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Golden Jedi Knight Offline
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Post: #21
RE: Home Sweet Home
(06-22-2019 09:42 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  
(06-22-2019 03:23 PM)Golden Jedi Knight Wrote:  If UConn and the Big East both determine that they should be together, great. My question is, do the benefits of moving to the Big East outweigh staying in the American? I understand UConn's football program is tanking, and they lost rivalries with programs like Georgetown after the conference split. But is it worth sending UConn football to C-USA, the MAC, or maybe a return to being independent, and ending hope that they might be part of a power conference again? I'm not convinced that this is a wise move for UConn in the long-term. Maybe some of the Big East or UConn fans here can make a case and point out something I'm missing.

While I would hardly label the move as a no-brainer, UConn Athletics was running out of borrowed time. They bought themselves an extra realignment cycle (2013-2019) by utilizing the Big East war chest funds to help finance their athletic department during this time. Now that it ended, and the new AAC TV deal wasn't as much as these payouts, they were going to lose even more money long term by continuing to commit a path that was simply unsustainable for football and for its Olympic sports.

I think one of the key pieces of information today is the decision by UConn to keep football at the FBS level, ideally in another conference. They do not wish to drop it, nor do they need to at this point. However, if UConn still has a P5 dream (which they should), they need to right football - and there was just no way that was going to happen in the American. UConn Football had been lapped and overtaken by a majority of the AAC in the past five years. UCF, USF, Houston, Memphis and Cincinnati have all risen their football programs to the top of the AAC (for which UConn was expected to be a top program when the league formed); they each are in fertile football recruiting areas (of which Connecticut is not); each AAC football program has attracted young, up-and-coming coaches to lead their programs - and several programs have reached sustained success through multiple head coaches (UConn failed miserably with Diaco and, now, Edsall 2.0). In the AAC East, the only program that has arguably under-performed as much is ECU (but ECU was still able to hire an experienced and successful head coach this past offseason). Couple that with the scheduled OOC games (with usually a P5 or two thrown in there), and it makes it very challenging to create a sustained and competitive football program year-to-year. From this standpoint, UConn Football has a better chance at beating other weaker programs until it can take another level again (not unlike Temple in the Big East years ago).

Financially, everyone wants to point to the $10 million exit fee. My guess is that Fox will gladly cover a majority of that to get UConn on board for next season (it makes way too much sense not to). UConn was running a substantial athletic budget deficit that was created mainly due to football. By moving Olympic sports back home to the Big East, it significantly cuts down travel costs, reignites geographic and historic rivalries (gets back fan interest), gets access to the BET at MSG, and (most importantly) probably gets its Tier 3 rights back - which the new AAC TV deal did not account for. The next argument many will make is the $7 million vs. $4 million annual payouts between conferences. Well, UConn was spending $7 million alone annually on travel costs being in the American; the costs clearly made any revenue irrelevant. Fox will most likely assist in getting them some exposure for their football programs (and the Big East has greater connections to the B1G and Big 12 than the AAC did). Additionally, our next TV deal will now undoubtedly be higher thanks to UConn coming on board (so they are not only making more money on Olympics, and cutting down costs from travel purposes, but they are also increasing the value of their new conference as well).

From an exposure standpoint, Fox has done a wonderful job building and promoting the Big East from Day 1. We don't have announcers openly ridiculing our status as "power conference", nor do they openly campaign for our members to go to other conferences (especially on a competitor's network). Fox isn't also pushing us to all of its secondary streaming platforms to fill up content. ESPN's AAC TV deal is locked-in until 2030's; when the AAC is making $7 million annually then, each of the power conferences will have gotten new deals and only widened the gap. We had over twenty games last year on Fox/CBS alone, and that number will only go up. As a side-note, if somebody told ESPN that the Big East would be as strong today in 2012, that it would still have UConn AND that its rights would be fully owned by Fox, I doubt anyone would have believed them.

I get that there are some hard feelings/ill-will from many AAC fans (and even some UConn fans) regarding this move. However, this was always a strong possibility for UConn ever since the C7 reorganized the Big East in 2013. They played their best hand at the P5 table but had to fold; however, they still get to come home with some winnings (which is a lot better than had they continued to play the game; they may not have had anything left).

It’s not ill-will, at least not from me. I admit I’m disappointed we’re losing UConn, but I’m trying to understand the benefits to them. Most of your arguments make sense. However, I’m not sure I buy in to what you said about Fox helping with football; sure, I get that Fox might help with the exit fee, but I don’t get what you said about the Big East’s connections with the Big 10 and Big 12. Are any schools in those conferences interested in playing UConn in football? How and why would they help?
06-30-2019 03:32 PM
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Bogg Offline
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Post: #22
RE: Home Sweet Home
(06-30-2019 03:32 PM)Golden Jedi Knight Wrote:  
(06-22-2019 09:42 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  
(06-22-2019 03:23 PM)Golden Jedi Knight Wrote:  If UConn and the Big East both determine that they should be together, great. My question is, do the benefits of moving to the Big East outweigh staying in the American? I understand UConn's football program is tanking, and they lost rivalries with programs like Georgetown after the conference split. But is it worth sending UConn football to C-USA, the MAC, or maybe a return to being independent, and ending hope that they might be part of a power conference again? I'm not convinced that this is a wise move for UConn in the long-term. Maybe some of the Big East or UConn fans here can make a case and point out something I'm missing.

