Welcome Back, UConn Fans!

[SamElliott]

Good article on yahoo

https://sports.yahoo.com/hurley-says-uc ... ncaab.html

BIG EAST
UConn will be playing its final season in the American Athletic Conference, where the team has a record of 55-53 in the six seasons since it formed out of the remnants of the old Big East. The Huskies will join the new Big East next year. But Hurley brings a poster of the AAC Conference trophy to practice as a reminder of what his team is working for this season.
''We take that (poster) when we go eat, in the locker room,'' said Bouknight. ''It's basically a sign to make sure we're doing the right things to reach that goal.''

[SamElliott]

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.

That's all semantics. After the Big East divorce, there was a vacuum at that point in time, which the AAC filled. The tectonic plates worked out well for the AAC, since it coincided with the era of conference networks, giving them the opportunity to brand with the WWL.

Lets remember that UConn FB, USF FB, UCF FB, are all relative babies. Any speculation as to their potential either way is baseless because USF and UCF had been in CUSA for a cup of coffee in their progression, and everyone else has these histories in other leagues. It's a new product that benefitted by joining up with the Disney of sports.

It's anyone's guess how the landscape will look 10-20 years from now. Arguing that its somehow a strike against a conference or school because they want to be part of "the club" is asinine.

[GoldenWarrior11]

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.

That's all semantics. After the Big East divorce, there was a vacuum at that point in time, which the AAC filled. The tectonic plates worked out well for the AAC, since it coincided with the era of conference networks, giving them the opportunity to brand with the WWL.

Lets remember that UConn FB, USF FB, UCF FB, are all relative babies. Any speculation as to their potential either way is baseless because USF and UCF had been in CUSA for a cup of coffee in their progression, and everyone else has these histories in other leagues. It's a new product that benefitted by joining up with the Disney of sports.

It's anyone's guess how the landscape will look 10-20 years from now. Arguing that its somehow a strike against a conference or school because they want to be part of "the club" is asinine.

No, those are just facts. You speak to a vacuum being filled, but the reality is that there was a consolidation within the power conference structure - Big East Football was eliminated and removed. There was one less conference making power conference money and getting power conference exposure access. The ACC and the Big Ten added value to their respective brands by taking away the top brands of the Big East (the Big 12 maintained their's by taking away West Virginia). Even with the recent AAC TV deal, it still was not as much annually that ESPN offered to the conference when it still had Syracuse, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Louisville and Rutgers (and the C7).

To your point about UConn, USF and UCF being "babies", yes - that is absolutely correct, and that is a big reason why they are not in the big club. The P5 is as much a group centered around "old money" as the Rockefellers and Vanderbilts were, with the top of the G5 very similar to Bill Gates or Warren Buffett. No matter what Gates or Buffet does, they can never be considered "old money", as not only did they, relatively speaking, recently generate their wealth, but they did not have it inherited or passed down. Schools within the P5 have, by an overwhelming majority, shared associations with one another and have been playing football for over a hundred years. Many realignment fans like to poke fun at Rutgers for getting an invitation to the Big Ten, but Rutgers is one of the oldest institutions in the country that has been playing football (and one that shares similar academic associations with B1G membership); the fact that they were located in a contiguous state (that was rich in recruiting and had many B1G alumni) made it all the more sense.

For many schools in the G5, including the AAC, they simply have not played football at the highest levels of college football for as long, or with the same associations, as the P5, and they certainly do not share the same academic associations or resources that the P5 has had. These are barriers that are impossible to overcome if you are a G5 program looking to get a ticket into the P5. Looking at the P5 today, there have been more members "left behind" in realignment (UConn, Cincinnati, USF, Temple, Houston, SMU, Rice) than those that have made the climb from non-power affiliations into power conferences (Louisville, Utah). A school like Boise State, who continues to experience sustained success as one of the top non-power programs going back to the early 2000's (nearly 20 years), is still incredibly unlikely to ever get into a power conference due to the unfortunate reality that Boise State only recently gained recognition as a university (1970's), the state does not bring high viewership or a media market, and it brings little added value via other associations (academic and Olympic sports). In essence, schools in the G5 have not been selected by the P5 for a reason, and those reasons appear unlikely to change over time because those same reasons (and perceptions) have to do with long-term associations and statuses.

Houston and SMU got left behind by the Texas and the Big 12 in the 90's. Tulane voluntarily left the SEC in the 1960's. Temple got kicked out of the Big East. UConn, USF and Cincinnati got left behind in the 2010's. While no other member has had a power conference affiliation, I'd say it's pretty clear there has been a direct separation within college football.