being the top g5 conference
4 million from the peach bowl
2.6 million from the liberty bowl
Not including Ncaa credits ?? Millions
Plus the other bowl payouts
I think all of that should total up to an extra 50+ million to split up. Maybe Frank the tank will know exactly since he is so sure that the NBE makes more than all the g5s, but if all of that totals up say 54 million that's another 4.5 million a year and that's before the NBE money is added to the pot. I may have some figures wrong so someone please correct me

I said TV money (which is true). Yes, there are other conference distributions for football as you've noted, but there are also the Big East's own NCAA Tournament distributions that are very high and only split among 10 schools. Regardless, the Big East is earning that all of that revenue without the expense of FBS football. The gap on the profit/loss and ROI is even wider.