UCONN POLL

[Fieldhouse Flyer]

From what I read, it seems the only reason some of them are against it is because they are worried about being excluded from the future non-NCAA governing body that the P5 schools form. No one on their board has brought it up but I just can't see a governing body like that existing without the membership of the 3rd best basketball conference in the country.

Big-revenue football is driving that bus, with college basketball appearing in its rear-view mirror.

Not sure what your point is.

It’s this: if or when the P5-conference schools form a future non-NCAA governing body, it will be solely for the benefit of those P5-conference schools – and no one else.

If you do much reading about college sports, you will know that the presidents, athletic directors and football coaches of the P5-conference schools have a real 'us and them' view of the college sports landscape. If the P5-conference schools form a future non-NCAA governing body, it will include only P5-conference schools, and will it be driven by the big football-centric schools who stand to gain the most by the formation of a non-NCAA governing body.

How Much Is Your Favorite College Football Team Worth? – Wall Street Journal - January 10, 2016

2015 Rank Program • Value ($ in millions)

1. Ohio State • 946.61
2. Texas • 885.05
3. Michigan • 811.30
4. Notre Dame • 723.59
5. Alabama • 694.87
6. Oklahoma • 674.34
7. Florida • 670.86
8. Georgia • 636.44
9. LSU • 612.30
10. Penn State • 481.39

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COLLEGE BASKETBALL

The basketball coaches of the P5-conference schools also share this 'us and them' mentality with regards to non-P5 schools. I’ll use a professional baseball analogy to illustrate their perception of the college basketball landscape:

Major Leagues: Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, Pac 12, and Southeastern

AAA: Big East

AA: Atlantic 10, American Athletic Conference, Colonial, and Mid American

A: The other 22 conferences.

But this perception of the P5-conference basketball coaches differs from the present reality:

NCAA Basketball - Final 2015-16 Conference RPI Rankings

1. Big 12 .5843
2. Atlantic Coast Conference .5762
3. Pac 12 .5704
4. Big East .5621
5. Big Ten .5503
6. Southeastern .5465
7. Atlantic 10 .5341
8. American Athletic Conference .5299
9. Colonial .5186
10. Mid American .5139

Q: How many of the basketball coaches in the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference will want the Big East in their non-NCAA cartel ?

A: None.

Q: How many of the basketball coaches in the Big 12, ACC, and Pac 12 will want the Big East in their non-NCAA cartel ?

A: None.
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KNOCK-ON EFFECTS

Each year in March, the P5 Conference Cartel will hold their annual college basketball tournament – at the same time as the rival NCAA Tournament. The money for the TV rights to the P5 Conference Cartel Tournament will be astronomical.

The NCAA Tournament will likely have to be reduced to 32 teams, and the TV rights money for it will plummet. The Big East should dominate the NCAA Tournament for years to come, but the tournament’s stature will decline significantly. The NIT and other post-season basketball tournaments will disappear completely after the Top 97 teams in college basketball play elsewhere in March.

The P5 Conference Cartel schools will use all means available to benefit themselves, such as increasing their FCOA payments to student-athletes, increasing football scholarships to 90, and increasing men’s basketball scholarships to 15 – just to take another 130 very good basketball players away from NCAA basketball teams. The P5 Conference Cartel schools will drop the requirement for basketball players transferring in from NCAA schools to sit out a season before playing, and after each season, the P5 Conference Cartel basketball coaches will 'release' their worse players and unashamedly recruit star players from NCAA teams for the next season – effectively turning the NCAA schools into their minor leagues.

The administrators of the NCAA and its non-P5 member schools are already aware of the potential existential threats described above. It is in their interests to ensure that this nightmare scenario does not turn into reality. That will mean a lot of unpalatable choices for them in the years to come.

[DudeAnon]

After reading an unhealthy amount of UCONN forum posts and engaging some of their twitter users I have concluded that UCONN can go f--- themselves and I hope they rot in the American.

[Hall2012]

To me, it's pretty simple. If they genuinely want to join the Big East, they're welcome to. As annoying as their fans are, UConn is a major hoops brand and a traditional Big East brand that would add financial value to the league. That's really all they add though. It's not like we'd be adding a national championship contender. At this point, they're likely a middle 3rd team that could maybe sqeak into the NCAAs but more likely end up in the NIT. Could they build their program back to where it was in the Big East? Maybe, but they don't have Calhoun anymore either.

They didn't have Calhoun in 2014 either. They're bringing in a top ten recruiting class this year. They have a coach who won a NC just 3 years ago. How does their program need rebuilding?

This kind of comment reminds me of fans who were trashing Villanova just a few years ago. In the words of Mark Twain, "Reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated." You're dismissing the program that has probably had the most high level success of any program in the country in recent years. Middle of the BIg East? Borderline NCAA tournament team? Seriously?

