Welcome Back, UConn Fans!

[Husky_U]

The AAC board is a bunch of stank liarfaces, Coach P included!

[SamElliott]

https://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-me ... story.html

[ArmyVet]

According to an article today out of the Hartford Courant, "there was a risk that the Big east deal would fall apart, as a prior one had a few years ago".

Details anyone?

[Husky_U]

So much for sacrificing football (scheduling) for basketball. Turns out we can have it all!!!

[marquette]

Looks like Benedict was able to put together a solid schedule, with hopefully a couple more coming. Good mix of regional and bought games. There's enough there to be bowl eligible if UCONN can get it together.

[GoldenWarrior11]

According to an article today out of the Hartford Courant, "there was a risk that the Big east deal would fall apart, as a prior one had a few years ago".

Details anyone?

Connecting the dots:

Val had repeatedly said since 2014 that the Big East would only expand for the “right” candidate, and that it valued the round robin format. UConn was repeatedly mentioned as an expansion candidate, even so far as being in discussions via Rothstein, Katz, etc. I believe, since the split, that UConn had a standing invite to be #11. The reason they didn’t join earlier was obviously the football conundrum.

UConn basically signed away it’s P5 dreams when it signed with the Big East this summer, signaling a definitive conclusion of where it stands conference-wise for the foreseeable future. My guess is that the Big East wouldn’t let UConn back without the financial security of preventing UConn from leaving again. Since UConn was artificially inflating it’s athletic revenues via the exit fees from departing Big East members, and a new AAC TV deal would eventually be announced (in 2019), UConn likely refused to make the move without knowing details of the new AAC TV deal, as well as officially closing the door on P5 membership by moving towards FBS Independence.

When the new AAC TV deal was finally revealed, and the exit fees dried up, it was a no-brainer for UConn to make the move when it did.

[scoscox]

Auriemma and Benedict have both said they tried to get back in before and the Big East told them no. What changed I think is the rest of the conferences going to twenty conference games.

[GoldenWarrior11]

Auriemma and Benedict have both said they tried to get back in before and the Big East told them no. What changed I think is the rest of the conferences going to twenty conference games.

Possible, but I think unlikely. Even before the move to twenty games, UConn was/is a strong enough value to eliminate the round robin format, as they are a national championship-level program over the past twenty years. IMO, I think the Big East probably mandated that - in their standing invitation offer - they needed to have a substantial buyout clause that would deter UConn from pursuing a P5 membership in another conference. After what the C7 went through from 2010-2013, there is no way that the league's membership ever wanted the threat of a football-first program to negatively impact all of the positive gains this Big East has made since 2013; in essence, they were not interested in "holding" UConn for a few years until they got an ACC/B1G invitation; if UConn returned to the Big East, it would be for the long-haul (and as a basketball-first program). Those "talks" likely broke down not from the Big East's end, but rather UConn's.

UConn, for many reasons, was probably unwilling to commit to those expectations, as they had some time to see where the chips fell. After the Big 12 expansion process, UConn likely realized that not only was a P5 invite not coming to them, but also to no one in the G5; however, it could still maintain a membership in the AAC as long as it would continue getting compensated the way it had been (in both the Big East and early years in the AAC) and that their exposure would not change. While the AAC TV revenue did, in fact, increase, it still was not as much as UConn had been receiving in previous years, and the move to ESPN+ was clearly a significant red flag. Couple that with the significant travel that UConn needed to undergo (and the increased Southern-focus for the AAC), their membership in the AAC clearly had reached a conclusion.

What's hilarious to me is that so, so, so many AAC fans that proclaim excitement to finally get rid of UConn (whether in the form of their currently poor football program, or - in recent seasons - underachieving basketball program). However, it was because of UConn that the AAC got more money in their television contract than what C-USA was making (which is where nearly all the members had come from). Without UConn in 2013, the AAC is C-USA with Temple, making several thousand dollars annually on who knows which secondary networks. It was UConn that won all of the American's national championships. The AAC absolutely benefited immensely from their association with UConn (although UConn definitely saw a brand decrease from their association with the AAC). Even UConn's membership in the AAC was never sustainable, and UConn always was looking around for another conference, the AAC definitely saw its value increase thanks in large part to UConn. And, let's be totally honest, every member in the AAC would instantaneously leave every other member behind and out in the cold if it meant a golden ticket to the P5, no question. So were should the animosity and envy go towards? Probably not UConn...

