I'm all in for UConn in the ACC

[Deuga]

West Virginia makes more sense to the ACC than UConn. I'd presume the ACC is where they'd love to be. However, their academics are on the weak side compared to most of the ACC.

UConn basketball and academics makes perfect sense for the ACC. They will always be a little sister in football barring a miracle coach and that makes them unattractive to any P5 conference. Diaco isn't the miracle.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

West Virginia makes more sense to the ACC than UConn. I'd presume the ACC is where they'd love to be. However, their academics are on the weak side compared to most of the ACC.

UConn basketball and academics makes perfect sense for the ACC. They will always be a little sister in football barring a miracle coach and that makes them unattractive to any P5 conference. Diaco isn't the miracle.

UConn should have been beefing up their Olympic sports since the Big East fell. In the ACC they woudl likely be the 10th best athletic department overall. If you aren't going to move the needle in football you should at least offer high quality in the other sports.

 

[BKCuse]

It's already hard enough to land the few quality NE recruits so why on earth would we elevate UConn to equal footing with us?

Between BC & SU I don't think UConn has any chance whatsoever of being invited to the ACC.

 

[MadNY3]

-Great rivalry
- helps recruiting
- locks up more of the east coast
- their basketball

What's not to like?

No.

Helps recruiting? Giving a more talent-rich state a better football option locally?

The parts the ACC has are pretty darn good and throw in the hedge on ND and it will be fine if/when land grabbing becomes a thing again. And if we lose UCONN to some other conference - the Big Ten being the only option - good luck to them flying to Iowa, Nebraska, etc. for sports. Will drain the hell out of them.

 

[HtownOrange]

Texas style football has nothing to do with offensive or defensive philosophies. It has do with culture.

Texas has extensive Spring 7 on 7 football.
Texas doesn't have Lacrosse as a sanctioned sport.
Texas has a 10 week season with possible 6 weeks of playoffs. A team can play up to 16 games in a year.
Texas still employs almost a full month of 2 a-days.
Texas has Spring practice just like colleges.
Texas has HUGE fan support.
Texas has flourishing youth football programs with kids starting as young as 4, and tackle leagues in BOTH Fall and Spring. And if you don't want tackle in the Spring, there is youth 7 on 7. This is true even in small towns.
Most Texas kids specialize and there are many sports training facilities in the major cities.

Until New York and New England can match that, there will continue to be a huge gap in talent.

What he said, plus:

Any kid on any sport team in any school is virtually required to attend and give a full effort at every "voluntary" workout in the off season. It is nearly impossible to be a two-sport player in Texas, it happens, but it is rare. Family vacations are scheduled around "voluntary" workouts.
As mentioned, lacrosse is not officially sanctioned. Texas football and baseball coaches do everything possible to block sanctioning.

 

[clayman32]

-Great rivalry
- helps recruiting
- locks up more of the east coast
- their basketball

What's not to like?

The fans
The players
The coaches
The school
The fans - whoops my bad

Great rivalry? Is this the football board?

 

[clayman32]

I'm all in for UCon back to Division II. Worst fans I have ever met.

It's amazing to me the prominent posters in this thread that want to throw that program a lifeline. I'm not sure they are viewing things from an acc football perspective. But it probably only matters what notre dame wants, as far as a 16th member goes.

I have never met a uconn fan that wasn't an @sshole. And visiting the boneyard only confirms my opinion. They can wither away and die for all I care

 

[Ottoble]

I don't buy into zero sum gain thinking . There are many , many more guys out there waiting to be discovered and developed .

Why discover and develop even harder, if you could reload? Which we cant even do yet. I don't buy in to the infinitely available talent thinking.

I agree that there is probably talent out there that could be a starter by their RS senior year of college after working on a roster for 4 years and 2-3 of those guys a year is ok not a whole recruiting class. We need most recruits to be good to 2 deep from their first playing season, starter or high quality 2 deep by their second season and clear starter by their third season to keep up in our conference/division, because we need depth of talent. FSU and Clemson have one guy get hurt they plug in the next guy with a 1% dropoff.

 

[CousCuse]

Why discover and develop even harder, if you could reload? Which we cant even do yet. I don't buy in to the infinitely available talent thinking.

I agree that there is probably talent out there that could be a starter by their RS senior year of college after working on a roster for 4 years and 2-3 of those guys a year is ok not a whole recruiting class. We need most recruits to be good to 2 deep from their first playing season, starter or high quality 2 deep by their second season and clear starter by their third season to keep up in our conference/division, because we need depth of talent. FSU and Clemson have one guy get hurt they plug in the next guy with a 1% dropoff.

How many players do we have from New York and New England on the team now ? 10 or 12 ans most of them were left overs after ND , PSU and other powers took who they wanted . This is a nonissue . Compete and win , that is what Syracuse sports teams do at everything .

