UConn Smoke

[ArmyVet]

But, the round robin doesn't forbid anything with adding one team. Just go to a 20 game conference schedule, as some other conferences have already done.

Don't kid yourself. The double round-robin isn't that important. At least not enough to make us not want to expand to 12 teams.

It was, however, one very specific item that Val said the coaches wanted to keep. Going beyond 11 seems highly unlikely.

[Letsgonova]

But, the round robin doesn't forbid anything with adding one team. Just go to a 20 game conference schedule, as some other conferences have already done.

Don't kid yourself. The double round-robin isn't that important. At least not enough to make us not want to expand to 12 teams.

It was, however, one very specific item that Val said the coaches wanted to keep. Going beyond 11 seems highly unlikely.

The coaches will have little to no say in any expansion. Sure, it'd be great to keep it intact, but if FOX says "hey, we can up your annual payout by $2M per school if you add a 12th team", bye bye round robin.

[Jet915]

Great post by FranktheTank on the UCONN board about the Big East that I thought should be shared here:

To this day, I don’t understand the arguments that the Big East would be a league that’s going downward. They already make more TV money than any of the Group of 5 conferences and they don’t even play football (meaning they’re getting a MUCH MUCH MUCH higher ROI without those football expenses). The on-the-court product has also ended up being signicantly better than expected - there isn’t any “Requiem for the Big East” talk anymore.

At the same time, anyone in the TV industry knows that trying to compare FS1 ratings to ESPN ratings is ridiculous - there’s an artificial depression on ratings for the exact same event on FS1 compared to ESPN. You can see this clearly in Pac-12 ratings where the same matchup will have 3 or 4 times the viewers on ESPN compared to FS1. (Note that the Big East consistently beats the Pac-12 on FS1 in the ratings, so that’s a much better indicator of the Big East’s leverage.) If the Big East were going to market for a new contract today, it would most certainly get a significant increase with multiple bidders. To be sure, TV rights fees are in flux for the future because of so many unpredictable changes in the industry overall, but that’s a macro issue as opposed to a conference-specific issue.

The point is that the “football is all that matters” mantra is true... for the P5 conferences. The problem is that the G5 conferences are lemmings in trying to chase the P5 in a game that they will never be even in the vicinity of being competitive (much less win). Meanwhile, the Big East found a way to make more TV money with fewer expenses with an identifiable brand and schools that actually want to be there by going in a totally different direction (if only because they were forced to do so). Frankly, considering the circumstances of the split of the Old Big East, the New Big East has actually been the best managed conference that has maximized its assets better on a pound for pound basis than any other conference (including the P5) since conference realignment quieted down. The Big East shouldn’t be criticized for being a league without football - they should be *commended* for figuring out a way to be successful and resurrecting a brand without football while the G5 members swim in debt in the name of football.

If the P5 conferences are Amazon, then the G5 conferences are Sears - a dying retailer that tried to figure out online retail when it was too little and too late while much better competitors swamped them. Meanwhile, the Big East is like Nordstrom - a targeted high value brand retailer whose success is doing what Amazon *doesn’t* do well in terms of a different focus and experience. The irony of all of this is that the P5 actually sees the Big East as a legitimate equal in basketball with this approach to the point where 2 leagues (the Big Ten and Big 12) have challenges with them. Anyone who thinks that the Big East is more in danger of a hypothetical P5 split from the rest of the NCAA than, say, the AAC is kidding themselves.

To be clear, this doesn’t mean UConn should just drop football (or even go independent) and join the Big East. As long as UConn sincerely believes that it has a chance at the P5, it’s essentially forced to stay in the AAC (or whatever successor league in the event that it gets poached). Holding onto that P5 lottery ticket is probably still to important for an athletic department of UConn’s stature to ever unilaterally give it up. It’s just a strange situation since UConn might be the only school in the country where *having* an FBS football program actually *takes away* a potentially higher revenue/more profitable option (basketball in the Big East).

[adoraz]

Yep the Big East FS1 ratings is the #1 argument used against the conference on forums, but it is completely disingenuous (I refuse to believe the people making the argument are actually that dumb). Just goes to show how amazing the conference has been doing, when there isn't really valid criticism against it.

[NJRedman]

Yep the Big East FS1 ratings is the #1 argument used against the conference on forums, but it is completely disingenuous (I refuse to believe the people making the argument are actually that dumb). Just goes to show how amazing the conference has been doing, when there isn't really valid criticism against it.

They actually do believe that because they are that dumb. "Look at how much higher our ratings are on ESPN that means we DESERVE a 4 times increase in our next contract! DERP!"

[Xudash]

Thanks for sharing Jet915.

A very sound and objective look at things.

A lot of UCONN football-at-all-costs fans are in denial when it comes to the BE and their prospects for moving up.

