Welcome Back, UConn Fans!

[DeltaV]

This is going to be interesting.

The UCONN fan base itself appears to have a certain amount of civil war going on within it between the diehard football crowd and the more traditional basketball crowd.

...

Diehard UConn football fans...that's what, a few dozen people? Does the general public even realize UConn has a football team?

[GoldenWarrior11]

UConn Fans to AAC Fans...

[billyjack]

Billyjack, please explain this statement to those of us not in the know. Why would the ACC care??

Also, i can't get past how adding UConn pisses the ACC and Duke off, and locks in MSG perfectly. Ratface K is still pissed that UConn bounced Duke in the National Final.

Adding UConn to the Big East eliminates any remaining chance that the ACC could grab MSG from us. Back in 2013 this was a little precarious. As time has passed, it's become less likely, but those a-holes going to Brooklyn (and the B1G skunking around) still kept the door 1% open. UConn onboard now slams the MSG door shut in Coach K's ratface... the door is secured with padlocks, deadbolts, rivets, welding, and an Jamie-Cersei Lannister avalanche of rubble has been dumptrucked onto the ACC's dinosaur heads as they sat at our front door with their Denny's trays on their laps.

[billyjack]

Regarding UConn fans, and the basketball/ football divide...

The great thing to me is that hoops finally told the football crowd to go f-ck themselves. Hoops built the UConn brand, and hoops fans have been unbelievably patient in trying to placate the lunatic football zealots. At a certain point the patience needs to run out when dealing with crackhead type dimwits...

Hoops... 4 National Championships in the past 20 years, a ton of NBA'ers... UConn is built on basketball. Attending UConn games has the buzz of being in a beehive, with the energy level thru the roof. Storrs is 30 miles grom Providence, and playing them is great entertainment. Even when they sucked in the 80's, their fans would travel great... yeah, some are obnoxious, whatever... i can live with that.

Meanwhile, football was drawing 1,200 fans to their games. Playing southern teams with little to no local interest. Getting their asses handed to them. But the loudest and most aggressive football fans were dominating the spin room. I've known a lot of UConn alums, fans, and Connecticut residents over the years. Zero of them go to football games, all are hoops fans, but these fans would shrug about their football program and kind of despondently mutter something about the football team apparently being considered more important.

UConn football fans... again, at a certain point, they needed to be pushed to the curb and told to STFU. Go indy, grow some balls, have pride in your school, have pride in your ability to make your own path, and take a leap of faith, instead of being led around by the nose ring by freakin South Florida etc. I mean, c'mon...

Look, as a 40 year Big East fan, who rooted for every Big East team in the NCAA's throughout 4 decades, those 4 UConn titles with old-tyme no-apologies New Englander Jim Calhoun as the heart of the program and a face of the conference, beating bluebloods, sticking it to Duke, etc, over the years, you build up a sense of pride in your conference mate... and to see them being insulted and pushed around by Conference-USA teams over the past 6 years was ridiculous and unnecessary... but finally they reasserted themselves and will be rewarded with every game on national TV, MSG, and competing against 10 great BE conference mates,

Couple other things... there are 35 bowls? Go 500 or better, and they're going bowling, and they don't need an AAC bowl tie in to do this. Also, UCF went 12-0 or 13-0 or whatever, and didn't make the playoffs!!! That crushed any need to stay in the conference for playoff reasons.

And to respond to comments about Pitt and West Virginia... honestly, there is ONE team that old skool Big East fans will miss... ONE team... Syracuse. C'mon, West Virginia? Yes, good program... no, just an A-10 team that built hoops off Big East coattails... and Pitt? Pitt... I've said this a thousand times... yes, good program... whose greatest highlight in their hoops history is a dunk in the first half of a January game in 1988 against an 8th place team in a season where they choked royally on big elephant wiener in the NCAA's...

[kayako]

I have been hoping for UConn to return to the Big East for a long time. They have been my #1 expansion candidate.

As far as candiates go, there was a large gap between uconn and everyone else imo. Honestly I don't even think Gonzaga has the basketball upside that uconn brings to the table, and a huge downside of being in eastern washington. I'm happy that our presidents are sticking to "basketball first" mantra, not catholic first or private first.

[adoraz]

Another UConn poll:

https://twitter.com/UConn_Insider/statu ... 9859348481

[pki1998]

Regarding UConn fans, and the basketball/ football divide...

The great thing to me is that hoops finally told the football crowd to go f-ck themselves. Hoops built the UConn brand, and hoops fans have been unbelievably patient in trying to placate the lunatic football zealots. At a certain point the patience needs to run out when dealing with crackhead type dimwits...

Hoops... 4 National Championships in the past 20 years, a ton of NBA'ers... UConn is built on basketball. Attending UConn games has the buzz of being in a beehive, with the energy level thru the roof. Storrs is 30 miles grom Providence, and playing them is great entertainment. Even when they sucked in the 80's, their fans would travel great... yeah, some are obnoxious, whatever... i can live with that.

Meanwhile, football was drawing 1,200 fans to their games. Playing southern teams with little to no local interest. Getting their asses handed to them. But the loudest and most aggressive football fans were dominating the spin room. I've known a lot of UConn alums, fans, and Connecticut residents over the years. Zero of them go to football games, all are hoops fans, but these fans would shrug about their football program and kind of despondently mutter something about the football team apparently being considered more important.

