UConn - Nightmare article from NY Times

[NJRedman]

I'm not saying it's in the black, but that MAJOR inaccuracy in the money is a major red flag about the article.

Just in tv and basketball money the AAC gets 38 million dollars. Then add in 20 million plus for football and you're up to around 60 million dollars. So instead of 1.5 million dollars, it's a lot closer to at least 5.5 or 6 million dollars.

20 million plus for FB? From where? I know each G5 conference gets 1 mil a team up to 12 teams in payoff...i mean playoff money. Where is the rest coming from? Bowls? Those are money LOSERS and all go back into paying for schools to GO to those games. Even if and I take your math with a HUGE grain of salt, even if it's accurate that still doesn't cover enough of how much they are spending. It's still mostly financed by tax payers, and right now that is a huge problem you continue to fail to address. Even if it's not 100% accurate the people of that state read the New York Times and the Boston Globe who are both saying it's situation is unattainable. You could easily see it become part of a local government campaign issue. Why cut from schools, roads, police and other infrastructure when you can just cut UConn FB and have them go back to being a self sufficient BBall school?

last year when they were like the 8th or 9th best G5 conference they got 15 million. The MWC which got the access bowl and was the #1 conference 2 years ago got 23 million. So this year it's up to 23 million.

Here is a link on how they (the G5) distribute the playoff money. The G5 share between themselves 79 million. The conference who gets the AQ spot gets an extra 4 million. So 23mil split 12 ways is 2 mil a year, plus the 2 mil they get from TV revenue and then say another 1-2 mil for NCAA credits which I don't think are even that much 2 mil per school is another 24 mil a year which is really high. So maybe TOPS they each get 6 million a year. Thats still not enough to run a successful high level FB program and doesn't cover enough for all of their other sports.

http://www.collegefootballplayoff.com/r ... stribution

http://www.foxsports.com/college-footba ... one-050415

[NJRedman]

500/126=3.97. I said total TV deal money.

But that's only because the BE deal was for 5 years longer. You can't just assume the AAC isn't going to get anything 4 years from now. Heck, if the AAC has another 2 years like this past one, they're going to improve their deal quite a bit.

Quite a bit? Where is the incentive for ESPN or Fox to give them some huge increase in money? Both networks are not in the position to be generously offering big money to a G5 conference. They will open up their pocketbooks for the B1G then tighten the purse strings for a decade.

[stever20]

500/126=3.97. I said total TV deal money.

But that's only because the BE deal was for 5 years longer. You can't just assume the AAC isn't going to get anything 4 years from now. Heck, if the AAC has another 2 years like this past one, they're going to improve their deal quite a bit.

And that's the same mistake in logic that so many AAC fans made when it came time to negotiate a few years ago. No network is just going to toss hundreds of millions of dollars at the AAC because they "deserve" it. The only leagues that will earn that amount are the SEC, B1G, PAC-12, ACC and Big 12. Why? Because they have the history of success, the support, and the fans that warrant that. People want to see them. Anyone that turns on ESPN2/ESPNews and watches an American game will see a severe drop-off in product compared to the other stronger conferences. You see it with the number of fans, you see it with the teams, you see it with the announcers, heck, you even see it in the highlights broadcast. ESPN didn't even update it's own AAC semifinal between Tulane and Memphis on its website this past weekend (but the SEC, B1G, ACC, PAC-12, Big 12, BE, A-10 all had updated scores).

Look no further than the number of fans at AAC games (football or basketball) on ESPN telecasts. If you don't think network executives notice that, then I don't know what to say. A high-number of AAC football games have had noticeable waves of empty seats on telecasts - Tulane, SMU, Cincinnati (at Paul Brown), Tulsa, UCF, UConn and Temple (when at the Linc and not playing PSU). Plenty of schools have also had waves of empty seats at basketball games too - Tulane, Houston, UCF, USF, East Carolina, Memphis, and Temple. Those empty seats don't just add up - they are very reflective of the conference as a whole.