I'm not trashing anyone, I genuinely like UConn. I own a Ben Gordon jersey and they were my favorite cbb team until I attended Seton Hall. I still have a soft spot for them and would like to see them do well, but I'm just being realistic.

The 2014 run was fantastic, but they weren't anything special prior to getting hot in the NCAA Tournament. That team was also lead by Calhoun recruits (Napier, Boatright, Daniels, etc) and it's Ollie's only at large bid as head coach, though to be fair they may have gotten one if eligible the year prior.

It's a lot different from Villanova because people's criticism of Villanova was that they were just beating up on a "bad conference" (that really wasn't so bad). But even if the Big East was bad, at least Nova won the regular season every time and the tournament once. UConn finished 6th in the AAC each of the last 2 years, missing the 2015 tournament and needing the auto bid to squeak into the 2016 tournament. So they're not exactly beating up on their bad conference- they're decidedly middle of the road in it. There's been a clear drop off from the Calhoun era.

Hopefully their recruiting class can help bring them back to vintage UConn because I don't know how many more years of finishing behind Tulsa and Houston they can take before their prestige starts to take a hit.

[whiteandblue77]

If you do much reading about college sports, you will know that the presidents, athletic directors and football coaches of the P5-conference schools have a real 'us and them' view of the college sports landscape. If the P5-conference schools form a future non-NCAA governing body, it will include only P5-conference schools, and will it be driven by the big football-centric schools who stand to gain the most by the formation of a non-NCAA governing body.

Followed college football very closely my entire live, I grew up in the Midwest, now live in SEC country and also lived in California and the East Coast. I GUARANTEE the only 'us and them' going on is the SEC and their hell-bent intent for the South to "Rise Again," instigating the B1G's continued annoyance by them (they are equally obsessed with football in the Midwest). The coasts are obsessed with other things: California has been gentrified and focused on MLB, NFL, even MLS, pretty much same with the East Coast. You have no idea how much hatred your graphic showing OSU, Michigan and Notre Dame (the devil incarnate in the Deep South) AHEAD of an SEC team (Alabama) can stir up in the South. Come together? That would mean sleeping with the enemy. Never going to happen.

Major Leagues: Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, Pac 12, and Southeastern

AAA: Big East

AA: Atlantic 10, American Athletic Conference, Colonial, and Mid American

A: The other 22 conferences.

That's your opinion nothing more. SEC fans (sans UK) give a rats ass about basketball and if polled would say the Big East is "prolly the best" unless you're talking the ACC South--North Carolina HATES the Big East more than anyone right now, but they don't disrespect the Big East like you are fantasizing about. Sure they will try and bash us (just like ESPN does because we're on with FS1), but they fear us more than think we are minor league in any way.

Each year in March, the P5 Conference Cartel will hold their annual college basketball tournament – at the same time as the rival NCAA Tournament. The money for the TV rights to the P5 Conference Cartel Tournament will be astronomical.

The NCAA Tournament will likely have to be reduced to 32 teams, and the TV rights money for it will plummet. The Big East should dominate the NCAA Tournament for years to come, but the tournament’s stature will decline significantly. The NIT and other post-season basketball tournaments will disappear completely after the Top 97 teams in college basketball play elsewhere in March.

The P5 Conference Cartel schools will use all means available to benefit themselves, such as increasing their FCOA payments to student-athletes, increasing football scholarships to 90, and increasing men’s basketball scholarships to 15 – just to take another 130 very good basketball players away from NCAA basketball teams. The P5 Conference Cartel schools will drop the requirement for basketball players transferring in from NCAA schools to sit out a season before playing, and after each season, the P5 Conference Cartel basketball coaches will 'release' their worse players and unashamedly recruit star players from NCAA teams for the next season – effectively turning the NCAA schools into their minor leagues.

The administrators of the NCAA and its non-P5 member schools are already aware of the potential existential threats described above. It is in their interests to ensure that this nightmare scenario does not turn into reality. That will mean a lot of unpalatable choices for them in the years to come.

As someone pointed out, that sounds like a silly conspiracy theory but you're entitled to your opinion. To be clear, I personally want Dayton in before UCONN a million times over, they are a STRONG basketball-first school, private, Catholic, rich... maybe I pissed you off with the numbers from the A10's TV contract (hey, you are the one who started it!), but the Big East is very much poised to align ourselves with the top of college sports FOREVER like no other conference not in the football five or four.

Bottom line: the Bowl Subdivision is ALREADY their own CARTEL! It's called the CFP, formerly BCS, founded in 1992. Just look at the frigging Sugar Bowl, makes el Chapo look like a sap. The NCAA has NEVER crowned any single national champion in the FBS. A new Basketball tournament without any midmajor cinderella would be a SAD JOKE. Nobody would watch the football-school basketball tournament. I would not. Would anyone fill out brackets any more? Would anyone care about March with no Madness?

[Fieldhouse Flyer]

Nobody would watch the football-school basketball tournament.

....................................... ? .......................................

