Conference Realignment Thread v. 2016

[NJRedman]

Let's be honest here. If UConn were to join, they would be back in the top 25 consistently if they do it soon. If they keep waiting years and years, even their storied basketball program will become irrelevant to match football. So assuming they join, that gives each Big East team 2 more scheduled games against a top 25 opponent. Back in the old Big East, you had much more room for error. You could lose 3 games in a row but then win 3 of your next 4 against ranked teams and get back on track. Having the opportunity to consistently play plenty of ranked teams is crucial. Each ranked team would give 2 chances to beat a ranked team for all the others. So I would assume Nova, Xavier, UConn would be in the top 25 pretty consistently year after year. Right now only Nova and Xavier can say they are basically almost always a top 25 team. UConn brings another perennial ranked team.

It would be stupid for UConn to say no. They need us more than we need them. They are losing $20 mil/ year from football and they are obviously not going to join the Big 12. Word has been that they will NOT stay put in the AAC. If so, the only other option is here and they will park football. If they DO stay put in the AAC for 7 yxears or whatever, they will be such a watered down brand, they won't even have the same prestige in basketball. Recruits don't want to play against East Carolina and Tulane. They want to play storied programs with name brands, prestige, and big stages on national TV every game.

Storied programs like St John's?

Well if you actually knew anything you'd know we are a storied program. Top ten all time wins. We are of course on some hard times but we were a big time program long before most of the teams in this league were relevant.

[David G]

Let's be honest here. If UConn were to join, they would be back in the top 25 consistently if they do it soon. If they keep waiting years and years, even their storied basketball program will become irrelevant to match football. So assuming they join, that gives each Big East team 2 more scheduled games against a top 25 opponent. Back in the old Big East, you had much more room for error. You could lose 3 games in a row but then win 3 of your next 4 against ranked teams and get back on track. Having the opportunity to consistently play plenty of ranked teams is crucial. Each ranked team would give 2 chances to beat a ranked team for all the others. So I would assume Nova, Xavier, UConn would be in the top 25 pretty consistently year after year. Right now only Nova and Xavier can say they are basically almost always a top 25 team. UConn brings another perennial ranked team.

It would be stupid for UConn to say no. They need us more than we need them. They are losing $20 mil/ year from football and they are obviously not going to join the Big 12. Word has been that they will NOT stay put in the AAC. If so, the only other option is here and they will park football. If they DO stay put in the AAC for 7 years or whatever, they will be such a watered down brand, they won't even have the same prestige in basketball. Recruits don't want to play against East Carolina and Tulane. They want to play storied programs with name brands, prestige, and big stages on national TV every game.

It may be stupid, but I'm pretty close to entirely convinced that is what they would say. The few people who would actually be making a decision like that don't seem to have any desire to cut football, or reclassify football to FCS, or leave their current situation to join a league in all sports that is not an FBS conference. I think they would let everything collapse around them before they'd look to join a non FBS league.

[Xudash]

Let's be honest here. If UConn were to join, they would be back in the top 25 consistently if they do it soon. If they keep waiting years and years, even their storied basketball program will become irrelevant to match football. So assuming they join, that gives each Big East team 2 more scheduled games against a top 25 opponent. Back in the old Big East, you had much more room for error. You could lose 3 games in a row but then win 3 of your next 4 against ranked teams and get back on track. Having the opportunity to consistently play plenty of ranked teams is crucial. Each ranked team would give 2 chances to beat a ranked team for all the others. So I would assume Nova, Xavier, UConn would be in the top 25 pretty consistently year after year. Right now only Nova and Xavier can say they are basically almost always a top 25 team. UConn brings another perennial ranked team.

It would be stupid for UConn to say no. They need us more than we need them. They are losing $20 mil/ year from football and they are obviously not going to join the Big 12. Word has been that they will NOT stay put in the AAC. If so, the only other option is here and they will park football. If they DO stay put in the AAC for 7 years or whatever, they will be such a watered down brand, they won't even have the same prestige in basketball. Recruits don't want to play against East Carolina and Tulane. They want to play storied programs with name brands, prestige, and big stages on national TV every game.