UConn football fans... again, at a certain point, they needed to be pushed to the curb and told to STFU. Go indy, grow some balls, have pride in your school, have pride in your ability to make your own path, and take a leap of faith, instead of being led around by the nose ring by freakin South Florida etc. I mean, c'mon...

Look, as a 40 year Big East fan, who rooted for every Big East team in the NCAA's throughout 4 decades, those 4 UConn titles with old-tyme no-apologies New Englander Jim Calhoun as the heart of the program and a face of the conference, beating bluebloods, sticking it to Duke, etc, over the years, you build up a sense of pride in your conference mate... and to see them being insulted and pushed around by Conference-USA teams over the past 6 years was ridiculous and unnecessary... but finally they reasserted themselves and will be rewarded with every game on national TV, MSG, and competing against 10 great BE conference mates,

Couple other things... there are 35 bowls? Go 500 or better, and they're going bowling, and they don't need an AAC bowl tie in to do this. Also, UCF went 12-0 or 13-0 or whatever, and didn't make the playoffs!!! That crushed any need to stay in the conference for playoff reasons.

And to respond to comments about Pitt and West Virginia... honestly, there is ONE team that old skool Big East fans will miss... ONE team... Syracuse. C'mon, West Virginia? Yes, good program... no, just an A-10 team that built hoops off Big East coattails... and Pitt? Pitt... I've said this a thousand times... yes, good program... whose greatest highlight in their hoops history is a dunk in the first half of a January game in 1988 against an 8th place team in a season where they choked royally on big elephant wiener in the NCAA's...

This is probably the best post here in years!

[Hall2012]

I definitely get that some UConn fans are upset with this move due to how it impacts the football team (and in turn their slim P5 hopes) but I'm baffled by some still trying to claim it's a bad move for basketball. Here are my answers to a few criticisms I've seen. If any UConn fans are reading, please feel free to debate if you disagree or borrow my arguments if you agree (despite what I've read, I have no desire to get into debates on the boneyard myself).

1. The Big East is slipping in basketball and AAC will soon pass them - False. Yes, last year was a down year for the BE, but it was just that - a down year. The league lost a ton of talent from the prior year to graduation and players leaving for the NBA, but there's nothing to suggest it's the start of a trend. For evidence, take a look at some too-early top 25 rankings for next year. There are 5 Big East teams (half the league!) consistently showing up. I'll bet we start with 4 ranked in the preseason.

A. The league has no deadwood. In the AAC this past year, Memphis went to the NIT at 11-7 in conference. Temple got an 11 seed at 13-5. Those records will be harder to come by in the Big East, but if you get there - not only will you be safely in the tournament, you'll probably open wearing white because every one of those wins will be considered quality, with even the weakest being near top-100.
B. Your (UConn's) SOS will go through the roof. I already addressed the depth of quality in the league with ZERO RPI (or NET) anchors - you'll also now have 20 conference games PLUS possibility of being included in B1G (Gavitt Games) and BXII challenges. If you want a weak schedule, you're gonna have to actively seek out OOC cupcakes and find a time to play them - because there isn't much.

2. The Big East isn't on ESPN/TV ratings suck/not enough exposure will hurt recruiting - True, we're not on ESPN. Our ratings on FS1 are never going to match anything on ESPN - but that's just the nature of ESPN's dominance, not a reflection on the Big East. FS1 has plenty of benefits for the Big East though - mainly - you can pretty much guarantee a minimum of 20 (maybe 25) games per year on national TV. Most of that will be FS1, you'll likely get a game for 2 on FOX, sure sprinkle in a little FS2 (which sucks), and then play some ESPN sponsored OOC events to get on their network too. But that's what you can tell recruits - their friends and family (wherever they are) will be able to watch almost every game they play on TV. That goes for fans too - you'll rarely miss a game you want to see. What does the AAC's ESPN deal give you? 2 or 3 games on ESPN2? Maybe a couple more on ESPNU? Then the rest are all on some online pay site, right? 95% of your games are nationally televised with us.

3. The Big East is Nova and nobody else, they fail in the tournament - Yes, Nova aside, the league has left us disappointed in the tournament. But that really doesn't need to matter for you. The league is deep and consistently has STRONG OOC regular season performances. That puts you guys (UConn) in position to make the tournament. Pull your weight OOC, go .500 in the league, and you're dancing. You want to get back to winning national championships, right? You guys don't care if Xavier or Providence wins the title - you want to win it. Well, you've gotta be in it to win it and the Big East will leave you with no shortage of opportunities to play your way into the field. Yes, we'd like to see some more deep runs to rack up tournament credits, but the tourney's largely about getting hot and getting the right draw. Keep putting teams in, and the wins will come.

[scoscox]

The last point is ridiculous, Xavier by ourselves have more sweet sixteen appearances than everyone in the American combined since realignment

[kayako]

The last point is ridiculous, Xavier by ourselves have more sweet sixteen appearances than everyone in the American combined since realignment

Apparently Xavier's susceptible to HC poaching, but look what happened to Cinci, aac's new basketball flagship.