 

[gbo]

Why do these threads keep popping up? UConn brings nothing to the table but basketball. As much as much as basketball drove the old Big East, football drives the ACC. UConn would be like adding a slightly better UVA. Is that what everyone wants? UConn is languishing in the AAC and you guys want to throw them a lifeline???

The good news is that UConn is never getting in unless Notre Dame wants them and that's never going to happen.

 

[MaxwellCuse]

Count me in on UCONN to the ACC. However, could we leave the Boneyard in the AAC?

 

[IthacaMatt]

There are 35 million people in New York/New England plus Eastern Canada . Seens like it should be able to produce enough top athletes to run 3 P5 programs .

It never did before. SU football was at its best when Rutgers was awful and UConn was Division II. Then, we owned all the best athletes in the Tri-State area who didn't go to Notre Dame or Penn State. Now, the Big 10 picks over NJ pretty good in recruiting, so it will probably never get back to where it used to be for us. But don't be fooled, SU football is better when Rutgers, UConn (and Penn State) are having a bad time of things. I think the best thing we ever did to UConn football was give them Pasqualoni and DeLeone. They may have personally buried their football program.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Not to sound like an @ss but that's not even one of the top reasons. One of the biggest reasons is that HS football isn't the religion that it is in other parts of the country, for many reasons. One of those being, as an example, in NYS players are only allowed to play/practice football a certain amount of time/games per year. Players in the east are more restricted from playing football year round competitively compared to other parts of the country.

That's why people in the Northeast are generally smarter than those from the South, or especially Texas. Far fewer traumatic brain injuries to children because we don't play football 24x7, 365 days a year!

 

[IthacaMatt]

It's not the least of our worries. We need to build depth, especially on the line of scrimmage. A team in the same P5 conference has as much to sell, throw in immediate playing time.

It's really short sighted to say we plan on being better than then so don't worry about recruiting against them. They'll have more money, hire staff accordingly, build out facilities accordingly.

Look at the 90s. Rutgers was dead, Pitt was dead for much of it, UConn didn't exist. All the talent came to PSU or SU.

Don't forget - Rutgers and UConn are state schools, so there is more money there than SU sees from government, being a private institution.

 

[TheCusian]

I don't buy into zero sum gain thinking . There are many , many more guys out there waiting to be discovered and developed .

They all play for Colgate

 

[TheCusian]

Why do these threads keep popping up? UConn brings nothing to the table but basketball. As much as much as basketball drove the old Big East, football drives the ACC. UConn would be like adding a slightly better UVA. Is that what everyone wants? UConn is languishing in the AAC and you guys want to throw them a lifeline???

The good news is that UConn is never getting in unless Notre Dame wants them and that's never going to happen.

I'd imagine the next additions to the conference would be football adds, not basketball. Clemson and FSU will want actual competition. Pitt and Syracuse were the NE teams added for basketball with good FB traditions.

I doubt it happens again.

ND, Texas
WVU

 

[elimunelson]

I am strongly in favor of UConn to the ACC. We will ultimately be better served playing our peers. A rising tide can lift all boats.

Uconn/BC/Pitt/Syracuse/ND/Lousville/VA Tech/Miami just makes a ton of sense division wise, rivalry wise, etc. These are the teams we can compete against inter division.

Having said all the above, it probably will never happen but i think ultimately things go in circles.

 

[DoctorBombay]

Love to watch them squirm in perpetuity...but ultimately it'd be best for the conference if they got it.
With that move the ACC locks up the NE corridor.

 

[Janner]

The idea of a true NE conference died many years ago when the State Penn joined the Big10. I understand the idea and desire to have local rivalries but those days and that era is long gone in the NE and will likely never return. Expansion is all about money with football driving the bus, for good or for bad. The ACC doesn't expand unless it makes sense, literally. Whoever is added has to bring in more money than the share the teams in the conference are currently make annually in order for it to work. UCONN does not come even close. There are only a few teams that can do that.

 

[elimunelson]

The idea of a true NE conference died many years ago when the State Penn joined the Big10. I understand the idea and desire to have local rivalries but those days and that era is long gone in the NE and will likely never return. Expansion is all about money with football driving the bus, for good or for bad. The ACC doesn't expand unless it makes sense, literally. Whoever is added has to bring in more money than the share the teams in the conference are currently make annually in order for it to work. UCONN does not come even close. There are only a few teams that can do that.

I think people will ultimately realize that expansion that makes zero sense geographically will fail. ACC is effectively a corporate roll up of big east football. At least to me (i may be in the minority) i enjoy these north east games in the fall against our peers. It feels forced to play NC State, Clemson and Georgia Tech as division rivals in the purest sense. Our games always feel more authentically fall football when it's BC, Rutgers, Uconn, Pitt, West Virginia, etc. These are our northeast peers.

