Author Topic: UConn to join the Big East in 2020  (Read 1288 times)

Chairman of the Board

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Re: UConn to join the Big East in 2020
« Reply #15 on: June 25, 2019, 08:11:24 pm »
exact same thing i proposed.  between excelsior and the fact that it's harder to go home- we should give preference to upstate students, and especially those that will contribute to the community.

http://sbufan.createaforum.com/around-stony-brook/making-sb-better-idea-thread/
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Tml

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Re: UConn to join the Big East in 2020
« Reply #16 on: June 25, 2019, 09:13:52 pm »
im not really on either side of the fence of the whole FBS/FCS argument.

but i will say- before we make any football-related moves, we should try to get more than a thousand kids to stay on campus for a weekend*.

*and then actually contribute to the atmosphere of the university

This has been SB’s biggest problem since . . . forever.

VA_Seawolf

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Re: UConn to join the Big East in 2020
« Reply #17 on: June 25, 2019, 11:20:55 pm »
To provide a counter point to the anti-FBS sentiment, I will say that for a school like SBU, a state flagship with an enrollment of over 26,000 and AAU status, being in the FCS is the exception, not the norm. All of our peers are FBS, and most of them yet are in P5 conferences. Hell, the only reason we're not there is likely because we're so new (founded in 1957), and the fact that SUNY banned all athletic scholarships in the 70s effectively freezing the growth of SUNY athletic departments for a 20 year period. To address the point of Buffalo moving to FBS so soon, they moved up as fast as they could as soon as the ban was lifted. We basically did the same thing going in the 90's going from D3 to D1/D1-AA over about a six year period. We're one of only two public AAU members in the FCS. UC Davis is the other. Simply put, our profile is that of an FBS school and we will make it there soon. If Heilbron gets an invite from an FBS conference, he's got to take it. As mentioned those don't come often. There are still JMU fans kicking themselves for not taking the Sun Belt invite a few years back despite the success they've had since.

UB has struggled the way they have because they have geography working against them. At the end of the day, you still have to recruit kids to Buffalo New York. Even in the MAC that's tough. We shouldn't let their struggles scare us off from being where we need to be. Long Island with NYC being right there is much more desirable than friggin Buffalo. Our academics also help here. Despite all of SBUs struggles in building a sociable campus culture, we're still able to get talented kids to come play here. That says something.

UMass is a whole other animal. They rejected a full invite from the MAC in order to keep their basketball in the A10. We wouldn't make the same mistake. Besides, if you actually look at their games, they have a competitive program. They've gotten VERY close to pulling some huge upsets. It's not like their program is completely inept. Being in the Northeast doesn't mean the program will totally flop at the FBS level. In fact, this past year has been the best for Northeast football in a long time. Buffalo, Army, Syracuse, Temple... all of them had good seasons. It's not impossible to win up here. It's not like we're jumping straight to the Big Ten. I agree I would never want to move up in order to be a perennial 2-10 program, but that's not what SBU would be if we continue investing into athletics and making good hires. I know I give Coach P a hard time a lot, but based on what I've seen, I see no reason why this program couldn't be competitive if we played in the MAC and got the talent to go with it.

RecoveringHillbilly

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Re: UConn to join the Big East in 2020
« Reply #18 on: June 26, 2019, 07:58:32 pm »
My question is why the hell did Buffalo ever get an FBS invite in the first place? After moving up from D3 to I-AA, they went 21-45 with just one winning season. Basketball was also middling. By merit, they never deserved their place in the MAC.

UB was invited to the MAC in 1995 when the MAC wanted new markets. We were 3 years removed from D3 football so it came down to profile and the Buffalo market. Our prez then was all-in on returning to FBS, as we were playing at the highest level & beating up on Temple in the 1960's. We expanded our stadium on the cheap and hit the season ticket mark to seal it. We had meh AD's and coaches in over their heads until we brought in football minds with Warde Manuel and Turner Gill.
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ibosbu

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Re: UConn to join the Big East in 2020
« Reply #19 on: June 28, 2019, 08:48:16 am »
I was reading some of the chatter on Twitter that besides basketball prestige of Big East and travel savings, another reason UConn not worrying too much about leaving AAC is that SNY will most likely give 1.5~2m to broadcast their home football games! It made me think... why are we, the Seawolves fb, stuck with bad CAA tv deals? I like CAA but hate the TV deals. I Know we won’t make money and it’s not about money.  Is it possible to  play in CAA but have our football broadcast independence? May be have our home games on SNY for free! SNY needs live sports for fall. Providing our home games for free would provide invaluable exposure.

Triple Lindy

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Re: UConn to join the Big East in 2020
« Reply #20 on: June 28, 2019, 12:53:02 pm »
I was reading some of the chatter on Twitter that besides basketball prestige of Big East and travel savings, another reason UConn not worrying too much about leaving AAC is that SNY will most likely give 1.5~2m to broadcast their home football games! It made me think... why are we, the Seawolves fb, stuck with bad CAA tv deals? I like CAA but hate the TV deals. I Know we won’t make money and it’s not about money.  Is it possible to  play in CAA but have our football broadcast independence? May be have our home games on SNY for free! SNY needs live sports for fall. Providing our home games for free would provide invaluable exposure.
Doubtful. Instead, SNY will continue to show its usual re-runs of “classic” Mets games ad nauseam to fill up its broadcasting schedule.

VA_Seawolf

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Re: UConn to join the Big East in 2020
« Reply #21 on: June 28, 2019, 09:25:31 pm »
I was reading some of the chatter on Twitter that besides basketball prestige of Big East and travel savings, another reason UConn not worrying too much about leaving AAC is that SNY will most likely give 1.5~2m to broadcast their home football games! It made me think... why are we, the Seawolves fb, stuck with bad CAA tv deals? I like CAA but hate the TV deals. I Know we won’t make money and it’s not about money.  Is it possible to  play in CAA but have our football broadcast independence? May be have our home games on SNY for free! SNY needs live sports for fall. Providing our home games for free would provide invaluable exposure.

$2M a year just for Uconn football home games? I highly, highly doubt that. That's almost as much as all of CUSA gets for their TV rights, and Uconn football has been BAD. Highly doubt they pay that much.

I agree though that the CAA TV deal is complete trash. They should have just given the games to ESPN rather than screw the FB only members by taking the money and using it to buy basketball games onto CBSSN.