(12-10-2018 08:22 PM)stever20 Wrote:  its funny- like johnbragg said on the main CSN site- this is the first time I've really thought there was a realistic shot for UConn to go to the Big East. It's gone up in my mind from like 5% to I'd say at least 40%.

Do think it's real interesting that Aresco has been quiet today....

I have always thought there was a strong possibility, simply because there is no way that UConn is in the AAC in seven years. By that time, the duration of being without power conference money would have been over a decade, and that gap would have been far too wide to ever come close to competing with anymore. Add that to the poor institutional fit that UConn has with the other AAC schools, the significant geographical distances, the incredibly weak commitment to men's basketball from the bottom of the league and the continual downfall to UConn Football, a move (whether to the BE or otherwise) was/is inevitable.

(12-11-2018 11:08 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  

(12-10-2018 08:22 PM)stever20 Wrote:  its funny- like johnbragg said on the main CSN site- this is the first time I've really thought there was a realistic shot for UConn to go to the Big East. It's gone up in my mind from like 5% to I'd say at least 40%.

Do think it's real interesting that Aresco has been quiet today....

I have always thought there was a strong possibility, simply because there is no way that UConn is in the AAC in seven years. By that time, the duration of being without power conference money would have been over a decade, and that gap would have been far too wide to ever come close to competing with anymore. Add that to the poor institutional fit that UConn has with the other AAC schools, the significant geographical distances, the incredibly weak commitment to men's basketball from the bottom of the league and the continual downfall to UConn Football, a move (whether to the BE or otherwise) was/is inevitable.

It's funny though- that bottom has started to improve. USF really when you think about it should have beaten Georgetown. They're 6-2 and could easily be 10-2 heading into conference play. ECU got the FGCU coach and is better this year. Tulane lost best player to NBA and they're struggling some. Tulsa just beat Oklahoma St and Kansas St.

(12-11-2018 11:19 AM)stever20 Wrote:  

(12-11-2018 11:08 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  

(12-10-2018 08:22 PM)stever20 Wrote:  its funny- like johnbragg said on the main CSN site- this is the first time I've really thought there was a realistic shot for UConn to go to the Big East. It's gone up in my mind from like 5% to I'd say at least 40%.

Do think it's real interesting that Aresco has been quiet today....

I have always thought there was a strong possibility, simply because there is no way that UConn is in the AAC in seven years. By that time, the duration of being without power conference money would have been over a decade, and that gap would have been far too wide to ever come close to competing with anymore. Add that to the poor institutional fit that UConn has with the other AAC schools, the significant geographical distances, the incredibly weak commitment to men's basketball from the bottom of the league and the continual downfall to UConn Football, a move (whether to the BE or otherwise) was/is inevitable.

It's funny though- that bottom has started to improve. USF really when you think about it should have beaten Georgetown. They're 6-2 and could easily be 10-2 heading into conference play. ECU got the FGCU coach and is better this year. Tulane lost best player to NBA and they're struggling some. Tulsa just beat Oklahoma St and Kansas St.

Athletics aside, what does UConn have in common with the other schools in the American? They are an outlier in terms of geography and academics (aside from Tulane). In terms of where their alumni work/live, very small pockets of them reside in the markets that the AAC is mostly based (South). There is very little connection and the relationship is based purely on survival rather than growth.

Look at what the Big East has accomplished in its reorganization. It now has ten schools that are all like-minded institutions with a clear focus towards high-level men's basketball. Academics are strong. Markets are strong (and heavily favored in the Northeast). There is a big presence in New York City, including its tournament, a location that UConn desires to be in.

No disrespect to you Stever, but the fact that you have to talk up the accomplishments of a USF, ECU and Tulane basketball program to how it can benefit UConn should speak volumes to where they find itself institutionally.

(12-11-2018 01:08 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  

(12-11-2018 11:19 AM)stever20 Wrote:  

(12-11-2018 11:08 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  

(12-10-2018 08:22 PM)stever20 Wrote:  its funny- like johnbragg said on the main CSN site- this is the first time I've really thought there was a realistic shot for UConn to go to the Big East. It's gone up in my mind from like 5% to I'd say at least 40%.

Do think it's real interesting that Aresco has been quiet today....

I have always thought there was a strong possibility, simply because there is no way that UConn is in the AAC in seven years. By that time, the duration of being without power conference money would have been over a decade, and that gap would have been far too wide to ever come close to competing with anymore. Add that to the poor institutional fit that UConn has with the other AAC schools, the significant geographical distances, the incredibly weak commitment to men's basketball from the bottom of the league and the continual downfall to UConn Football, a move (whether to the BE or otherwise) was/is inevitable.