While I would hardly label the move as a no-brainer, UConn Athletics was running out of borrowed time. They bought themselves an extra realignment cycle (2013-2019) by utilizing the Big East war chest funds to help finance their athletic department during this time. Now that it ended, and the new AAC TV deal wasn't as much as these payouts, they were going to lose even more money long term by continuing to commit a path that was simply unsustainable for football and for its Olympic sports.

I think one of the key pieces of information today is the decision by UConn to keep football at the FBS level, ideally in another conference. They do not wish to drop it, nor do they need to at this point. However, if UConn still has a P5 dream (which they should), they need to right football - and there was just no way that was going to happen in the American. UConn Football had been lapped and overtaken by a majority of the AAC in the past five years. UCF, USF, Houston, Memphis and Cincinnati have all risen their football programs to the top of the AAC (for which UConn was expected to be a top program when the league formed); they each are in fertile football recruiting areas (of which Connecticut is not); each AAC football program has attracted young, up-and-coming coaches to lead their programs - and several programs have reached sustained success through multiple head coaches (UConn failed miserably with Diaco and, now, Edsall 2.0). In the AAC East, the only program that has arguably under-performed as much is ECU (but ECU was still able to hire an experienced and successful head coach this past offseason). Couple that with the scheduled OOC games (with usually a P5 or two thrown in there), and it makes it very challenging to create a sustained and competitive football program year-to-year. From this standpoint, UConn Football has a better chance at beating other weaker programs until it can take another level again (not unlike Temple in the Big East years ago).

Financially, everyone wants to point to the $10 million exit fee. My guess is that Fox will gladly cover a majority of that to get UConn on board for next season (it makes way too much sense not to). UConn was running a substantial athletic budget deficit that was created mainly due to football. By moving Olympic sports back home to the Big East, it significantly cuts down travel costs, reignites geographic and historic rivalries (gets back fan interest), gets access to the BET at MSG, and (most importantly) probably gets its Tier 3 rights back - which the new AAC TV deal did not account for. The next argument many will make is the $7 million vs. $4 million annual payouts between conferences. Well, UConn was spending $7 million alone annually on travel costs being in the American; the costs clearly made any revenue irrelevant. Fox will most likely assist in getting them some exposure for their football programs (and the Big East has greater connections to the B1G and Big 12 than the AAC did). Additionally, our next TV deal will now undoubtedly be higher thanks to UConn coming on board (so they are not only making more money on Olympics, and cutting down costs from travel purposes, but they are also increasing the value of their new conference as well).

From an exposure standpoint, Fox has done a wonderful job building and promoting the Big East from Day 1. We don't have announcers openly ridiculing our status as "power conference", nor do they openly campaign for our members to go to other conferences (especially on a competitor's network). Fox isn't also pushing us to all of its secondary streaming platforms to fill up content. ESPN's AAC TV deal is locked-in until 2030's; when the AAC is making $7 million annually then, each of the power conferences will have gotten new deals and only widened the gap. We had over twenty games last year on Fox/CBS alone, and that number will only go up. As a side-note, if somebody told ESPN that the Big East would be as strong today in 2012, that it would still have UConn AND that its rights would be fully owned by Fox, I doubt anyone would have believed them.

I get that there are some hard feelings/ill-will from many AAC fans (and even some UConn fans) regarding this move. However, this was always a strong possibility for UConn ever since the C7 reorganized the Big East in 2013. They played their best hand at the P5 table but had to fold; however, they still get to come home with some winnings (which is a lot better than had they continued to play the game; they may not have had anything left).

It’s not ill-will, at least not from me. I admit I’m disappointed we’re losing UConn, but I’m trying to understand the benefits to them. Most of your arguments make sense. However, I’m not sure I buy in to what you said about Fox helping with football; sure, I get that Fox might help with the exit fee, but I don’t get what you said about the Big East’s connections with the Big 10 and Big 12. Are any schools in those conferences interested in playing UConn in football? How and why would they help?