They are 3 years removed from a NC and continue to recruit at a very high level. UCONN BB won't lose relevancy any time soon IMO. Is the BE a better spot for BB than the AAC? Without question. Would a rekindling of those old BE rivalries give both UCONN and the BE a boost? Without question. I know their fans cringe at the thought of playing some of those teams and going to those conference tourneys, while we enjoy the bright lights of Broadway. I hope it shakes out definitively that they don't get an invite to a P5 conf, and the writing is on the wall for them to look elsehwere. I would LOVE having them back in the conference, for purely my college BB fandom experience. I know this argument seems split among the new conference mates and old, but having a program like UCONN makes us better and games more interesting. Adding Dayton, St. Louis or anyone not named Gonzaga provides little excitement to me.

Word for word, I could not have put up a better response than this one.

The one exception I could take with it is the notion that the new mates differ all that much from the C7 mates. The Big East does not need to look "down" at the mid-major pool - sorry, but I take that position now as I perceive I'm taking it from a national point-of-view - for expansion opportunities. We either look "across" or "up." We've earned the right to look at this way through our collective performance to-date, and for what we bring to the table with respect to our key assets: broadcast partner and media deal, MSG relationship, basketball-first focus, etc.

We don't have to do a DAMN thing right now.

But, should UCONN want back in, we bring them back in within a New York minute, but they come back in having signed an agreement that has a rich exit fee clause embedded in it. It's that simple.

So, why is it that simple? Answer: timing and opportunity and the exit fee. Timing, because football realignment would be expected to settle down for 8'ish years (i.e. the period of time before the Big XII's GOR goes tits-up and that conference and football in general goes nuts, shuffling again on the top deck). Opportunity, because, well because we're talking about UCONN here - - I doubt that needs an explanation as to what they would bring, and I'm already well built to deal with insufferable fans, so bring them on even if some come in kicking and screaming. Exit fee, because $10 or $20 million (even if on a time-sliding scale) would add to the treasury with the conference having benefited from their time here, but without the conference taking a perception hit over their departure, should it even occur, due to football related issues and events.

We truly don't have to do anything right now, but we certainly should take advantage of a mutually beneficial opportunity should it present itself through and beyond approaching Big XII decisions.

[Bill Marsh]

For the life of me, I can't figure out why anyone would want to bring UConn into this conference.

[Vill]

For the life of me, I can't figure out why anyone would want to bring UConn into this conference.

+1

[GoldenWarrior11]

With each passing year, it becomes clearer and clearer that the C7 made out like bandits in the Big East/American split. Not only did we get the Big East name (which was a priceless asset for the basketball schools in itself), Madison Square Garden (which was equally as valuable to the Big East name) and our freedom from the football schools, but - with the move - we secured our place as finally being able to be in a position where we, the basketball schools, got to make the choices and decisions in realignment - not simply be relegated as a bystander or an unwilling accomplice for more revenue. It is unfortunate that schools like Tulane, East Carolina, UCF, USF, Houston and SMU receive bad reputations in basketball (history and lack of prior success drive that), but (by being in a basketball league with those schools) it was a long-term building process that the C7 could not and did not want to afford (not to mention make more revenue without them).

Unfortunately, UConn is part of that long-term building process with those schools in a different and more unique way. They need schools like Tulane, East Carolina, UCF, USF, Houston and SMU to do well in basketball and football. If they don't the prestige and reputation of their league suffers - as does their own athletic program. It is a challenging situation for them because, with those schools eventual and hopeful success, UConn needs to ensure that it does better than those programs in order to be firmly situated in the driver's seat when a realignment wave hits again. If they continue to lose to Houston, SMU, Tulsa, East Carolina, Tulane, UCF and USF in football and/or basketball, then their athletic program prestige drops while those programs are elevated.

I said it three years ago, but UConn staying in the American was a lose/lose scenario. They had nothing to gain and everything to lose - and still do. They may not realize it today, and they certainly did not realize it three years ago, but perhaps there will be a day where they finally pull the plug on the American experiment and pursue other options. I think it can be universally assumed that UConn is not destined to be in the American long-term.

[FenwayFriar]

For the life of me, I can't figure out why anyone would want to bring UConn into this conference.

