(05-11-2020 03:54 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote: Dave Benedict, with what the UConn athletic department has acheived in the past 12 months, has arguably been one of the top-performing ADs in the country.
While I do agree he has done the best job possible, and deserves credit for staying organized and on point, I think this is spinning it a little far.
Quote:In that time frame, Benedict has several seasons worth of opponents lined up, reacquired regional programs like Syracuse and Boston College to the schedule (with UMass and Army are annual matchups), gained P5 matchups at home against Duke, UNC, Purdue and NC State
UConn scheduled
Boston College,
Duke,
Purdue, and
NC State all before their move to the Big East. The already had these games in the AAC. Definitely deserves credit for putting together a passable schedule on short notice, but their home slate is pretty dreadful for quite a while and they had to compensate multiple teams to split up their already scheduled series.
Quote:lined-up buy games (over $1 million each annually) at Clemson, Michigan, Tennessee and Ohio State
Most teams in the country can get these games. It's not hard to get a payday from these schools. Most teams don't do it with any frequency because it makes it impossible to schedule home and homes. Again, they could have done this in the AAC. The move to the Big East precipitates the need for it now because of the lost revenue specifically on the football side.
Quote:and, now, found a new and better home (CBS Sports Network has 50 million+ subscribers) for its games than it was originally to have had (ESPN+ has under 10 million subscribers)
This is certainly a better home for UConn football as their stature within the league would have relegated most/all of their games on ESPN+. That said, they are getting paid pretty much peanuts, and were forced into a
potential 8 year deal on that little money just to get on national TV. It's reminiscent of the deal Aresco made for the AAC back in 2014 (the need to sacrifice $$$ to get exposure).
Quote: - all while substantially cutting down travel costs (which was easily over $7 million annually - almost identical amount it was to be making under the new AAC TV deal) and associating its top athletics brand (basketball) with an identifiable and geographic power basketball conference.
UConn was not spending $7m on travel costs. By their own estimates, I've seen as much as $2m floating around. That seems high, but is somewhat plausible when considering all their sports. That said, their new schedule has the need for a fair amount of travel in football anyway. They get more paydays in the form of guaranteed games, but again, that wouldn't be incremental revenue then.
Look, this isn't a bad deal at all for UConn. I see what they are trying to do. Let's just try and stay on the ground here. There is already enough overreaching on the AAC board already. This isn't some landmark deal that is going to save UConn football. The money still isn't there.