Just playing devil's advocate? Theoretically, UConn is a low-difficulty out of conference opponent, and for the schools in theose conferences that traditionally struggle in football (say, your Kansases and Indianas) the name of the game in football is 4 OOC wins and then going at least 2-6 in-conference just to get to 6 wins and bowl eligibility, which keeps your fans engaged late in the season and, if achieved, is considered a win by your students and donors. If UConn simply gets left on the list of acceptable OOC opponents per conference scheduling guidelines, theoretically the lesser football teams may seek them out for winnable home-and-homes and possible bowl eligibility.
06-30-2019 10:54 PM
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Golden Jedi Knight Offline
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Post: #23
RE: Home Sweet Home
(06-30-2019 10:54 PM)Bogg Wrote:  
(06-30-2019 03:32 PM)Golden Jedi Knight Wrote:  
(06-22-2019 09:42 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  
(06-22-2019 03:23 PM)Golden Jedi Knight Wrote:  If UConn and the Big East both determine that they should be together, great. My question is, do the benefits of moving to the Big East outweigh staying in the American? I understand UConn's football program is tanking, and they lost rivalries with programs like Georgetown after the conference split. But is it worth sending UConn football to C-USA, the MAC, or maybe a return to being independent, and ending hope that they might be part of a power conference again? I'm not convinced that this is a wise move for UConn in the long-term. Maybe some of the Big East or UConn fans here can make a case and point out something I'm missing.

While I would hardly label the move as a no-brainer, UConn Athletics was running out of borrowed time. They bought themselves an extra realignment cycle (2013-2019) by utilizing the Big East war chest funds to help finance their athletic department during this time. Now that it ended, and the new AAC TV deal wasn't as much as these payouts, they were going to lose even more money long term by continuing to commit a path that was simply unsustainable for football and for its Olympic sports.

I think one of the key pieces of information today is the decision by UConn to keep football at the FBS level, ideally in another conference. They do not wish to drop it, nor do they need to at this point. However, if UConn still has a P5 dream (which they should), they need to right football - and there was just no way that was going to happen in the American. UConn Football had been lapped and overtaken by a majority of the AAC in the past five years. UCF, USF, Houston, Memphis and Cincinnati have all risen their football programs to the top of the AAC (for which UConn was expected to be a top program when the league formed); they each are in fertile football recruiting areas (of which Connecticut is not); each AAC football program has attracted young, up-and-coming coaches to lead their programs - and several programs have reached sustained success through multiple head coaches (UConn failed miserably with Diaco and, now, Edsall 2.0). In the AAC East, the only program that has arguably under-performed as much is ECU (but ECU was still able to hire an experienced and successful head coach this past offseason). Couple that with the scheduled OOC games (with usually a P5 or two thrown in there), and it makes it very challenging to create a sustained and competitive football program year-to-year. From this standpoint, UConn Football has a better chance at beating other weaker programs until it can take another level again (not unlike Temple in the Big East years ago).

Financially, everyone wants to point to the $10 million exit fee. My guess is that Fox will gladly cover a majority of that to get UConn on board for next season (it makes way too much sense not to). UConn was running a substantial athletic budget deficit that was created mainly due to football. By moving Olympic sports back home to the Big East, it significantly cuts down travel costs, reignites geographic and historic rivalries (gets back fan interest), gets access to the BET at MSG, and (most importantly) probably gets its Tier 3 rights back - which the new AAC TV deal did not account for. The next argument many will make is the $7 million vs. $4 million annual payouts between conferences. Well, UConn was spending $7 million alone annually on travel costs being in the American; the costs clearly made any revenue irrelevant. Fox will most likely assist in getting them some exposure for their football programs (and the Big East has greater connections to the B1G and Big 12 than the AAC did). Additionally, our next TV deal will now undoubtedly be higher thanks to UConn coming on board (so they are not only making more money on Olympics, and cutting down costs from travel purposes, but they are also increasing the value of their new conference as well).

From an exposure standpoint, Fox has done a wonderful job building and promoting the Big East from Day 1. We don't have announcers openly ridiculing our status as "power conference", nor do they openly campaign for our members to go to other conferences (especially on a competitor's network). Fox isn't also pushing us to all of its secondary streaming platforms to fill up content. ESPN's AAC TV deal is locked-in until 2030's; when the AAC is making $7 million annually then, each of the power conferences will have gotten new deals and only widened the gap. We had over twenty games last year on Fox/CBS alone, and that number will only go up. As a side-note, if somebody told ESPN that the Big East would be as strong today in 2012, that it would still have UConn AND that its rights would be fully owned by Fox, I doubt anyone would have believed them.

I get that there are some hard feelings/ill-will from many AAC fans (and even some UConn fans) regarding this move. However, this was always a strong possibility for UConn ever since the C7 reorganized the Big East in 2013. They played their best hand at the P5 table but had to fold; however, they still get to come home with some winnings (which is a lot better than had they continued to play the game; they may not have had anything left).

It’s not ill-will, at least not from me. I admit I’m disappointed we’re losing UConn, but I’m trying to understand the benefits to them. Most of your arguments make sense. However, I’m not sure I buy in to what you said about Fox helping with football; sure, I get that Fox might help with the exit fee, but I don’t get what you said about the Big East’s connections with the Big 10 and Big 12. Are any schools in those conferences interested in playing UConn in football? How and why would they help?