[SamElliott]

What's hilarious to me is that so, so, so many AAC fans that proclaim excitement to finally get rid of UConn (whether in the form of their currently poor football program, or - in recent seasons - underachieving basketball program). However, it was because of UConn that the AAC got more money in their television contract than what C-USA was making (which is where nearly all the members had come from). Without UConn in 2013, the AAC is C-USA with Temple, making several thousand dollars annually on who knows which secondary networks. It was UConn that won all of the American's national championships. The AAC absolutely benefited immensely from their association with UConn (although UConn definitely saw a brand decrease from their association with the AAC). Even UConn's membership in the AAC was never sustainable, and UConn always was looking around for another conference, the AAC definitely saw its value increase thanks in large part to UConn. And, let's be totally honest, every member in the AAC would instantaneously leave every other member behind and out in the cold if it meant a golden ticket to the P5, no question. So were should the animosity and envy go towards? Probably not UConn...

To be fair, there is not a team outside of the football 5 that wouldn't accept an invite. Even Marquette, if the ACC wanted to balance ND.

The thing about the AAC (and this includes UConn currently), is that people bring it up for expansion because those are really the last viable teams that could credibly be picked up by the football 5. The members that were in CUSA (that are now in the AAC, ACC A10, BE, B12) rightly bolted from the lower class of that league.

ESPN struck those deals due to the ratings they've gotten for football. The AAC was smart enough to realize that those ESPN spots they inherited after the old big east split were their biggest asset they got in the divorce. There was no way they were giving those up. Even more than the actual revenue, those guaranteed windows on linear ESPN are the bedrock of that contracts value.

[GoldenWarrior11]

To be fair, there is not a team outside of the football 5 that wouldn't accept an invite. Even Marquette, if the ACC wanted to balance ND.

The difference is nobody in the Big East - whether it is Marquette, Villanova or, now, UConn - believes an invitation from the ACC, Big Ten, SEC or Big 12 is ever coming, whereas everyone in the AAC believes if they work hard enough and experience enough sustained success, it will inevitably come. This can be articulated in a much longer post, but there are only a small, very small, number of teams that truly have a realistic shot at ever getting an invitation into the premier country club. A majority of the AAC does not have a realistic shot of being invited to the elite club for various reasons.

The thing about the AAC (and this includes UConn currently), is that people bring it up for expansion because those are really the last viable teams that could credibly be picked up by the football 5. The members that were in CUSA (that are now in the AAC, ACC A10, BE, B12) rightly bolted from the lower class of that league.

For football, power conference realignment ended in 2012 when Louisville got invited into the ACC and got the last lifeboat out. The P5 maximized all of the remaining value it saw fit. Louisivlle's life raft (which was widely expected to have gone to UConn) was only presented because Maryland got poached by the Big Ten (and, had they not been in significant debt, there is a strong chance that they do not even consider leaving the ACC). In the game of musical chairs, the music stopped playing when the P5 starting separating itself from the G5.

ESPN struck those deals due to the ratings they've gotten for football. The AAC was smart enough to realize that those ESPN spots they inherited after the old big east split were their biggest asset they got in the divorce. There was no way they were giving those up. Even more than the actual revenue, those guaranteed windows on linear ESPN are the bedrock of that contracts value.

The AAC did not inherit the ESPN spots from the old Big East, they got new spots as part of their new TV deal. The did inherit, for one year, its AQ status as part of the BCS. As a reminder, ESPN matched NBC's original offer when the AAC TV rights went to the open market. The value that the AAC had in its first TV deal was what the market set for it, just like the C7/BE went to an open market and had Fox pay $500 million for our non-football (basketball) package. The AAC's greatest value was getting to keep nearly $100 million in separation exit fees left behind from departing members (which the Big East was able to keep $10 million of, for start-up purposes). These exits fees, while ultimately given to UConn, USF and Cincinnati over the course of several years, allowed those programs to continue spending what they had in the old Big East, while allowing the new members called-up from C-USA to associate with "more prestigious" membership, and, thus, increase their overall value and branding over time.