I think the group think notion that local rivalries is dead will be proven wrong in the long run. As someone stated on another thread, we had a nice showing in Uconn yesterday. Our team is at the bottom right now and they showed up. Our alumni base enjoys these tri state/Massachusetts games b/c we can go watch and we associate with.

Again my two cents. I may be 100% wrong but as far as i'm concerned if every season included the likes of Rutgers, Uconn, Umass, Army, Colgate, Penn St, Maryland we will be better served in the long run.

 

[KaiserUEO]

I would be open to allowing storz' 5th year Seniors to transfer here, but that's about it.

 

[Janner]

I think people will ultimately realize that expansion that makes zero sense geographically will fail. ACC is effectively a corporate roll up of big east football. At least to me (i may be in the minority) i enjoy these north east games in the fall against our peers. It feels forced to play NC State, Clemson and Georgia Tech as division rivals in the purest sense. Our games always feel more authentically fall football when it's BC, Rutgers, Uconn, Pitt, West Virginia, etc. These are our northeast peers.

I think the group think notion that local rivalries is dead will be proven wrong in the long run. As someone stated on another thread, we had a nice showing in Uconn yesterday. Our team is at the bottom right now and they showed up. Our alumni base enjoys these tri state/Massachusetts games b/c we can go watch and we associate with.

Again my two cents. I may be 100% wrong but as far as i'm concerned if every season included the likes of Rutgers, Uconn, Umass, Army, Colgate, Penn St, Maryland we will be better served in the long run.

Its funny a good friend of mine had this exact same discussion on a number of different occasions. Growing up I was fortunate enough to have season tickets, some of my most vivid and enjoyable memories of my youth were walking to the Dome on a crisp fall day with my father and brothers to watch play BC, Penn St, Temple, Rutgers, Army, etc. and feeling that energy in the air (though we were winning regularly with Mac at this point), it was like Christmas morning every week.

I would want more than anything for that to happen. In my opinion it would be the best thing for the growth of NE college football, but alas I think we are too far down the rabbit hole for that to happen. I hope and wish I am wrong but I just don't think there are enough teams and interest at this point (as it compares to the South, SW primarily) in the NE to move the needle for a NE conference to be competitive financially. ND would be a must have for it to work and, IMHO, I just don't think ND would move to a NE centered conference when their mission is to be a national program. Again I hope I am 100% wrong and am completely open minded to any thoughts to the contrary (because I really want and NE conference to happen).

 

[RF2044]

-Great rivalry
- helps recruiting
- locks up more of the east coast
- their basketball

What's not to like?

Other than their fanbase and the fact that we'd be enabling a regional rival?

 

[elimunelson]

Other than their fanbase and the fact that we'd be enabling a regional rival?

honestly though, aren't we recruiting more nationally now than ever. Isn't our argument then about the # of D1 teams vs the number of D1 teams in New England. I'm not sure Dino Babers has a sturdy pipeline to the big northeast programs anyway. He's gonna go find the recruits to play in his system, geography be damned.

I think we're getting too worked up about UConn. They've been D1 for many years. I'd be more concerned with Umass who just went to D1 if we're going to play this game.

Uconn would be a no brainer for Syracuse if they joined the ACC. They may not be good business for the ACC/ESPN but for Syracuse it would add a rival to the conference. Did BC fight tooth and nail to have Syracuse in the ACC? I look at it as the same exact scenario. More the merrier.

 

[RF2044]

honestly though, aren't we recruiting more nationally now than ever. Isn't our argument then about the # of D1 teams vs the number of D1 teams in New England. I'm not sure Dino Babers has a sturdy pipeline to the big northeast programs anyway. He's gonna go find the recruits to play in his system, geography be damned.

I think we're getting too worked up about UConn. They've been D1 for many years. I'd be more concerned with Umass who just went to D1 if we're going to play this game.

Uconn would be a no brainer for Syracuse if they joined the ACC. They may not be good business for the ACC/ESPN but for Syracuse it would add a rival to the conference. Did BC fight tooth and nail to have Syracuse in the ACC? I look at it as the same exact scenario. More the merrier.

There is ZERO in your post that I agree with. We recruit our region first and foremost, and supplement that with recruits from other areas. Babers himself has discussed the importance about recruiting well in our geographic sweet spot, so it seems that he would disagree with your assessment. UConn represents competition in our region for a fairly limited number of quality recruits, therefore it is not in our best interest to reify their legitimacy by having them in a P5 conference.

I have no idea what point you are making regarding the # of D1 teams versus the # of D1 teams in New England. This is more than about just the teams in New England. We're swimming in a very shallow pond in NYS, and the bigger, regional pond in the northeast [which includes but is not limited to New England] is being overfished more so now than ever before.

I have zero concerns about Umass, because they will never be in a P5 conference.

Keeping UConn out of the ACC is what should be a no-brainer. We don't need to add a "rival" -- that is a terrible justification, and won't matter one whit to other ACC teams if expansion ever occurs again.