Just playing devil's advocate? Theoretically, UConn is a low-difficulty out of conference opponent, and for the schools in theose conferences that traditionally struggle in football (say, your Kansases and Indianas) the name of the game in football is 4 OOC wins and then going at least 2-6 in-conference just to get to 6 wins and bowl eligibility, which keeps your fans engaged late in the season and, if achieved, is considered a win by your students and donors. If UConn simply gets left on the list of acceptable OOC opponents per conference scheduling guidelines, theoretically the lesser football teams may seek them out for winnable home-and-homes and possible bowl eligibility.

Okay, but as Golden Warrior pointed out, TV and streaming services play a role in this. I doubt you're going to get many viewers for a UConn football game against Baylor or Rutgers. But we're only talking theory here since we don't have any idea, as far as I'm aware, of what UConn's football future holds.
(This post was last modified: 07-01-2019 09:46 AM by Golden Jedi Knight.)
07-01-2019 09:45 AM
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Bogg Offline
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Post: #24
RE: Home Sweet Home
(07-01-2019 09:45 AM)Golden Jedi Knight Wrote:  Okay, but as Golden Warrior pointed out, TV and streaming services play a role in this. I doubt you're going to get many viewers for a UConn football game against Baylor or Rutgers. But we're only talking theory here since we don't have any idea, as far as I'm aware, of what UConn's football future holds.

You'll get more viewers for UConn-Rutgers than you will UConn-South Alabama, and Fox would control both sides of that series. At a minimum, it boosts the amount you can sub-license those games to SNY for.
07-01-2019 03:38 PM
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stever20 Offline
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Post: #25
RE: Home Sweet Home
(07-01-2019 03:38 PM)Bogg Wrote:  
(07-01-2019 09:45 AM)Golden Jedi Knight Wrote:  Okay, but as Golden Warrior pointed out, TV and streaming services play a role in this. I doubt you're going to get many viewers for a UConn football game against Baylor or Rutgers. But we're only talking theory here since we don't have any idea, as far as I'm aware, of what UConn's football future holds.

You'll get more viewers for UConn-Rutgers than you will UConn-South Alabama, and Fox would control both sides of that series. At a minimum, it boosts the amount you can sub-license those games to SNY for.

Except that Fox doesn't 100% control the Big Ten side of things at all... ABC/ESPN a factor in that as well, it's pretty damn close to 50/50.

Saw Ollie got a 3 year show cause. forcing vacating of 16-17 and 17-18 seasons. Saw someone tweeted asking if the NCAA could take the 14-15 season as well and vacate that?
07-02-2019 12:03 PM
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GoldenWarrior11 Offline
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Post: #26
RE: Home Sweet Home
Big win for UConn with the Ollie announcement today. The $10 million they would have paid Ollie can now go directly to the American and secure their start date on July 1, 2020.
07-02-2019 02:22 PM
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stever20 Offline
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Post: #27
RE: Home Sweet Home
(07-02-2019 02:22 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  Big win for UConn with the Ollie announcement today. The $10 million they would have paid Ollie can now go directly to the American and secure their start date on July 1, 2020.

yeah, but the exit thing is 10 million and 27 months. It'll cost more than that to get it done.
07-02-2019 04:43 PM
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Bogg Offline
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Post: #28
RE: Home Sweet Home
(07-02-2019 04:43 PM)stever20 Wrote:  
(07-02-2019 02:22 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  Big win for UConn with the Ollie announcement today. The $10 million they would have paid Ollie can now go directly to the American and secure their start date on July 1, 2020.

yeah, but the exit thing is 10 million and 27 months. It'll cost more than that to get it done.

UConn knows that going in. If the exit fee were actually a problem they wouldn't be moving in the first place.
07-03-2019 10:24 AM
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stever20 Offline
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Post: #29
RE: Home Sweet Home
(07-03-2019 10:24 AM)Bogg Wrote:  
(07-02-2019 04:43 PM)stever20 Wrote:  
(07-02-2019 02:22 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  Big win for UConn with the Ollie announcement today. The $10 million they would have paid Ollie can now go directly to the American and secure their start date on July 1, 2020.

yeah, but the exit thing is 10 million and 27 months. It'll cost more than that to get it done.

UConn knows that going in. If the exit fee were actually a problem they wouldn't be moving in the first place.

No doubt. But GW11 thinks that it'll be 10 million and in time for 20-21. Don't think that's realistic at all..... It might be in time for 20-21, but it'll cost more than the 10 million...
07-03-2019 10:36 AM
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GoldenWarrior11 Offline
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Post: #30
RE: Home Sweet Home
(07-03-2019 10:36 AM)stever20 Wrote:  
(07-03-2019 10:24 AM)Bogg Wrote:  
(07-02-2019 04:43 PM)stever20 Wrote:  
(07-02-2019 02:22 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  Big win for UConn with the Ollie announcement today. The $10 million they would have paid Ollie can now go directly to the American and secure their start date on July 1, 2020.

yeah, but the exit thing is 10 million and 27 months. It'll cost more than that to get it done.