For me, the simple reason is the same thing I would have told you when I was 11 years old: because it would be more fun. In this day and age of collegiate athletics being equivalent to a Fortune 500 conglomerate where it's all about power, money, and exploitation, it would nice to have a regional rivalry be put together rather than torn apart. Conference realignment has had the effect of tearing apart regional rivalries, rather than create new ones. It would be nice to mend one back together for once, rather than tear it apart as a result of the almighty dollar. Is all of this too much of a simplistic answer? Of course! Would it ever happen for this reason? Of course not! But to me, at the end of the day I am a sports fan, a college basketball fan, and a Providence fan because I enjoy it. What would give me the most enjoyment? To have another hated regional rival in the league that I get to see my team play two (if not three) times a year. Is it best for RPI, # of BE teams entering the tournament, or $$$? That remains to be seen. But to me, it couldn't be any simpler.

[Bill Marsh]

For the life of me, I can't figure out why anyone would want to bring UConn into this conference.

For me, the simple reason is the same thing I would have told you when I was 11 years old: because it would be more fun. In this day and age of collegiate athletics being equivalent to a Fortune 500 conglomerate where it's all about power, money, and exploitation, it would nice to have a regional rivalry be put together rather than torn apart. Conference realignment has had the effect of tearing apart regional rivalries, rather than create new ones. It would be nice to mend one back together for once, rather than tear it apart as a result of the almighty dollar. Is all of this too much of a simplistic answer? Of course! Would it ever happen for this reason? Of course not! But to me, at the end of the day I am a sports fan, a college basketball fan, and a Providence fan because I enjoy it. What would give me the most enjoyment? To have another hated regional rival in the league that I get to see my team play two (if not three) times a year. Is it best for RPI, # of BE teams entering the tournament, or $$$? That remains to be seen. But to me, it couldn't be any simpler.

I agree, but they would have no intention of staying and would not share the same mission as the rest of the league. I don't see the point of entering into that kind of relationship unless UCon. We're to drop football.

[Xudash]

For the life of me, I can't figure out why anyone would want to bring UConn into this conference.

For me, the simple reason is the same thing I would have told you when I was 11 years old: because it would be more fun. In this day and age of collegiate athletics being equivalent to a Fortune 500 conglomerate where it's all about power, money, and exploitation, it would nice to have a regional rivalry be put together rather than torn apart. Conference realignment has had the effect of tearing apart regional rivalries, rather than create new ones. It would be nice to mend one back together for once, rather than tear it apart as a result of the almighty dollar. Is all of this too much of a simplistic answer? Of course! Would it ever happen for this reason? Of course not! But to me, at the end of the day I am a sports fan, a college basketball fan, and a Providence fan because I enjoy it. What would give me the most enjoyment? To have another hated regional rival in the league that I get to see my team play two (if not three) times a year. Is it best for RPI, # of BE teams entering the tournament, or $$$? That remains to be seen. But to me, it couldn't be any simpler.

I agree, but they would have no intention of staying and would not share the same mission as the rest of the league. I don't see the point of entering into that kind of relationship unless UCon. We're to drop football.

I attempted to make what I thought was a logical point: were they to come into the Big East, they probably would be here for approx. 8 years. I'm assuming the Big XII passes on expansion in a few days and that that brings an end to material expansion activity until the Big XII's GOR expires in about 8 years. Yes, they would be a guerrilla fenced in with - let's call it - 10 thoroughbred horses. But who cares at that point. NEGOTIATE IT ALL UP FRONT, including the exit fee.

Does INTENTION (that most likely cannot be acted upon for many years) and a dissimilar mission trump value through their addition?

[SJHooper]

Stever, those are not comparable. UConn was once in a major conference living in the top 15 seemingly every year. They were at the top of the crop. Now they DOWNGRADE to the AAC playing those no names. Gonzaga has been constant in the same conference. They are clearly a major program playing in a mid major conference i.e. Xavier, Butler, Creighton which is why we snatched those teams up. They have been very good throughout coaching changes. UConn has had almost all of its success with 1 coach: Calhoun. UConn has yet to show they are world-beaters without Calhoun's fingerprints on them in a mid major conference. Gonzaga is also a pretty big outlier. There are exceptions to everything. No offense to G'Town, but look how quickly they went from competing for Elite 8's and Final Four's to being perceived as declining (btw I think G'Town will be fine but that's the perception nationally). UConn's lore was directly tied to the Big East. MSG, the Northeast rivalries, the brand in the tri-state. Now they play in the boonies and are out of their region. They chose football and they are now paying for it. They tried to be something they weren't. Now they will have to come crawling back.