[sju88grad]

Great post by FranktheTank on the UCONN board about the Big East that I thought should be shared here:

To this day, I don’t understand the arguments that the Big East would be a league that’s going downward. They already make more TV money than any of the Group of 5 conferences and they don’t even play football (meaning they’re getting a MUCH MUCH MUCH higher ROI without those football expenses). The on-the-court product has also ended up being signicantly better than expected - there isn’t any “Requiem for the Big East” talk anymore.

At the same time, anyone in the TV industry knows that trying to compare FS1 ratings to ESPN ratings is ridiculous - there’s an artificial depression on ratings for the exact same event on FS1 compared to ESPN. You can see this clearly in Pac-12 ratings where the same matchup will have 3 or 4 times the viewers on ESPN compared to FS1. (Note that the Big East consistently beats the Pac-12 on FS1 in the ratings, so that’s a much better indicator of the Big East’s leverage.) If the Big East were going to market for a new contract today, it would most certainly get a significant increase with multiple bidders. To be sure, TV rights fees are in flux for the future because of so many unpredictable changes in the industry overall, but that’s a macro issue as opposed to a conference-specific issue.

The point is that the “football is all that matters” mantra is true... for the P5 conferences. The problem is that the G5 conferences are lemmings in trying to chase the P5 in a game that they will never be even in the vicinity of being competitive (much less win). Meanwhile, the Big East found a way to make more TV money with fewer expenses with an identifiable brand and schools that actually want to be there by going in a totally different direction (if only because they were forced to do so). Frankly, considering the circumstances of the split of the Old Big East, the New Big East has actually been the best managed conference that has maximized its assets better on a pound for pound basis than any other conference (including the P5) since conference realignment quieted down. The Big East shouldn’t be criticized for being a league without football - they should be *commended* for figuring out a way to be successful and resurrecting a brand without football while the G5 members swim in debt in the name of football.

If the P5 conferences are Amazon, then the G5 conferences are Sears - a dying retailer that tried to figure out online retail when it was too little and too late while much better competitors swamped them. Meanwhile, the Big East is like Nordstrom - a targeted high value brand retailer whose success is doing what Amazon *doesn’t* do well in terms of a different focus and experience. The irony of all of this is that the P5 actually sees the Big East as a legitimate equal in basketball with this approach to the point where 2 leagues (the Big Ten and Big 12) have challenges with them. Anyone who thinks that the Big East is more in danger of a hypothetical P5 split from the rest of the NCAA than, say, the AAC is kidding themselves.

To be clear, this doesn’t mean UConn should just drop football (or even go independent) and join the Big East. As long as UConn sincerely believes that it has a chance at the P5, it’s essentially forced to stay in the AAC (or whatever successor league in the event that it gets poached). Holding onto that P5 lottery ticket is probably still to important for an athletic department of UConn’s stature to ever unilaterally give it up. It’s just a strange situation since UConn might be the only school in the country where *having* an FBS football program actually *takes away* a potentially higher revenue/more profitable option (basketball in the Big East).

Thanks for sharing Jet. Really sums up how we really are in a good position.

[MUPanther]

I've seen this Frank the Tank post over the years. Yet, who is he other than a lawyer?

[GoldenWarrior11]

I've seen this Frank the Tank post over the years. Yet, who is he other than a lawyer?

Frank is a very well-respected poster that posts on a number of sites and has his own blog. He is a DePaul and Illinois fan. He is very articulate and thoughtful when it comes to expansion, and often presents things like a university president in an intelligent and rationale manner.

[jaxalum]

I found this article that lays out the problems and the potential solutions regarding Uconn athletics in a very organized and eloquent manner. The Uconn Admin has to realize that they are at best third in line on the P5 invite/expansion list (if it ever happens). And they are losing that credibility/reputation on the national basketball scene that took years to build that attracts the type of recruits it takes to compete at the highest level, year in and year out.

Why UConn should probably drop to FCS
The Huskies’ situation in the AAC is as bad financially as it is on the field. Dropping a level could help fix both.
By Matt Brown on January 25, 2019 11:30 am


David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
UConn was bad at football in 2018. The Huskies had one of the worst defenses in major college football history and finished 130th out of 130 FBS teams in S&P+. But a new report paints an even grimmer picture about the broader athletic department.

The university’s 2018 report to the NCAA on its financial situation is full of bad news. The athletic department brought in $40.4 million in revenue, but incurred a whopping $80.9 million in expenses. It needed more than $30 million in “additional institutional support” and more than $8.5 million in student fees. That’s all per the Hartford Courant.

One reason for rough financials? Nobody is really going to the games. The Hartford Courant also reported that only about 10,000 fans a game actually showed up to watch UConn football last year, a continuation of a troubling trend over the last five years of Husky football.

The math in these reports can be a little fuzzy, but the fundamentals here are hard to ignore. UConn’s athletic department doesn’t sell enough tickets or make enough from TV, conference distributions, licenses, and so forth to come close to sustaining its costs.