[DudeAnon]

Nobody would watch the football-school basketball tournament.

....................................... ? .......................................

He's right man. The NCAA tournament is perfect as it is (except for the first four nonsense). The entire nation loves March Madness and they aren't stupid enough to try and change a good thing.

[whiteandblue77]

Football 5 athletic departments get money from two sources: 1. TV deals with Bowls, i.e. the College Football Playoff (ESPN) and 2. TV deals with March Madness (CBS), which is contracted very lucratively through 2028 (so can we hold off on this discussion for 12 years?).

Bowls were invented with the reconstruction of the South. They were created to help the South rebuild through tourism with tourists from the East and Midwest who were obsessed with this new rising sport called Football. The bowls quickly turned into a continuation of the Civil War for the South. I've actually seen Orange Bowl programs from the 1950s completely devoted to showing how the South was doing against the "enemies" from North. The money and corruption of the Bowl system has been going on for nearly 100 years and it's not going away. In fact it's the reason why the bowls are compelling, why people watch, why after 100 years the Bowls HAVE helped the South rebuild and now dominate college football. THATS why people watch. That's why it's lucrative. (oh, and there's the violence )

Basketball? The original "Dance" started in New York City, MSG, the NIT. The East Coast. They had it made for a while but unfortunately they weren't as corrupt as the State of Louisiana was/is with the Sugar Bowl, so they lost out to a new, more nationally-focused NCAA tournament starting after WWII and the Greatest Generation buying TV sets. MARCH MADNESS, huge, very democratic national championship well run and fun to watch. Sure the West Texas State vs segregated Kentucky final was compelling in 1966, but that was more a small side show that was more Kentucky's little problem more than anything else.

Football doesn't need the NCAA, basketball does.

[NJRedman]

Pride always comes before the fall. These fans (the young ones) think they have always been on top and thats just the way it's going to be. They have no idea that they didn't even make the NCAA's as a member of the Big East until 1990. They are a johnny come lately and they are about to be left behind on the ash heap of sports history like USF (San Fran), Houston and CUNY.

I'm confused by your comment.

1. You knock UConn for not making the NCAA's as a member of the Big East until 1990. Why is that significant? Wouldn't Seton Hall fit a similar description? Should we not take them seriously? How about Butler? Or Xavier? Duke didn't win a NC before 1991 and they won them all under the same coach. Hmm.

2. You call UConn a Johnny come lately, but then trash the pedigree of schools like USF, Houston, and CCNY who do have pedigrees before 1990. Which is it? Recent success or success from long ago? And CCNY is just a crazy comparison since they never accomplished anything of significance other than 1950, and their program was killed by the betting scandals along with most of NYC basketball. In contrast, UConn in 1990 went to the first of 10 Elite 8's, 5 Final Fours, and 4 NC's over a quarter century. Houston isn't much better. Although they have 5 Final Fours to their credit, they never won a NC and never reached even the Elite 8 in any season other than those 5. USF is a better comparison, but their ruin came from boosters paying players and the president suspending the program after the practice had become BOTH chronic and resistant to intervention. There is no sign of any of that happening at UConn.

3. You predict that their program is about to be left on the ash heap of sports history. Why? Is there any sign that the program is in decline? They're bringing in a top ten recruiting class this year. That sure doesn't sound like a program in decline. Bad facilities or academics? Nope. Their coach is considered to be one of the hottest young coaches in the business. If he resigned tomorrow, both college and NBA programs would be lining up for his services. What other programs have you targeted for the ash heap of sports history? Florida? Michigan State? Both have also had big runs in the same quarter century during which UConn has excelled. Does an old pedigree assure future success? Is Indiana returning to championship form any time soon? UCLA?

Really simple Bill, they have finished 5th or 6th each year in the AAC. Thats the conference with the 8th best RPI each of the last 3 years. So yeah, they are declining. They are a Johnny come lately. They think they are like UK, KU and UNC. They are not.

The significance of them not making the NCAA's until 1990 is that the younger fans think they have always been great and will always be great. They say we leeched off of THEIR success when in fact they leeched off our success.

You want to defend them and their fans thats fine, but my point stands. If they don't do something drastic soon they will in fact end up on the scrap heap of college sports history. That P5 invite isn't coming and more and more schools in the AAC are leaving.

[_lh]

It is not looking good for UCONN. I still think the B12 stays at 10 but even if they move to 12, I don't see UCONN getting in. The ACC does not need UCONN and neither does the B10.

UCONN can only stay in the AAC for so long and if two of these 3 are gone (Houston, Memphis or UC) the AAC becomes even weaker.

UCONN is screwed.

[whiteandblue77]

That Boneyard thread is the most compelling thing ive read all summer, its like watching a bunch of Alabama basketball fans trying pathetically to force the pigskin freaks to be as passionate about hoops as they are about the Tide. Pass me some popcorn, the fratricide is palpable.