UConn knows that going in. If the exit fee were actually a problem they wouldn't be moving in the first place.

No doubt. But GW11 thinks that it'll be 10 million and in time for 20-21. Don't think that's realistic at all..... It might be in time for 20-21, but it'll cost more than the 10 million...

I'm going to guess $12.5 million. That would be on-par with prior separation agreements where schools left before a 27-month wait. My original point was that UConn suddenly has $10 million that it didn't expect to have a few weeks ago with the Ollie buyout now getting eliminated due to just cause. Regardless, that would cover an overwhelming amount of the costs of leaving - and we still do not know what Fox wants to do with regards UConn. They may pay the exit fee to get them on their networks a year early.

We likely won't have a definitive answer for a few months.
07-03-2019 12:06 PM
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stever20 Offline
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Post: #31
RE: Home Sweet Home
(07-03-2019 12:06 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  
(07-03-2019 10:36 AM)stever20 Wrote:  
(07-03-2019 10:24 AM)Bogg Wrote:  
(07-02-2019 04:43 PM)stever20 Wrote:  
(07-02-2019 02:22 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  Big win for UConn with the Ollie announcement today. The $10 million they would have paid Ollie can now go directly to the American and secure their start date on July 1, 2020.

yeah, but the exit thing is 10 million and 27 months. It'll cost more than that to get it done.

UConn knows that going in. If the exit fee were actually a problem they wouldn't be moving in the first place.

No doubt. But GW11 thinks that it'll be 10 million and in time for 20-21. Don't think that's realistic at all..... It might be in time for 20-21, but it'll cost more than the 10 million...

I'm going to guess $12.5 million. That would be on-par with prior separation agreements where schools left before a 27-month wait. My original point was that UConn suddenly has $10 million that it didn't expect to have a few weeks ago with the Ollie buyout now getting eliminated due to just cause. Regardless, that would cover an overwhelming amount of the costs of leaving - and we still do not know what Fox wants to do with regards UConn. They may pay the exit fee to get them on their networks a year early.

We likely won't have a definitive answer for a few months.

I have a feeling that UConn knew how it was going to be with Ollie. Don't normally do something like that unless you are fairly sure...

I think the big thing for UConn will be the football in 20- and I don't think UConn would be allowed to go Big East for basketball and AAC for football for even 1 year.... Getting even 8 FBS games will be a challenge. They have 3 right now, including a game with UMass. To get to find 5 more is going to be hard.
07-03-2019 01:50 PM
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Post: #32
RE: Home Sweet Home
(06-30-2019 03:32 PM)Golden Jedi Knight Wrote:  
(06-22-2019 09:42 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  
(06-22-2019 03:23 PM)Golden Jedi Knight Wrote:  If UConn and the Big East both determine that they should be together, great. My question is, do the benefits of moving to the Big East outweigh staying in the American? I understand UConn's football program is tanking, and they lost rivalries with programs like Georgetown after the conference split. But is it worth sending UConn football to C-USA, the MAC, or maybe a return to being independent, and ending hope that they might be part of a power conference again? I'm not convinced that this is a wise move for UConn in the long-term. Maybe some of the Big East or UConn fans here can make a case and point out something I'm missing.

While I would hardly label the move as a no-brainer, UConn Athletics was running out of borrowed time. They bought themselves an extra realignment cycle (2013-2019) by utilizing the Big East war chest funds to help finance their athletic department during this time. Now that it ended, and the new AAC TV deal wasn't as much as these payouts, they were going to lose even more money long term by continuing to commit a path that was simply unsustainable for football and for its Olympic sports.

I think one of the key pieces of information today is the decision by UConn to keep football at the FBS level, ideally in another conference. They do not wish to drop it, nor do they need to at this point. However, if UConn still has a P5 dream (which they should), they need to right football - and there was just no way that was going to happen in the American. UConn Football had been lapped and overtaken by a majority of the AAC in the past five years. UCF, USF, Houston, Memphis and Cincinnati have all risen their football programs to the top of the AAC (for which UConn was expected to be a top program when the league formed); they each are in fertile football recruiting areas (of which Connecticut is not); each AAC football program has attracted young, up-and-coming coaches to lead their programs - and several programs have reached sustained success through multiple head coaches (UConn failed miserably with Diaco and, now, Edsall 2.0). In the AAC East, the only program that has arguably under-performed as much is ECU (but ECU was still able to hire an experienced and successful head coach this past offseason). Couple that with the scheduled OOC games (with usually a P5 or two thrown in there), and it makes it very challenging to create a sustained and competitive football program year-to-year. From this standpoint, UConn Football has a better chance at beating other weaker programs until it can take another level again (not unlike Temple in the Big East years ago).

