R.I.P. UConn Football

[WoadBlue]

Oh, it gets worse for them. AAC just told them, "No thanks. We have no interest in keeping your football team. In fact, we don't even care whether your replacement comes from the Northeast. Buh-bye!"

AAC commish: No chance UConn stays as football member

They lived through Big East football being revealed a tin horn that existed only because of threats.

When PSU whored itself to the Big Ten - which JoePa did in large measure to stick it to BE basketball and the 'lessor' Eastern schools that dared expect Home-Away series with PSU (JoePa wanted 2 for 1 from most schools in the northeast) - Syracuse, BC, and Pitt all told the BE that if the BE did not create a football division, they would have to explore options. BE football was created under the gun. And many people associated with BE schools that did not play 1A football always resented it.

The AAC knows that the only school in the northeast that could be good for it is Army - a truly national program, like Navy. AAC football will gain from UConn's absence.

 

[WoadBlue]

From the UConn board, on SNY having interest in football broadcasts:

"UConn gets the equivalent of the Longhorn Network without the production nightmares Win. Win. "

Wow. Just... wow. They could go 0-12 every year and have just the opposing team's band in the stands, and many of them would still think the sun revolves around UConn.

Exactly.

The most delusional football fan base the BE ever had was UConn, with no remotely close second. Even Rutgers Al could not get the Rutgers fan base close to the UConn level.

 

[MaxwellCuse]

So according to Nicole Auerbach at TheAthletic, "Atlantic Coast Conference schools as well as programs in the northeast and Independents like Army and BYU" will be the focus of UCONN's scheduling going forward as an independent.

So are we ready for a 4-1-1 series with the puppies?

 

[WoadBlue]

Sean O'Leary is wrong. The BE today is what the BE was founded to be: northeastern basketball.

 

[Alsacs]

So according to Nicole Auerbach at TheAthletic, "Atlantic Coast Conference schools as well as programs in the northeast and Independents like Army and BYU" will be the focus of UCONN's scheduling going forward as an independent.

So are we ready for a 4-1-1 series with the puppies?

They will take paychecks from Clemson, Florida State, Virginia Tech.
Then beg BC to play them at Fenway to split the revenue.
Then beg for 1/1s from everyone else and settle for whatever.

 

[IthacaMatt]

So according to Nicole Auerbach at TheAthletic, "Atlantic Coast Conference schools as well as programs in the northeast and Independents like Army and BYU" will be the focus of UCONN's scheduling going forward as an independent.

So are we ready for a 4-1-1 series with the puppies?

No. Nope. Never. No thanks. No.

 

[EnviroSciGuy]

Exactly.

The most delusional football fan base the BE ever had was UConn, with no remotely close second. Even Rutgers Al could not get the Rutgers fan base close to the UConn level.

At least Rutgers Al is a good guy. I think when I was a student in '00s I walked by a tailgate and talked to him for a few minutes, although my memory of that period is a bit foggy in places. Most UConn folks I encountered (I only ever seem to have seen them at games and never in "real life") have few if any redeeming qualities.

 

[syracuse95]

The reality is that UMass and UConn should be playing 1-AA football against teams like Maine, Rhode Island, and Colgate. I think there would be more fan interest and better attendance at those games than UConn home games against Florida International, New Mexico State, and Liberty. The move up was a failed experiment. Sometimes the best way forward is to admit failure and accept your limitations.

 

[kingtidge]

The reality is that UMass and UConn should be playing 1-AA football against teams like Maine, Rhode Island, and Colgate. I think there would be more fan interest and better attendance at those games than UConn home games against Florida International, New Mexico State, and Liberty. The move up was a failed experiment. Sometimes the best way forward is to admit failure and accept your limitations.

...and now they're joining up with all the parochial schools again and will kiss the rings of the cathlolic school mafia while figuring out if they can continue 1A football as an independent or hobble it at the knees and go straight to 1AA.

To do the former, good luck.

To do the latter, the big question would be the rentschler stadium and what to do with it.

Thank god they have Randy - LOL.

 

[All4SU]

So according to Nicole Auerbach at TheAthletic, "Atlantic Coast Conference schools as well as programs in the northeast and Independents like Army and BYU" will be the focus of UCONN's scheduling going forward as an independent.

So are we ready for a 4-1-1 series with the puppies?

“Make them an offer they can’t accept.”

 

[All4SU]

UConn never should have moved up from 1AA. It did so out of unbridled arrogance from being a charter member of the Big East coupled with ESPN headquarters in CT. UConn assumed it had a right to be promoted not merely into 1A football but into a Major/Power conference. And UConn also assumed that its Major conference was to be untouchable, so that UConn could have what it demanded for its football.

UConn basketball will be better off in the BE, and UConn should help the BE. UConn football should return to 1AA. Any 1A league that takes on UConn football is beyond stupid.

I disagree. They should have moved up in 1990 when they had the chance, and the other BEFB schools were investing at risk. They waited until all the heavy lifting was done. Screw ‘em. So happy to be done with that bag $#+**}|>€%#{s.

 

[Scooch]

I passed an electronic billboard on I-84 outside Hartford today, celebrating UConn's move to the Big East. UConn obviously bought it, and it said "HOME" with the husky and BE logos.

I found it kind of sad. I actually think this is the best move for UConn, but there's a real nostalgia for the old conference, and I think some people in CT are going to be pretty disillusioned with the current reality.

 

[OrangePA]

Sean O'Leary is wrong. The BE today is what the BE was founded to be: northeastern basketball.

Absolutely true.

 

[Scooch]

Sean O'Leary is wrong. The BE today is what the BE was founded to be: northeastern basketball.

Except half the conference membership is located well outside the northeast.

