Savage tweet from Yahoo Sports RE: UCONN

[HRE Otto IV]

I’d like SU to sign them for a 2 and 1 series before they become an FCS program.

If two in the Dome and one Fenway or another neutral sight, I’d be down.

 

[Chip]

If two in the Dome and one Fenway or another neutral sight, I’d be down.

I think we should offer two in the Dome and then one in the Dome.

 

[HtownOrange]

I think we should offer two in the Dome and then one in the Dome.

We need an annual body bag game anyway...

 

[nzm136]

UConn in the American is deliciously stupid. They should 100% be in the BIG EAST. They’d make more, they’d play meaningful games, and their conference would be relevant in a mainstream sport.

But they’re either too proud to lose the illusion that having a fbs football team makes them special admit the truth that they’re the same as Nova.

 

[NKR1978]

I think we should offer two in the Dome and then one in the Dome.

I wouldn't mind offering them a 1 off buy game.

 

[MadNY3]

LOL

At least I get to pay CT taxes.

(There is no emoji to reflect how I feel about paying taxes to “support” UCLOWN.)

 

[Moontan]

UConn in the American is deliciously stupid. They should 100% be in the BIG EAST. They’d make more, they’d play meaningful games, and their conference would be relevant in a mainstream sport.

But they’re either too proud to lose the illusion that having a fbs football team makes them special admit the truth that they’re the same as Nova.

I suspect that they’ve already attempted to go football only in the AACK with the rest in the BE.

 

[nzm136]

I suspect that they’ve already attempted to go football only in the AACK with the rest in the BE.

They’d make more money joining the BE and going Indy in football. They lost millions of dollars going 1-11 lasted year, and next year could be worse. It’s not like it really matters where they park that garbage truck. It will still stink. They might as well join the better conference, make more money, own their football rights, and play a more flexible schedule.

Just schedule Army, Liberty, UMass, and BYU (2-1) every year, and do it late in the season. Throw in a bunch of 3-1 (or 2-1-1, depending on if SU wants to try to expand its presence in Albany or NYC) deals with Syracuse, and play an FCS game, and I just made half their schedule.

Then play MAC schools and Sun Belt schools for the other half. Add in games against Temple and Navy to spice things up if the AAC doesn’t black ball them.

Point being, their best road to a P5 is the BE. They’ll at least be on the right side of any split, and they have relevance in sports where UConn has a prayer. Staying in the AAC beyond the point where they’re collecting SU exit money destroys everything that they have for no reason.

 

[kirbivore]

Quinn Snyder is impressed with how much coke Dan Hurley does before a game.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Quinn Snyder is impressed with how much coke Dan Hurley does before a game.

LOL
Now only if he recruited like Quinn did - for a while, anyway.

 

[hungrychuck]

They’d make more money joining the BE and going Indy in football. They lost millions of dollars going 1-11 lasted year, and next year could be worse. It’s not like it really matters where they park that garbage truck. It will still stink. They might as well join the better conference, make more money, own their football rights, and play a more flexible schedule.

Just schedule Army, Liberty, UMass, and BYU (2-1) every year, and do it late in the season. Throw in a bunch of 3-1 (or 2-1-1, depending on if SU wants to try to expand its presence in Albany or NYC) deals with Syracuse, and play an FCS game, and I just made half their schedule.

Then play MAC schools and Sun Belt schools for the other half. Add in games against Temple and Navy to spice things up if the AAC doesn’t black ball them.

Point being, their best road to a P5 is the BE. They’ll at least be on the right side of any split, and they have relevance in sports where UConn has a prayer. Staying in the AAC beyond the point where they’re collecting SU exit money destroys everything that they have for no reason.

They'd still have the problem of those games drawing about 19,000 average at the Rent.

 

[orangepassion]

https://nypost.com/2019/01/19/why-uconn-is-considering-cutting-some-sports-programs/

 

[nzm136]

They'd still have the problem of those games drawing about 19,000 average at the Rent.

So what? FBS football at UConn is a bad idea to begin with. It’s not like it would be worse than now. Id take the money and flexibility and cut travel costs as much as possible.

 

[Rocketlax44]

What raised my eyebrows was when I saw $22m in losses from the other sports.
Just visited their sports website. They are playing way too many sports,,,, i would be worried if i had a kid playing for their baseball or hockey teams. I didn't even known they were playing hockey.

 

[NKR1978]

What raised my eyebrows was when I saw $22m in losses from the other sports.
Just visited their sports website. They are playing way too many sports,,,, i would be worried if i had a kid playing for their baseball or hockey teams. I didn't even known they were playing hockey.

They're spending like $25m on a new 2000 seat hockey arena and also a ton of money for new baseball facilities.