Financially, everyone wants to point to the $10 million exit fee. My guess is that Fox will gladly cover a majority of that to get UConn on board for next season (it makes way too much sense not to). UConn was running a substantial athletic budget deficit that was created mainly due to football. By moving Olympic sports back home to the Big East, it significantly cuts down travel costs, reignites geographic and historic rivalries (gets back fan interest), gets access to the BET at MSG, and (most importantly) probably gets its Tier 3 rights back - which the new AAC TV deal did not account for. The next argument many will make is the $7 million vs. $4 million annual payouts between conferences. Well, UConn was spending $7 million alone annually on travel costs being in the American; the costs clearly made any revenue irrelevant. Fox will most likely assist in getting them some exposure for their football programs (and the Big East has greater connections to the B1G and Big 12 than the AAC did). Additionally, our next TV deal will now undoubtedly be higher thanks to UConn coming on board (so they are not only making more money on Olympics, and cutting down costs from travel purposes, but they are also increasing the value of their new conference as well).

From an exposure standpoint, Fox has done a wonderful job building and promoting the Big East from Day 1. We don't have announcers openly ridiculing our status as "power conference", nor do they openly campaign for our members to go to other conferences (especially on a competitor's network). Fox isn't also pushing us to all of its secondary streaming platforms to fill up content. ESPN's AAC TV deal is locked-in until 2030's; when the AAC is making $7 million annually then, each of the power conferences will have gotten new deals and only widened the gap. We had over twenty games last year on Fox/CBS alone, and that number will only go up. As a side-note, if somebody told ESPN that the Big East would be as strong today in 2012, that it would still have UConn AND that its rights would be fully owned by Fox, I doubt anyone would have believed them.

I get that there are some hard feelings/ill-will from many AAC fans (and even some UConn fans) regarding this move. However, this was always a strong possibility for UConn ever since the C7 reorganized the Big East in 2013. They played their best hand at the P5 table but had to fold; however, they still get to come home with some winnings (which is a lot better than had they continued to play the game; they may not have had anything left).

It’s not ill-will, at least not from me. I admit I’m disappointed we’re losing UConn, but I’m trying to understand the benefits to them. Most of your arguments make sense. However, I’m not sure I buy in to what you said about Fox helping with football; sure, I get that Fox might help with the exit fee, but I don’t get what you said about the Big East’s connections with the Big 10 and Big 12. Are any schools in those conferences interested in playing UConn in football? How and why would they help?

At first I really didn't understand the move at all either, but the more I've taken the financial aspects into consideration the more it makes sense. As the worst football team in the conference, all of our home games would've been on ESPN+. The conservative estimates I've seen of what each of those games would cost to produce have been around 65-75k per game. So right off the bat you're looking at losing 390k/yr minimum from that TV deal just to produce your football games. For Olympic sports, I've seen the costs estimated at 10-25k/game. So if we only produced 50 games for + per year and once again took the conservative estimate of 10k/game, we're out another 500k/yr. That's almost $1million dollars for the conservative estimates, and I'm guessing we would've been expected to produce more than 50 games considering our field hockey, baseball, soccer and women's basketball teams have all been successful. Women's basketball alone would probably be forced to produce 10-20 games a year for +.

Now take into account the fact that our women's basketball team is worth more than the Tulane men's and women's basketball teams combined (we get over a million a year selling their games to SNY) and subtract that money as well. That's a $2million + hit. Our administration also said we'll save $2million on travel, so bring that up to $4 million. The Big East contract pays I think 4.25m/yr, the end of the AAC deal pays 6.97m/yr... So even by the end of the scaled AAC deal, once you account for all of the financials we're still making more money off of being in the Big East than we are the AAC.

We do lose the bowl and CFP payouts, which I think together is like $2m year. But we can also sell our football rights to SNY, likely for at least 2m. So that is probably a wash at worst. We'll probably need to do 1-2 buy games per year being an Indy, so that will probably add even more revenue to the budget.

It's not inconceivable that we can pull in 10m+/yr as soon as we start getting paid by the Big East. The AAC will be getting that much a decade from now, and that's only once you account for the bowls and CFP payouts.
07-05-2019 09:02 AM
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Nameless Offline
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Post: #33
RE: Home Sweet Home
(07-02-2019 04:43 PM)stever20 Wrote:  
(07-02-2019 02:22 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  Big win for UConn with the Ollie announcement today. The $10 million they would have paid Ollie can now go directly to the American and secure their start date on July 1, 2020.

yeah, but the exit thing is 10 million and 27 months. It'll cost more than that to get it done.