It's funny though- that bottom has started to improve. USF really when you think about it should have beaten Georgetown. They're 6-2 and could easily be 10-2 heading into conference play. ECU got the FGCU coach and is better this year. Tulane lost best player to NBA and they're struggling some. Tulsa just beat Oklahoma St and Kansas St.

Athletics aside, what does UConn have in common with the other schools in the American? They are an outlier in terms of geography and academics (aside from Tulane). In terms of where their alumni work/live, very small pockets of them reside in the markets that the AAC is mostly based (South). There is very little connection and the relationship is based purely on survival rather than growth.

Look at what the Big East has accomplished in its reorganization. It now has ten schools that are all like-minded institutions with a clear focus towards high-level men's basketball. Academics are strong. Markets are strong (and heavily favored in the Northeast). There is a big presence in New York City, including its tournament, a location that UConn desires to be in.

No disrespect to you Stever, but the fact that you have to talk up the accomplishments of a USF, ECU and Tulane basketball program to how it can benefit UConn should speak volumes to where they find itself institutionally.

I mean, it's about the football program and the path of least resistance. A lot of UConn's big money donors sunk money into a program that was functionally a wager on an ACC invite, but it didn't pay off and now UConn's stuck with a white elephant that they can't practically euthanize for fear of alienating some of their most prominent boosters. Institutional fit and academics and all that are mostly message board fodder - the boneyard likes to talk about the importance of UConn remaining aligned with big, like-minded state institutions while also longing for a future where they regularly play Syracuse, BC, and Duke. Things probably have to get worse to get better, be it in the form of UConn being the only GOR hold-out or a rebuild of the Big 12 taking most of the most attractive AAC brands, before UConn can finally stomach further action. The story of UConn as it relates to conference realignment is one of being reactive rather than proactive (hence the "we're still in the same place we always were, you all left!" argument being some weird point of pride).

(12-03-2018 11:19 AM)stever20 Wrote:  

(12-03-2018 11:13 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  What about scheduling the two Big East teams not in the Gavitt Games to do have a home and home with Gonzaga? This year, it would have been Butler and Providence. Gonzaga could have a home game against one, and then travel to the other.

Again, I don't think Gonzaga needs it, nor do I think the Big East needs it, but it is something that is easily attainable if both sides wanted it.

I just don't think Gonzaga would want it. They already have 4 of their 8 tough OOC games spoken for in exempt tourney and Washington. They're able to get pretty close to any national game they want...

And like take next year. One of the teams that could easily sit out is DePaul. What interest would Gonzaga have of playing DePaul?

So Gonzaga released their schedule yesterday and this year's home slate is Alabama State, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, North Dakota, UT-Arlington, CSU Bakersfield, Texas Southern, North Carolina, Eastern Washington, Detroit Mercy, and 8 WCC games. Their away/neutral games are strong, but it's not hard to argue that their season ticket holders are only getting one premium game all season (on a Wednesday night, no less). Everything else ranges from mediocre at best to garbagey filler.

Gonzaga will do fine on ticket sales anyway, because they're Gonzaga, but I'd wager that 9 out of 10 of their ticket-buying base would be pretty happy to add one or two Big East teams to that home slate if given the opportunity.

think about it though. They get 17 home games, and 8 road conference games. And then 3 Battle 4 Atlantis games. Leaves 3 road games- they're @ Washington, Texas A&M, and Arizona. They need the home volume. They can't afford to have only 15 home games(very few top programs can).

(08-27-2019 09:11 AM)stever20 Wrote:  think about it though. They get 17 home games, and 8 road conference games. And then 3 Battle 4 Atlantis games. Leaves 3 road games- they're @ Washington, Texas A&M, and Arizona. They need the home volume. They can't afford to have only 15 home games(very few top programs can).

Every other major basketball program in the country plays either an 18- or 20-game conference schedule. Gonzaga going to a 16+2 or 16+4 schedule would not be some unusual burden, it would be the same base condition that every one of their peer programs operates under on an annual basis, with the added kicker that a good portion of the WCC schedule isn't meaningfully more challenging than much of those peer programs' buy games.

Everyone else is headed towards 20 conference games, one or two conference-wide challenge games, and an early-season tournament but Gonzaga couldn't possibly cobble together a schedule with any more than 16 pre-committed games?

