UConn 2020 Discussion - The Thread By AAC Fan Sam Elliott...

[Edrick]

I doubt that the Crossroads Classic is renewed. (like no chance) Butler has worked over Indiana and Purdue pretty good in that thing and given all four teams will soon be playing 20 game conference schedules, that sort of event just isn't justified for Indiana.

It's pretty much dead.

No other state is going to start one of these now given the climate. The day of these sort of events has passed

[Xudash]

Drop “probably” and you nailed it.

As a college bb fan, I'd like to see Ohio's "crossroads classic". As a BE fan, meh whatevers.

- As a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament, has it hit anyone yet that Dayton was always the better choice to be the NBE's 11th team?
- Perhaps UConn could have been the 12th team?
- The Fox Sports 1 contract allowed for 2 pro-rata shares to get to 12 teams (at 4 million per year for each team.)
- That extra inventory would increase the bargaining position of the league in 6 years. It's absurd not to get that last 4 million dollar share, as it adds equity to a fledgling league.
- Dayton has showed that they don't need the NBE to get a #1 seed.
- OTOH, UConn was an opening day qualifier in the AAC tournament, as Hurley didn't win 20 games this year.
- Let's also look at having a quality team in Ohio.
- After losing to DePaul, Travis Steele was about to make his second NIT in two years.
- Having Dayton to shoulder some of the load would be good for Xavier.
- As an aside, Dayton plays FCS football, and the NBE may want to consider sponsoring football on the FCS level. (UConn, Nova, Georgetown, Butler, and Dayton would be a solid core)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDIzZhiPF2I

[Omaha1]

Sure, if Dayton wants to go ahead and guarantee that they'll only take their tv share in years they luck into a lottery pick, then sign em up. Otherwise, they'll be there if we ever feel the need for a 12th (or more likely 13/14th). Nothing against them but they aren't a UConn level brand.

Obi was a non-academic qualifier, wasn’t he? I wonder how many Big East schools he would’ve even been accepted to?

[Hall2012]

Drop “probably” and you nailed it.

As a college bb fan, I'd like to see Ohio's "crossroads classic". As a BE fan, meh whatevers.

- As a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament, has it hit anyone yet that Dayton was always the better choice to be the NBE's 11th team?
- Perhaps UConn could have been the 12th team?
- The Fox Sports 1 contract allowed for 2 pro-rata shares to get to 12 teams (at 4 million per year for each team.)
- That extra inventory would increase the bargaining position of the league in 6 years. It's absurd not to get that last 4 million dollar share, as it adds equity to a fledgling league.
- Dayton has showed that they don't need the NBE to get a #1 seed.
- OTOH, UConn was an opening day qualifier in the AAC tournament, as Hurley didn't win 20 games this year.
- Let's also look at having a quality team in Ohio.
- After losing to DePaul, Travis Steele was about to make his second NIT in two years.
- Having Dayton to shoulder some of the load would be good for Xavier.
- As an aside, Dayton plays FCS football, and the NBE may want to consider sponsoring football on the FCS level. (UConn, Nova, Georgetown, Butler, and Dayton would be a solid core)

A 1 seed in what NCAA tournament?

Half our league would have run the A10 table this year and been in the same spot as Dayton. I'd much rather take the school with a history of success than the flash in the pan team bullying a mid-major conference.

[SamElliott]

Agreed. Kick out UCONN. Replace them with Dayton. Then look to Iona as #12. Big East is better off without UCONN Basketball, just like the AAC.

Cmon now. I didn’t say “kick out UConn”... I said the goal should’ve been 12, with Dayton and UConn 11 & 12.
UConn is a basketball-only brand, and that realization is why the Huskies are now in the NBE (versus 2013, when it was there if UConn was ready).
Even now, UConn has value as a basketball opponent. In football, UConn offers little value.
The problem is, the audiences for basketball games are tiny.
Here’s a blurb from “Sports Media Watch”... The Creighton- St John’s game on FS1 only attracted 174,000 viewers!!! That is for a team at the top of the league versus’s New York’s Team.
(For reference, UNC vs Cuse drew 950,000.
With those viewership numbers, the NBE needs to look to volume.
As I said, since the pro-rata covers a 12th school, it’s not smart to ignore that last share. That volume makes the conference more valuable.
As a 1 seed, Dayton (at least for this year) has been a bigger draw than UConn in basketball.
Can UConn become relevant in the NBE? Sure, but those MSG viewership numbers simply reflect the value of college basketball in the hierarchy of collegiate sport programming. What would a relevant UConn draw in MBB? 300K. This is definitely exacerbated by being on FS1 but that’s the bed that was made.

[Savannah Jay]

As they say in the south, Sammy, bless your heart. When and what time were those games aired? (Checks schedule). So Gonzaga’s tourney championship played in prime time and UNC Cuse played in prime time attracted more viewers than a big east tournament quarterfinal played on a Thursday at noon Eastern time. Holy shit stop the presses.

[Bogg]

The simple fact is that if Fox really wanted Dayton then Dayton would be in, and in 2024 (or sooner) when they negotiate a new deal the same will be true then. Nothing against Dayton, them and St Louis are on-deck, but absent a pressing need to expand (which the BE doesn't have sitting at 11) these are decisions you make in conjunction with your media partner.

[DanofXav76]

Eleven teams in the conference works wonderfully well for a true home and home league schedule, which most here enjoy and value immensely. Going to 12 teams would lead to either divisions or an unbalanced schedule which is a lot less desirable.
FS1 has been an excellent partner for the BE. Lots of exposure, lots of top rate coverage for the big time league we are. No regrets there either.

[Edrick]

The reason that there is absolutely no chance that Saint Louis or Dayton is going to be pursued is that no one (and you can take to the bank ESPN is going to try to get in on the Big East bidding) is going to pay MORE per team, because of SLU or Dayton.

The ONLY program where that was the case already was added. There's an extreme bias to keeping the double round robin, its just not happening.

What is going to happen is that Fox Sports is likely going to end up paying the Big East around double of what it currently does, in order to fend off other parties. And the member schools will remain fixed for at least the remainder of the contract / decade+

[GoldenWarrior11]

The Big East will remain at 11 for a few years, likely until 2024 or until the anticipated renewed TV deal will come close to expiring. Unfortunately for Dayton and SLU, they aren't going anywhere, and even if they (or one) were to be added by the AAC to replace UConn, the Big East just cemented the pecking order of conference superiority by taking UConn (the league's best basketball brand) away from them as a non-football member. Due to this and like-minded membership, these two programs would leave in a New York minute for the Big East if/when we ever came calling. They will always be there, so nothing needs to be rushed at present. The B1G/Big 12/ACC/PAC are never calling them, and the AAC is a football-first league, first and foremost.

UD & SLU - keep pumping resources into your basketball programs and it will pay off in the long-run. Worst case scenario is that they will have separated themselves from the rest of the A10 programs and become the top programs within that conference; best case is that they will have proven and earned themselves a ticket at a bigger and better conference.

What is interesting to me is reading so many takes online regarding Wichita State in the past few days. Not only has WSU lost over half of their team from an NIT-bound team this year, but a lot of fans are coming out questioning their move to the AAC as a result. I guess, from reading, UConn and Marshall were both a big proponent of their addition and even pulled their weight in order to get them accepted. With UConn now gone, I guess some are questioning their long-term stability in a football-focused league. Going back to the previous incarnation of the Big East, no one wants to be at the permanently cast aside with little-to-no voice while all of the decisions being made are made with football-only in-mind.