It’s tough to see how UConn’s finances get fixed in the near future. It’s also hard to see how the football team contends.
The Huskies’ AAC is approaching a new TV deal that should bring more money every year. But optimistically, that’s an increase of $4-6 million per year, and it might come with giving up any chance to join a power conference in the near future.

The football team is still playing home games 22 miles from campus. While the Huskies have literally nowhere to go but up, they’re years away from contention. Their ceiling might be low, too. UConn’s only major bowl appearance since 2000 was a fluky Fiesta Bowl appearance as a four-loss team after 2010, due to the Big East’s BCS auto-bid. That team lost by four touchdowns to Oklahoma and lost money making the trip.

The program’s never won double-digit games or finished in the AP Top 25. Heck, since 2000, UConn’s cracked the top 60 in S&P+ three times and never finished higher than 36th. Its average finish has been 85th, and it’s been 112th since the move to the AAC.

In the AAC, UConn’s recruiting has tanked so badly that Harvard has a better 2019 class. In a region with few three-stars, let alone blue-chips, how much better is UConn going to get? Is it worth this much debt if a good season means, oh, 7-5 and a trip to the Birmingham Bowl?

Even UConn recognizes it can’t continue like this.
The football team itself lost $8.7 million in 2018, thanks in part to a a $1.1 million decline in ticket revenue. Money is so tight that Randy Edsall paid out of his own pocket to give his offensive coordinator a raise. Men’s and women’s basketball, the school’s flagship programs, also lost millions apiece. The school told the Courant:

“The long-term goal is obviously to move athletics closer to financial self-sufficiency,” UConn spokesperson Stephanie Reitz said in an email, noting that as recently as 2013, the athletic department did not require a significant subsidy. “In recent years, declining conference and media licensing revenue, along with rising costs, have created the current deficit. It is not sustainable and the Division of Athletics is continually working to identify savings and drive up revenue in order to help close this gap.”
One thing that would help? Yeah, dropping to FCS in football.
It’s not something many fans want to hear, but FBS football is really expensive! If you’re not selling tickets, don’t have a credible way to success, and have money problems, FCS could make a lot of sense. Even for certain Power 5 programs, it’s at least worth considering.

UConn would have options as an FCS program. The NEC only has seven teams and would almost assuredly welcome UConn, who would have local opponents like Sacred Heart, Central Connecticut State, and Bryant, plus a winnable league with an FCS playoff auto-bid.

The CAA, the successor to UConn’s old league and now one of the best in FCS, already has 12 teams, but could perhaps be persuaded to take the Huskies back. That would pair UConn with other quality Northeastern programs like New Hampshire and Maine. Either option would be more geographically contained than the sprawling AAC, helping with travel costs.

Dropping down a level shaves costs in a variety of ways. At least four AAC schools pay their head coach at least $2 million a year, while a good FCS head coach might make $300,000, with assistants in the low six figures or lower.


The school wouldn’t be on the hook for as many football scholarships, (a max of 63 in FCS, rather than 85 in FBS), and could spend less on the bloated administrative bureaucracy you need to recruit in FBS (and which Edsall’s criticized). UConn’s football staff directory lists 26 different people, for example. Maine, which made the FCS semifinals last year, lists 12.

There would be some financial losses, too. As relatively small as the AAC’s TV deal and share of College Playoff Money are, they’re bigger than their FCS equivalents. In the AAC, UConn can make at least $1.2 million to get slaughtered by Clemson in a guarantee game. In FCS, the Huskies’ asking price would go down several hundred grand.

It wouldn’t close the deficit on its own. But if UConn returned to its old status as an FCS contender and sold more tickets, it could come a lot closer over time. Especially because ...

UConn’s other major sports would fit great in the Big East.
Of course, UConn isn’t really a football school. It’s a basketball school. The men’s team has struggled after winning the 2014 NCAA tournament. While certainly not the only factor, the AAC move has contributed to the program’s decline, robbing it of road games in traditional Northeastern recruiting territories. Plus, selling tickets for games against Tulane and East Carolina is a lot harder than selling tickets for games against Georgetown and Villanova.

If UConn ditched the AAC and parked basketball and other sports in the Big East, not only would it be in a superior conference for both men’s and women’s basketball, it’d be reunited with programs it used to play all the time in the Old Big East — the teams many UConn fans actually care about.

That’s an easier path to greatness, and a much easier path to ticket sales and money. And it’s not like the Big East wouldn’t be interested in having the Huskies. UConn’s other fast-growing sport, hockey, isn’t sponsored by the AAC and shouldn’t feel the effect of a move.


Going to FCS might sting. But UConn’s in a unique situation.
Few athletic departments in the six biggest FBS conferences get as much in university subsidies as UConn’s does. Few have harder roads to football success. FBS football costs might still go up in the future, and revenue might not keep up. The school has two other programs with big fanbases, successful histories, and a potential landing spot fans would like. Nobody likes to drop a level. But sometimes, it’s the right thing to do.