That's not a bad piece. A few of the 12 points are off, but he gets a lot right. The most salient point is that UConn should be blaming itself much more than the AAC. And going to the BE won't solve anything if their athletic department continues to make terrible decisions.

 

[nzm136]

Sean O'Leary is wrong. The BE today is what the BE was founded to be: northeastern basketball.

The article is shockingly poorly written and vetted. He very clearly has no idea what he’s talking about.

 

[HtownOrange]

The thread title says it all:

RIP! UConn Football

At least that's the way I read it. Glad everyone is cooperating. However, haven't we been RIPping UCan't football for some time?

 

[nzm136]

We’ve all taken our shots at UConn on this thread, but to balance things out I think it’s only fair to post some UConn highlights.

Here you go:

 

[721Comstock]

We’ve all taken our shots at UConn on this thread, but to balance things out I think it’s only fair to post some UConn highlights.

Here you go:

Well, they did have more than one, so it does technically count as highlights - plural.

Sean Riley himself had more highlights, than UConn did as an entire team.

 

[MaxwellCuse]

Good game. Glad I was there. All things considered that was perhaps UCONN's finest performance of the year.

 

[WoadBlue]

The article is shockingly poorly written and vetted. He very clearly has no idea what he’s talking about.

True - there's much more wrong with it than I then had time to add.

Most important among those wrong things is the belief that UConn would have gotten into the ACC ahead of Pitt (or perhaps Syracuse) if not for BC going crazy and getting a Veto.

UConn had no chance to get into the ACXC then, or to replace Maryland. When we went to 14, we acted only because Texas AD DeLoss Dodds had told Pitt that if Pitt wanted to be the Big 12's 10th member, it had the offer. Dodds made that offer as part of his plan to use Pitt as member to try to lure Notre Dame into some kind of arrangement with the Big 12.

Pitt responded by immediately calling John Swofford, who arranged a teleconference, an within 24 hours the ACC Presidents had agreed, unanimously, to offer Pitt and Syracuse.

The long range plan was exactly what happened: add members when the time was right to ease ND into the ACC. Pitt and Syracuse, the states of PA and NY, are perfect for that. CT is nothing, and we already were in the part of New England that matters.

Plus there was UConn's history of pushing Temple out of BE football to get its spot and its lawsuits against the ACC and BC and VT. UConn never had any chance of getting into the ACC.

 

[WoadBlue]

Except half the conference membership is located well outside the northeast.

That's not a bad piece. A few of the 12 points are off, but he gets a lot right. The most salient point is that UConn should be blaming itself much more than the AAC. And going to the BE won't solve anything if their athletic department continues to make terrible decisions.

That geographically expanded BE was a necessity because the only way to have a purely northeastern basketball league that is truly Big Time is to have Syracuse. You could pull it off without UConn or Georgetown or St John's or even Villanova - but Syracuse is a must have.

 

[nzm136]

That geographically expanded BE was a necessity because the only way to have a purely northeastern basketball league that is truly Big Time is to have Syracuse. You could pull it off without UConn or Georgetown or St John's or even Villanova - but Syracuse is a must have.

You’re remarkably right.

AA once wrote that “nowhere did he BIG EAST’s drum beat louder, more consistently, and with more clarity than it did on the SU campus,” and she was right. Penn State may be the body of eastern athletics. The Cult is legion, and they are formidable - at least in football. But Syracuse is and always will be, for better or worse, the heart and soul of the east. We credibly carry the flame of the history of collegiate athletics in a way that no other school can.

The first Big East failed because it didn’t have the mass that only the Cult could give it.

The second iteration isn’t truly northeastern because it lacks the heart and soul that only we can give it.

***It’s worth noting that, unless I’m forgetting something, out of the schools that willingly left the BIG EAST, only SU didn’t do so under a cloud of litigation. (I’m excluding the C7 split because that was more of a conference splitting apart than a departure.)***

 

[HtownOrange]

***It’s worth noting that, unless I’m forgetting something, out of the schools that willingly left the BIG EAST, only SU didn’t do so under a cloud of litigation.

Agreed. Character matters. For those that fail to see why Syracuse University is not reactionary in certain decisions (Nike, not suing ACC, failing to jump on the rushed stadium offer, etc.) they need only look at the history of the university. SU takes its place in Syracuse, in New York, and in the NE as a serious matter. Decisions will have a lasting impact on the University itself, the city, the state and the region, as well as its conference mates.

Just one of the many, many reasons I like SU.

 

[FRANKIEFAN]

I passed an electronic billboard on I-84 outside Hartford today, celebrating UConn's move to the Big East. UConn obviously bought it, and it said "HOME" with the husky and BE logos.

I found it kind of sad. I actually think this is the best move for UConn, but there's a real nostalgia for the old conference, and I think some people in CT are going to be pretty disillusioned with the current reality.

Why the conference is easier and they have a better chance at being good in the NBE than the AACk plus get the BET. 2nd best after Nova is up for grabs. Its not the meatgrinder the ACC is.

Conference also gets better having an OBE team to balance out Creighton and Butler since they mostly have the basement of the OBE. The 2011 Semi final was on ESPNU today because they were airing all the Irving and Walker games they were a 9 seed who had to play on Tuesday yet were ranked #19 in the country. Damn 19 is pretty high for a team thats 9th in their conference at the end of the year no less. The Big East they knew was as hard as the ACC currently is. The one they are entering is a friggen cakewalk in comparison and no harder than the AACk. They aren't going to suck for long Hurley isn't that bad which is a shame I was enjoying their demise as much as anyone.

 

[texascpa]

Wonder what The Boneyard thinks of this...I'll be back.

edit: let me know if the tweet isn't coming through. It's from Brett McMurphy.