The AAC is clearly a step above the MAC, C-USA, Sun Belt and MWC - but to think that they are worthy of being getting a huge media deal is laughable. The conference will never be considered a power conference, in TV deal or otherwise. Some schools (UConn/UC/Houston/Memphis) may get the eventual call-up - but that won't warrant ESPN throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at them.

Fine they might not get hundreds of millions more -but they will be getting a bump. It wouldn't shock me at all to see them getting up to 25-30 million a year at least for the conference, if not a bit more. Their games do pretty decent tv ratings. If you think they would just automatically stay under 20 million a year, I don't know what to say.

[NJRedman]

I think for the short term schools like UCONN are pot committed to FB. To continue the analogy, 10 years ago UCONN tried to play at a big $ Poker table. They looked at their cards and saw: Queen-10 off-suit, felt mildly optimistic, and hoped they'd get a few cards on the flop. Instead they got a 3, 5 and 8. So they're sitting with nothing, hoping desperately for a couple runner cards on the turn and river (a Big 12 invite) and bleeding money. They don't have the bankroll nor the cards to make much noise and that's becoming painfully obvious.

They are also looking across the room at the Craps table where all their old buddies (Prov, Nova, SHU, G'town) are hooting and hollering, making money and having fun. They miss having fun. They miss the BET at MSG. They miss the rivalries. They hate trying to sell tickets with games vs ECU and Tulane. They know they should just pick up their chips and their dignity and go back to the craps table but they can't walk away until the official death knell (a 2 on the river). It's coming. Everyone sees it, but it's a rough pill to swallow. They'll have to eventually though and UCONN will be our 11th member. When? Not sure. But it will happen IMO.

Best analogy yet. The thing Stever keeps forgetting or just doesn't to recognize is that the state can't/wont write them a blank check for FB for eternity. Not when they have a realistic option staring them in the face to get both the department back into the black and to help boost the BBall program back up to a national contender level. The real money donors are BBall fans and once that starts taking a hit (and it will real soon) thats when they will come back hat in hand.

[stever20]

I think for the short term schools like UCONN are pot committed to FB. To continue the analogy, 10 years ago UCONN tried to play at a big $ Poker table. They looked at their cards and saw: Queen-10 off-suit, felt mildly optimistic, and hoped they'd get a few cards on the flop. Instead they got a 3, 5 and 8. So they're sitting with nothing, hoping desperately for a couple runner cards on the turn and river (a Big 12 invite) and bleeding money. They don't have the bankroll nor the cards to make much noise and that's becoming painfully obvious.

They are also looking across the room at the Craps table where all their old buddies (Prov, Nova, SHU, G'town) are hooting and hollering, making money and having fun. They miss having fun. They miss the BET at MSG. They miss the rivalries. They hate trying to sell tickets with games vs ECU and Tulane. They know they should just pick up their chips and their dignity and go back to the craps table but they can't walk away until the official death knell (a 2 on the river). It's coming. Everyone sees it, but it's a rough pill to swallow. They'll have to eventually though and UCONN will be our 11th member. When? Not sure. But it will happen IMO.

Best analogy yet. The thing Stever keeps forgetting or just doesn't to recognize is that the state can't/wont write them a blank check for FB for eternity. Not when they have a realistic option staring them in the face to get both the department back into the black and to help boost the BBall program back up to a national contender level. The real money donors are BBall fans and once that starts taking a hit (and it will real soon) thats when they will come back hat in hand.

The AAC hasn't hurt UConn basketball at all. Look at the recruiting. Getting top 10 classes. So the crap about go back to the Big East and get back up to a national contender level- that's a bunch of bs.

Another thing, UConn has 3 factions. FB, MBB, and Women's BB. Women's basketball would never leave ESPN.