It will be interesting for Gonzaga scheduling moving forward. The WCC severely impacts their scheduling strength. However, a BE-scheduling alliance, if it truly made sense for them, probably would have already happened. To be clear, I do not mean membership, just a home/home annually with two BE programs (one home, one away).

1 point I think I've said a ton so far but it's so true- the NET doesn't impact playing bad teams anywhere near as much as the RPI did. Used to be with the RPI- you'd play a bad team and you would see your rating drop even if you won by 100...... Now that's just not the case at all....

have to remember that Few was on the panel that helped create the NET.

(08-27-2019 09:52 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  It will be interesting for Gonzaga scheduling moving forward. The WCC severely impacts their scheduling strength. However, a BE-scheduling alliance, if it truly made sense for them, probably would have already happened. To be clear, I do not mean membership, just a home/home annually with two BE programs (one home, one away).

UConn full-on joining the Big East didn't make sense all the way up until it did.

(08-27-2019 10:00 AM)stever20 Wrote:  1 point I think I've said a ton so far but it's so true- the NET doesn't impact playing bad teams anywhere near as much as the RPI did. Used to be with the RPI- you'd play a bad team and you would see your rating drop even if you won by 100...... Now that's just not the case at all....

have to remember that Few was on the panel that helped create the NET.

Color me skeptical that the NCAA's going to do anything to enshrine the WCC/A10/MVC/MWC as multi-bid conferences every year. The open not-even-a-secret is that the NCAA is going to massage the numbers however they have to in order to keep the biggest-money conferences happy.

(08-27-2019 12:54 PM)Bogg Wrote:  

(08-27-2019 09:52 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  It will be interesting for Gonzaga scheduling moving forward. The WCC severely impacts their scheduling strength. However, a BE-scheduling alliance, if it truly made sense for them, probably would have already happened. To be clear, I do not mean membership, just a home/home annually with two BE programs (one home, one away).

UConn full-on joining the Big East didn't make sense all the way up until it did.

(08-27-2019 10:00 AM)stever20 Wrote:  1 point I think I've said a ton so far but it's so true- the NET doesn't impact playing bad teams anywhere near as much as the RPI did. Used to be with the RPI- you'd play a bad team and you would see your rating drop even if you won by 100...... Now that's just not the case at all....

have to remember that Few was on the panel that helped create the NET.

Color me skeptical that the NCAA's going to do anything to enshrine the WCC/A10/MVC/MWC as multi-bid conferences every year. The open not-even-a-secret is that the NCAA is going to massage the numbers however they have to in order to keep the biggest-money conferences happy.

then why did they go away from the RPI, which killed teams from conferences like the WCC with the RPI killers. And why did they allow Few to help design the NET?

(08-27-2019 01:02 PM)stever20 Wrote:  

(08-27-2019 12:54 PM)Bogg Wrote:  

(08-27-2019 09:52 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  It will be interesting for Gonzaga scheduling moving forward. The WCC severely impacts their scheduling strength. However, a BE-scheduling alliance, if it truly made sense for them, probably would have already happened. To be clear, I do not mean membership, just a home/home annually with two BE programs (one home, one away).

UConn full-on joining the Big East didn't make sense all the way up until it did.

(08-27-2019 10:00 AM)stever20 Wrote:  1 point I think I've said a ton so far but it's so true- the NET doesn't impact playing bad teams anywhere near as much as the RPI did. Used to be with the RPI- you'd play a bad team and you would see your rating drop even if you won by 100...... Now that's just not the case at all....

have to remember that Few was on the panel that helped create the NET.

Color me skeptical that the NCAA's going to do anything to enshrine the WCC/A10/MVC/MWC as multi-bid conferences every year. The open not-even-a-secret is that the NCAA is going to massage the numbers however they have to in order to keep the biggest-money conferences happy.

then why did they go away from the RPI, which killed teams from conferences like the WCC with the RPI killers. And why did they allow Few to help design the NET?

Give it time. If the WCC and A10 start regularly putting four and five teams in the tournament I'll openly admit I was wrong.

(08-27-2019 01:31 PM)Bogg Wrote:  

(08-27-2019 01:02 PM)stever20 Wrote:  

(08-27-2019 12:54 PM)Bogg Wrote:  

(08-27-2019 09:52 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  It will be interesting for Gonzaga scheduling moving forward. The WCC severely impacts their scheduling strength. However, a BE-scheduling alliance, if it truly made sense for them, probably would have already happened. To be clear, I do not mean membership, just a home/home annually with two BE programs (one home, one away).