I understand the logic but I think you're wrong. Aresco is a total moron that has shot himself in the foot with some of his comments recently. We've stated publicly we would like to stay in the conference for football. He has said publicly there's no chance of us staying for football only. Lol. So are we leaving or being kicked out? We have no firm exit or entrance date so we can easily argue we're being kicked out and void all or part of that exit fee.

He also allowed Navy to cut a deal with CBS sports, but didn't allow our women's basketball team to do the same. There's an argument he had a fiduciary duty to do so, further enhancing our argument to void all or part of the exit fee should we take this to court.

What do I think is most likely? We agree to pay the full 10m exit fee while being allowed to keep football in the conference for 2020, perhaps even 2021, buying us time to fill out our schedule. If they don't agree to some sort of compromise, we'll see them in court. It's CT, our politicians love to sue people to further their political careers lol.
07-05-2019 09:10 AM
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panite Offline
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Post: #34
RE: Home Sweet Home
(07-05-2019 09:10 AM)Nameless Wrote:  
(07-02-2019 04:43 PM)stever20 Wrote:  
(07-02-2019 02:22 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  Big win for UConn with the Ollie announcement today. The $10 million they would have paid Ollie can now go directly to the American and secure their start date on July 1, 2020.

yeah, but the exit thing is 10 million and 27 months. It'll cost more than that to get it done.

I understand the logic but I think you're wrong. Aresco is a total moron that has shot himself in the foot with some of his comments recently. We've stated publicly we would like to stay in the conference for football. He has said publicly there's no chance of us staying for football only. Lol. So are we leaving or being kicked out? We have no firm exit or entrance date so we can easily argue we're being kicked out and void all or part of that exit fee.

He also allowed Navy to cut a deal with CBS sports, but didn't allow our women's basketball team to do the same. There's an argument he had a fiduciary duty to do so, further enhancing our argument to void all or part of the exit fee should we take this to court.

What do I think is most likely? We agree to pay the full 10m exit fee while being allowed to keep football in the conference for 2020, perhaps even 2021, buying us time to fill out our schedule. If they don't agree to some sort of compromise, we'll see them in court. It's CT, our politicians love to sue people to further their political careers lol.

And that mentality has UConn Blackballed from the ACC because of your lawsuits against former BE members who left the OBE to join the ACC. If you don't get your way you sue. Who wants a conference mate like that. If UConn does sue the AAC you won't get a regional game of importance from anyone North of Virginia and east of the Mississippi. Enjoy your time in FB purgatory and the FCS bus rides regionally if your FB survives at all. 04-cheers
(This post was last modified: 07-05-2019 01:56 PM by panite.)
07-05-2019 01:53 PM
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HuskyU Offline
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Post: #35
RE: Home Sweet Home
Temple campus sooooooooooooooo nasty. Thank goodness we don't have to risk our student athletes' safety any longer.
07-05-2019 03:29 PM
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Nameless Offline
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Post: #36
RE: Home Sweet Home
(07-05-2019 01:53 PM)panite Wrote:  
(07-05-2019 09:10 AM)Nameless Wrote:  
(07-02-2019 04:43 PM)stever20 Wrote:  
(07-02-2019 02:22 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  Big win for UConn with the Ollie announcement today. The $10 million they would have paid Ollie can now go directly to the American and secure their start date on July 1, 2020.

yeah, but the exit thing is 10 million and 27 months. It'll cost more than that to get it done.

I understand the logic but I think you're wrong. Aresco is a total moron that has shot himself in the foot with some of his comments recently. We've stated publicly we would like to stay in the conference for football. He has said publicly there's no chance of us staying for football only. Lol. So are we leaving or being kicked out? We have no firm exit or entrance date so we can easily argue we're being kicked out and void all or part of that exit fee.

He also allowed Navy to cut a deal with CBS sports, but didn't allow our women's basketball team to do the same. There's an argument he had a fiduciary duty to do so, further enhancing our argument to void all or part of the exit fee should we take this to court.

What do I think is most likely? We agree to pay the full 10m exit fee while being allowed to keep football in the conference for 2020, perhaps even 2021, buying us time to fill out our schedule. If they don't agree to some sort of compromise, we'll see them in court. It's CT, our politicians love to sue people to further their political careers lol.

And that mentality has UConn Blackballed from the ACC because of your lawsuits against former BE members who left the OBE to join the ACC. If you don't get your way you sue. Who wants a conference mate like that. If UConn does sue the AAC you won't get a regional game of importance from anyone North of Virginia and east of the Mississippi. Enjoy your time in FB purgatory and the FCS bus rides regionally if your FB survives at all. 04-cheers

Lol I get what you're saying but apples to oranges. If we state publicly we'd like to stay, but Aresco and the AAC flip us the bird, we need to do what's best for our athletic department. It will be tough to fill the football schedule out for the next 2 years, so paying the full exit fee for the right to temporarily park our football program is a nice bargaining chip.

