The UConn addition

[Xudash]

What UConn fans should really know is that all the predictions of failure for the Big East in it's current version - many coming from the UConn faithful - were not only false but proved to be laughable.

1.) Big East won't get a compeitive TV contract - especially without ESPN. This was false from day one. Under the old ESPN ontract with thefootball schools, the non-football schools took in around $1.7 million. Now we get $4 million from Fox. Also, the coverage is better. Every confernce game is on TV. Every single one - no paywall. And most ofthe non-confernce games are on TV as well. DePaul has more games on national TV than Duke. Fox gives a priority to the Big East. And they reference the Big East in there other showings. When Fox covered the World Series with the San Francisco Giants winning, they were interviewing Joe Panik the Giants rookie starting second basement at the time. The info bar below said - Panik is first player from St. John's UNiversity to win World Series since Frank Viola. Other than St. John's fans and NYC baseball fans, who cared about that stat? Doesn't matter - Fox is all in for the Big East and the announcers are 100 times better than whats on ESPN

2.) Big East won't be competitve with the P5. This is really wrong. Let's put aside the HUGE fact that Villanova has won two National Championships beating a host of P5 blue bloods along the way. The rest of the league has done well against what we call the Football 5. The league has a winning reacord against every P5 league. Even teams that have struggled in Big East play have done well out of conference. The league is generally in the top three each year in whatever metric you want to use to measure a conference. We get about half our teams in teh NCAA and even with teams liek St. John's and Georgetown having struggled a bit, every single team in the league has been to the NCAA tourny and has been ranked inthe top 25 except DePaul. That's pretty good for what was derided as a CYO league.

3.) The Big East won't be able to keep the ACC or Big Ten from kicking them out of the Garden for conference tournaments. This was based on the assumption that the Big East would not be able to fill the setas during the Big East Tournament. Big worng here. The Big East has been the n=best attended conferce tournament inthe nation the last few years. Just about every session is a sellout. UConn won't increase attendace at the tourny because it's tough to beat a sell-out. They will definately make tickets harder to get because they will absoutley be showing up. Both the ACC and the Big Ten went to the Garden about bringing their tournies to there during Championship week and both were told no. Then the greatest commisioner in conference history besides Gavitt himself negotaited an extention with the Garden that shut everyone out for many years to come. We are going nowhere.

The Big East is the same as the one you left as well. It's gritty, it's rough, it's very entertaining, and it's fans love basketball. It still Us against the World and we'll put our money on us every game. You can't play football at the Garden, or at Hinkle, or at Cintas, or at the Dunk - so why even bother. See you soon in New York UConn....GO BIG EAST!

BOOM! Superb post.

[Omaha1]

SI article about big football contracts placing schools on terrible financial straits.

The all-timer remains the fleecing Charlie Weis gave Notre Dame. Seven games into his tenure in 2005, after a close loss to powerhouse USC, Weis used interest from the NFL—real or manufactured—to land a 10-year deal. Yes, he turned a loss into a gold mine. Notre Dame fired him in 2009 and wound up paying him $19 million thereafter.

But that’s just one of countless examples. Connecticut was so smitten by Bob Diaco’s 6–7 season in 2016—capped off with a loss to Marshall in the St. Petersburg Bowl—that it renegotiated his deal to provide a raise and an increased buyout. Less than a year later, UConn was firing Diaco and paying him $3.4 million to go away.

(That’s a whole lot less than $19 million or $12 million to go away, but Notre Dame and Arkansas have more money to blow than UConn. The Huskies are expected to eliminate multiple sports teams later this month, in no small part because of digging a deficit crater in football.)

[Husky_U]

See y'all at midnight.



David Borges
@DaveBorges
UConn's men's basketball ticket sales are about 2,000 ahead of the pace as the same time last year -- and that's in the midst of a global pandemic where everything (games with fans, games at all) is up in the air.
11:15 AM · Jun 30, 2020

[Xudash]

See y'all at midnight.



David Borges
@DaveBorges
UConn's men's basketball ticket sales are about 2,000 ahead of the pace as the same time last year -- and that's in the midst of a global pandemic where everything (games with fans, games at all) is up in the air.
11:15 AM · Jun 30, 2020

Finally!

[Omaha1]

Welcome back.

[TBC Alum]

See y'all at midnight.

Husky_U, you've been awesome coming here since the merger was announced. I look forward to officially hating you!

[GumbyDamnit!]

https://www.reddit.com/r/CollegeBasketball/comments/hjp5yi/return_of_the_king/

And here I was giving the UConn fans more credit than they deserve, thinking that maybe the last 5 years or so have humbled them. Nope. CU, X and Butler this is what is in Storr (pun intended) if UConn has any success in this league.

Edit: actually a pretty good job by whoever made it.

[Xudash]

https://www.reddit.com/r/CollegeBasketball/comments/hjp5yi/return_of_the_king/

And here I was giving the UConn fans more credit than they deserve, thinking that maybe the last 5 years or so have humbled them. Nope. CU, X and Butler this is what is in Storr (pun intended) if UConn has any success in this league.

Edit: actually a pretty good job by whoever made it.

Thanks for sharing. It is funny. But I'm trying to get my head around UCONN referring to Nova as "little brother".

[Jet915]

PTI on UConns move back to Big East. Starts at 20 minute mark.

https://youtu.be/syxL4iKsx2I

[Husky_U]

PTI on UConns move back to Big East. Starts at 20 minute mark.

https://youtu.be/syxL4iKsx2I

Gotta love a good BC trashing.