UConn full-on joining the Big East didn't make sense all the way up until it did.

(08-27-2019 10:00 AM)stever20 Wrote:  1 point I think I've said a ton so far but it's so true- the NET doesn't impact playing bad teams anywhere near as much as the RPI did. Used to be with the RPI- you'd play a bad team and you would see your rating drop even if you won by 100...... Now that's just not the case at all....

have to remember that Few was on the panel that helped create the NET.

Color me skeptical that the NCAA's going to do anything to enshrine the WCC/A10/MVC/MWC as multi-bid conferences every year. The open not-even-a-secret is that the NCAA is going to massage the numbers however they have to in order to keep the biggest-money conferences happy.

then why did they go away from the RPI, which killed teams from conferences like the WCC with the RPI killers. And why did they allow Few to help design the NET?

Give it time. If the WCC and A10 start regularly putting four and five teams in the tournament I'll openly admit I was wrong.

don't think it'll do that- but it will impact the seeding. Look at Gonzaga just last year. #2 in the NET, but 8 in the RPI. Got a 1 seed pretty easily. You just want to look at things in the prism of just getting in the tourney. Seeding is just as big, if not moreso for teams obviously like Gonzaga.

(08-27-2019 01:37 PM)stever20 Wrote:  don't think it'll do that- but it will impact the seeding. Look at Gonzaga just last year. #2 in the NET, but 8 in the RPI. Got a 1 seed pretty easily. You just want to look at things in the prism of just getting in the tourney. Seeding is just as big, if not moreso for teams obviously like Gonzaga.

None of this has anything to do with Gonzaga having a bust of a home schedule for Joe Ticketbuyer. I'd compare it to UConn this year, who has a decent enough schedule overall but only Florida as a marketable home game. Getting better true home contests was a significant part of UConn changing conferences.

(08-27-2019 01:41 PM)Bogg Wrote:  

(08-27-2019 01:37 PM)stever20 Wrote:  don't think it'll do that- but it will impact the seeding. Look at Gonzaga just last year. #2 in the NET, but 8 in the RPI. Got a 1 seed pretty easily. You just want to look at things in the prism of just getting in the tourney. Seeding is just as big, if not moreso for teams obviously like Gonzaga.

None of this has anything to do with Gonzaga having a bust of a home schedule for Joe Ticketbuyer. I'd compare it to UConn this year, who has a decent enough schedule overall but only Florida as a marketable home game. Getting better true home contests was a significant part of UConn changing conferences.

home schedules aren't as good as they were 20 years ago- and that's probably not going to change....

Also would note for Gonzaga- their home schedules recently have sucked... 2 years ago just Creighton was good. Last year just Washington. 3 years ago just Washington. A lot of their thing has been to do their thing road/neutral which is worth more.

(12-11-2018 11:03 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  

(12-10-2018 08:11 PM)HuskyU Wrote:  Bump. For the obsession (which I'm kinda into now).

UCONN to the Big East! I'm over this s*** AAC conference. And I'm not alone.

It worked!

(08-27-2019 02:17 PM)HuskyU Wrote:  

(12-11-2018 11:03 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  

(12-10-2018 08:11 PM)HuskyU Wrote:  Bump. For the obsession (which I'm kinda into now).

UCONN to the Big East! I'm over this s*** AAC conference. And I'm not alone.

It worked!

Jedi Mind tricks never fail.

(08-27-2019 12:54 PM)Bogg Wrote:  UConn full-on joining the Big East didn't make sense all the way up until it did.

The only thing ever in question and didn't make sense was the status of football; and UConn has made it's choice. Whether they are trying to truly make independence work or not, it seems that UConn drew a line in the sand and declared basketball their #1 sport.

(08-27-2019 01:58 PM)stever20 Wrote:  home schedules aren't as good as they were 20 years ago- and that's probably not going to change....

Also would note for Gonzaga- their home schedules recently have sucked... 2 years ago just Creighton was good. Last year just Washington. 3 years ago just Washington. A lot of their thing has been to do their thing road/neutral which is worth more.

Well, it certainly won't change if Gonzaga is prioritizing loading up on SWAC and Summit League schools over adding some marquee matchups.

"We've traditionally played uninteresting schedules" isn't a good reason to avoid throwing your fans a bone.

EDIT: I didn't even realize how bad that schedule is, not only is the UNC game on a Wednesday night, it's during Christmas break. The last day of the semester is the week prior.

LOL. That's god awful.