I'm 100% for building up the entire athletics department, but a school like UConn needs to put all it's eggs in football and basketball. And UConn really should maintain it's women's basketball brand because it's something that they're known for in a generally positive way.

 

[All4SU]

What raised my eyebrows was when I saw $22m in losses from the other sports.
Just visited their sports website. They are playing way too many sports,,,, i would be worried if i had a kid playing for their baseball or hockey teams. I didn't even known they were playing hockey.

Also lots of travel in the AACk. They will cut travel costs dramatically in the BE. When they drop football back to 1AA.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

They're spending like $25m on a new 2000 seat hockey arena and also a ton of money for new baseball facilities.

I'm 100% for building up the entire athletics department, but a school like UConn needs to put all it's eggs in football and basketball. And UConn really should maintain it's women's basketball brand because it's something that they're known for in a generally positive way.

I cannot imagine any school makes money, or breaks even, with baseball

 

[TerryD]

I cannot imagine any school makes money, or breaks even, with baseball

Maybe LSU?

 

[Crusty]

Also lots of travel in the AACk. They will cut travel costs dramatically in the BE. When they drop football back to 1AA.

Would probably make sense for them to play big time baseball and hockey and forget football.

 

[NineOneSeven]

What’s a good frame of reference for this? How is su’s Athletic dept doing?

 

[OrangeDW]

I cannot imagine any school makes money, or breaks even, with baseball

And northeast colleges would seem to be at a huge disadvantage. Many years the baseball fields are buried in snow until April.

 

[nzm136]

What’s a good frame of reference for this? How is su’s Athletic dept doing?

It usually has a book surplus.

 

[TexanMark]

They'd still have the problem of those games drawing about 19,000 average at the Rent.

But 10K actual.

UConn FB is a runaway train, next stop irrelevance.

They need to go BE in all sports but Football. Football should try playing in the CAA or Patriot.

 

[TexanMark]

They're spending like $25m on a new 2000 seat hockey arena and also a ton of money for new baseball facilities.

I'm 100% for building up the entire athletics department, but a school like UConn needs to put all it's eggs in football and basketball. And UConn really should maintain it's women's basketball brand because it's something that they're known for in a generally positive way.

Even worse $45M

It makes no friggin sense

If UConn Won’t Build New Hockey Rink Right, They Shouldn’t Build it at All

 

[nzm136]

But 10K actual.

UConn FB is a runaway train, next stop irrelevance.

They need to go BE in all sports but Football. Football should try playing in the CAA or Patriot.

If I’m being honest, it makes financial sense to stay in fbs. The ‘losses’ look bigger on paper than they actually are. Part of a scholarship/tuition covers variable costs. The rest covers fixed costs. Yes, the cost of education is subsidized by their endowment, which is a complicating factor, but it doesn’t change the underlying economics. Furthermore, the argument that scholarships are connected to opportunity costs makes sense on the surface, but it’s highly misleading at virtually every major school not named “Wake Forest.” No major school on the planet can tell you how many students they will have down to the student. There is always some float/volatility, so individual football players aren’t truly taking someone’s spot much (the vast majority) of the time. Also, the facilities are already built, so those costs will be incurred anyway.

Beyond just looking at costs, a number of revenue streams (media money, donations, etc.) are driven by the football team, but they aren’t linked to it. The same is true with value streams like ‘exposure,’ and ‘student quality of life.’ Therefore, the revenue side of the equation is understated.

The combined effect of overstating relevant losses and understating revenues makes the program’s profitability look much worse than it actually is.

However, the above said, UConn football was never relevant. Their best season was an 8-4 3-way tie for the BIG EAST championship that led them, as an unranked team, to a Fiesta Bowl massacre that nobody watched. UConn football isn’t relevant. They had the worst defense ever last year, en route to a 1-11 campaign. And, UConn football will probably never be relevant. They couldn’t make it happen with a BCS tie-in, an easy schedule, and new facilities, so they probably can’t make it happen with a g5 tie-in, old facilities, and no money.

They should trim a bunch of unnecessary Olympic sports, go Indy in football (unless the AAC is dumb enough to let them stay football-only), and join the BIG EAST for everything else. They’d have way more relevance in a sport where they can compete, they’d have way more money, their costs would be lower, and they’d play a regionally interesting schedule.

My guess is that the reason why they haven’t made that move yet is because they’re still getting BIG EAST exit money (i.e. our money), and leaving the AAC before this summer would cause them to forfeit part of their share. However, once the cash is safely in the black hole that they call their bank account, my guess is that they’ll look to make a move.

In the mean time, half their fans don’t understand how important BIG EAST exit money is to their AD, and the other half are too drunk on Kool-Aid to know how terrible the AAC is for the school. I’m definitely not complaining, though. Watching their fan base fight over equally wrong positions, while the AD spirals into oblivion, is incredible.