(04-02-2018 11:47 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(04-02-2018 10:27 AM)stever20 Wrote:  I totally see why the Big East faction with UConn wants to make the move now. Because they know if they don't now, and Hurley turns UConn around, the AAC will be a very tough conference with a lot of tourney teams and the ability to get 4 or 5 teams in with high seeds yearly. They know if UConn turns it around now, the blame will be on 1 thing and 1 thing only- Kevin Ollie.

I honestly don't think that matters this much since it's short-term fan thinking. Winning can cure a lot of ills, but that doesn't mean that they're happy with the conference overall. Also, as I've said before, arguably the biggest driver of conference realignment is revenue and fan interest protection on the *downside* in down years much more than the upside in good years. The rivalries that UConn has are simply longer and deeper with the Big East overall (along with Madison Square Garden for the Big East Tournament among other things) and if it's a revenue positive move for basketball, then whether Hurley wins over the next few years is irrelevant.

Instead, this is about football. Does UConn believe that it's going to be in a P5 conference or not? If the answer is yes, then they need to stay in the AAC. If the answer is no, then the Big East becomes much more attractive.

Once again, conference realignment is NOT about the on-the-court (or field) upside. When a team is winning, it's easy to fill the stands and that applies to every school no matter what conference you might be in. However, EVERY school also goes through down periods (and UConn is certainly no exception) and the fan interest in a conference is what buoys a program through those down periods. An athletic department's job for conference realignment is to figure out how to have consistent revenue year-to-year regardless of wins and losses.

The AAC is a very good basketball conference, but the last few seasons have made it very clear that the league itself doesn't act as a buoy at all when UConn goes through a down period. THAT is likely what has scared the UConn athletic department when it comes to a decision between the AAC vs. the Big East - it's not the losing itself, but rather that the AAC provides absolutely no buffer to dwindling fan interest when UConn isn't playing well. The Big East arguably provides more of a buffer where games against Villanova, Georgetown, St. John's, etc. will always be intriguing to UConn fans in a way that Wichita State, Cincinnati and Houston can't no matter how good those teams might be in a particular season.

Once again, though, none of that matters if UConn still sincerely believes that it can get a P5 invite within the next decade. All of that is football-based as opposed to basketball-based.

Here's the dirty little secret---UConn basketball attendance has been trending downward since 2007. See the graph imbedded in the article. The graph shows attendance started to plateau around 2002-2007. There are obvious up and downs---but if this was a stock chart, you would be waiting for this thing to turn around before buying it. Im sure the AAC is contributing to the declines, but this started well before the AAC even existed.


http://adimeback.com/uconn-basketball-at...mplaining/