Not really sure why Butgers, Cuse Maryland or BC wouldn't schedule us because we sued the AAC either. I don't think they really give a crap lol.

And for the record, I'm not hoping we sue... Just not oblivious to how politicians do things here in the Nutmeg State. 04-cheers
07-05-2019 07:56 PM
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Nameless Offline
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Post: #37
RE: Home Sweet Home
(07-05-2019 03:29 PM)HuskyU Wrote:  Temple campus sooooooooooooooo nasty. Thank goodness we don't have to risk our student athletes' safety any longer.

Just got done interning with a kid who went to Temple. He was like, "I get on the train, I get to class, I go home. Not trying to check the neighborhood out." Lol
07-05-2019 07:58 PM
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stever20 Offline
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Post: #38
RE: Home Sweet Home
(07-05-2019 09:10 AM)Nameless Wrote:  
(07-02-2019 04:43 PM)stever20 Wrote:  
(07-02-2019 02:22 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  Big win for UConn with the Ollie announcement today. The $10 million they would have paid Ollie can now go directly to the American and secure their start date on July 1, 2020.

yeah, but the exit thing is 10 million and 27 months. It'll cost more than that to get it done.

I understand the logic but I think you're wrong. Aresco is a total moron that has shot himself in the foot with some of his comments recently. We've stated publicly we would like to stay in the conference for football. He has said publicly there's no chance of us staying for football only. Lol. So are we leaving or being kicked out? We have no firm exit or entrance date so we can easily argue we're being kicked out and void all or part of that exit fee.

He also allowed Navy to cut a deal with CBS sports, but didn't allow our women's basketball team to do the same. There's an argument he had a fiduciary duty to do so, further enhancing our argument to void all or part of the exit fee should we take this to court.

What do I think is most likely? We agree to pay the full 10m exit fee while being allowed to keep football in the conference for 2020, perhaps even 2021, buying us time to fill out our schedule. If they don't agree to some sort of compromise, we'll see them in court. It's CT, our politicians love to sue people to further their political careers lol.

Navy football was agreed on as a condition of them joining the conference... UConn is wanting to change their arrangement. They aren't getting kicked out of the conference, they just aren't being allowed to remain in the league as a result of UConn changing their terms. HUGE difference.
07-06-2019 12:11 AM
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scoscox Offline
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Post: #39
RE: Home Sweet Home
Except the big east hasn’t set a firm date for their return. Only that it could be as soon as next year. Meanwhile, Aresco has said there’s “no chance” they’ll be able to stay in the conference for football after next year. Well that would prevent UConn from being able to honor the 27 month agreement and if you’re going to force them out earlier then you can’t force them to pay the full fee
07-06-2019 03:17 AM
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Nameless Offline
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Post: #40
RE: Home Sweet Home
(07-06-2019 12:11 AM)stever20 Wrote:  
(07-05-2019 09:10 AM)Nameless Wrote:  
(07-02-2019 04:43 PM)stever20 Wrote:  
(07-02-2019 02:22 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  Big win for UConn with the Ollie announcement today. The $10 million they would have paid Ollie can now go directly to the American and secure their start date on July 1, 2020.

yeah, but the exit thing is 10 million and 27 months. It'll cost more than that to get it done.

I understand the logic but I think you're wrong. Aresco is a total moron that has shot himself in the foot with some of his comments recently. We've stated publicly we would like to stay in the conference for football. He has said publicly there's no chance of us staying for football only. Lol. So are we leaving or being kicked out? We have no firm exit or entrance date so we can easily argue we're being kicked out and void all or part of that exit fee.

He also allowed Navy to cut a deal with CBS sports, but didn't allow our women's basketball team to do the same. There's an argument he had a fiduciary duty to do so, further enhancing our argument to void all or part of the exit fee should we take this to court.

What do I think is most likely? We agree to pay the full 10m exit fee while being allowed to keep football in the conference for 2020, perhaps even 2021, buying us time to fill out our schedule. If they don't agree to some sort of compromise, we'll see them in court. It's CT, our politicians love to sue people to further their political careers lol.

Navy football was agreed on as a condition of them joining the conference... UConn is wanting to change their arrangement. They aren't getting kicked out of the conference, they just aren't being allowed to remain in the league as a result of UConn changing their terms. HUGE difference.

As sco has said, we have never set a firm exit date and very well could try to honor the 27 months. Aresco publicly saying there's no chance we're around next year gives us huge leverage.

Also, the Navy games were expected to be a part of our inventory for the second contract. They weren't for the first. Aresco and the league allowed them to cut a side deal because of their relationship with CBS Sports and so they could control their start times. It's exactly like the UConn women with the SNY deal, except we're not being allowed the same privilege. The revenue from the Navy deal I believe is being split by the conference, and they should've at least given us a chance for a similar arrangement considering the value of our women's basketball program.
07-06-2019 08:29 AM
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