[NJRedman]

I think for the short term schools like UCONN are pot committed to FB. To continue the analogy, 10 years ago UCONN tried to play at a big $ Poker table. They looked at their cards and saw: Queen-10 off-suit, felt mildly optimistic, and hoped they'd get a few cards on the flop. Instead they got a 3, 5 and 8. So they're sitting with nothing, hoping desperately for a couple runner cards on the turn and river (a Big 12 invite) and bleeding money. They don't have the bankroll nor the cards to make much noise and that's becoming painfully obvious.

They are also looking across the room at the Craps table where all their old buddies (Prov, Nova, SHU, G'town) are hooting and hollering, making money and having fun. They miss having fun. They miss the BET at MSG. They miss the rivalries. They hate trying to sell tickets with games vs ECU and Tulane. They know they should just pick up their chips and their dignity and go back to the craps table but they can't walk away until the official death knell (a 2 on the river). It's coming. Everyone sees it, but it's a rough pill to swallow. They'll have to eventually though and UCONN will be our 11th member. When? Not sure. But it will happen IMO.

Best analogy yet. The thing Stever keeps forgetting or just doesn't to recognize is that the state can't/wont write them a blank check for FB for eternity. Not when they have a realistic option staring them in the face to get both the department back into the black and to help boost the BBall program back up to a national contender level. The real money donors are BBall fans and once that starts taking a hit (and it will real soon) thats when they will come back hat in hand.

The AAC hasn't hurt UConn basketball at all. Look at the recruiting. Getting top 10 classes. So the crap about go back to the Big East and get back up to a national contender level- that's a bunch of bs.

Another thing, UConn has 3 factions. FB, MBB, and Women's BB. Women's basketball would never leave ESPN.

WBB doesn't get a say, they are the weakest of the 3 factions no matter what you say. FB obviously is the strongest followed by MBB. They needed to win the AAC championship to get into the NCAA's, they were a bubble team coming into the conference tourny. They are struggling in the AAC which isn't a top flight BBall conference so don't sit there and tell me the AAC hasn't hurt UConn BBall at all. Moving to the AAC and Ollie's coaching is dragging them farther and farther away from the top echelon in which they USED to sit.

[stever20]

They didn't need to win the AAC championship. If you really think a loss to Temple or Memphis would have knocked them out- no chance in hell of that....

Ollie's coaching would be the problem. Not the moving to the AAC. They're getting great recruits.

And the WBB faction would be in lockstep with football. If you think UConn WBB wouldn't have any say I think you're crazy.

[NJRedman]

They didn't need to win the AAC championship. If you really think a loss to Temple or Memphis would have knocked them out- no chance in hell of that....

Ollie's coaching would be the problem. Not the moving to the AAC. They're getting great recruits.

And the WBB faction would be in lockstep with football. If you think UConn WBB wouldn't have any say I think you're crazy.

If they haven't dropped off they would be DOMINATING the AAC and they aren't. You think playing Tulane, ECU, UCF etc isn't hurting them and their RPI/SOS?

[stever20]

They didn't need to win the AAC championship. If you really think a loss to Temple or Memphis would have knocked them out- no chance in hell of that....

Ollie's coaching would be the problem. Not the moving to the AAC. They're getting great recruits.

And the WBB faction would be in lockstep with football. If you think UConn WBB wouldn't have any say I think you're crazy.

If they haven't dropped off they would be DOMINATING the AAC and they aren't. You think playing Tulane, ECU, UCF etc isn't hurting them and their RPI/SOS?

no where as much as you think. They went 3-7 regular season vs the top 5 teams. Looking at the ESPN RPI stuff- which isn't always accurate- Nova's conference SOS was 49. UConn was 54. Hardly a big difference there...

[cujaysfan]

jebus - the ncaa tourney is about to get rolling

we have an NIT game tonight to discuss

and instead we decided to go all in on Stever today?

that dude is more than double the number of posts as number 2 poster - and pushing 10% of the total posts on this board

stop engaging him!

7000K or bust!