Now UCONN writers are calling for leaving AAC and downgrading football

[derleider]

They wouldn't make much money as a FB independent, but surely they could sell some content to CBSSN or FS1, and sell the rest to MSG/YES/SNY (make it part of the package for their BB related content.)

How many UConn games are televised now as a bad team in a junk conference.

For the Big 12, I think one year is a pretty short sample as far as being the odd man out. Probably not a great idea to throw money away on what could be an anomaly. Among other things - the champs playing in the conference champions won't always win. And the Big 12 champ won't always be tied for first with the higher ranked team having actually lost to the team its tied with, who is ranked a little lower (how do you justify taking TCU over Baylor in that situation - better to just avoid that whole situation) and with both of them being relative no names compared to the teams who got picked.

But the point I'm making is that the Big 12 expanding helps UConn in no way. The Big 12 isn't taking UConn. The ACC might, at some point in the future, but not now (I agree - the reference to 15 is clearly just having ND as the 15th team).

 

[megadrone]

Actually they could have a lot of games on TV - the AAC opted for exposure, so most of the conference games are televised -- in fact I think all of the conference games are televised over one of the ESPN networks.

It's probably a better package than they could get as an independent.

 

[derleider]

Originally posted by megadrone:
Actually they could have a lot of games on TV - the AAC opted for exposure, so most of the conference games are televised -- in fact I think all of the conference games are televised over one of the ESPN networks.

It's probably a better package than they could get as an independent.

Alot of CBSSN, ESPNU, and ESPNews. The Big East has a TV contract, I wonder if FS1 would restructure it a little to also get the rights to independent UConn FB home games. I bet they would. Makes a nice nooner for the East Coast.

 

[sherrane]

Originally posted by derleider:

Originally posted by MozRU:
I see zero movement until the ACC's GOR expire. When is that? 2025?

After that the B1G, SEC and B12 will pick off the big state schools in the ACC and let the rest di*. IMO, of course.

Who knows. By then we might be to the point where basically all coverage is delivered a la carte over the internet and the Big Ten Network model is no longer viable.

a la carte could make it more important for the conferences to get the popular state schools. Right now the BTN and SECN get a premium in carriage fees in states with conference schools. When the current cable / satellite scheme dissolves and gives way to individual programming freedom it will be more important for the conference networks to have Ohio State, Michigan, Alabama, Florida State, etc in the conference. Today, the SEC will not generate much more revenue if they added Florida State and Clemson because the SEC already has a presence in each state. In an a la carte scenario what is important is the popularity of the school, so FSU and Clemson could be crucial to improving the SEC Network's revenue stream. 95% of South Carolina households might purchase subscriptions to the SEC Network because of Clemson and South Carolina being in the SEC as opposed to 40% -- 50% with only South Carolina.

 

[sherrane]

Originally posted by derleider:
They wouldn't make much money as a FB independent, but surely they could sell some content to CBSSN or FS1, and sell the rest to MSG/YES/SNY (make it part of the package for their BB related content.)

How many UConn games are televised now as a bad team in a junk conference.

For the Big 12, I think one year is a pretty short sample as far as being the odd man out. Probably not a great idea to throw money away on what could be an anomaly. Among other things - the champs playing in the conference champions won't always win. And the Big 12 champ won't always be tied for first with the higher ranked team having actually lost to the team its tied with, who is ranked a little lower (how do you justify taking TCU over Baylor in that situation - better to just avoid that whole situation) and with both of them being relative no names compared to the teams who got picked.

But the point I'm making is that the Big 12 expanding helps UConn in no way. The Big 12 isn't taking UConn. The ACC might, at some point in the future, but not now (I agree - the reference to 15 is clearly just having ND as the 15th team).

Every single AAC game is televised. Aresco has done an outstanding job with that conference. Had he been running the show instead of Tranghese or the other clowns, the conference would have been in good shape. Here was last year's UConn schedule with TV

BYU at UConn ESPN
Stony Brook at UConn SNY
Boise State at UConn ABC
UConn at USF ESPN
Temple at UConn ESPN News
UConn at Tulane ESPN News
UConn at ECU ESPNU
UCF at UConn CBSSN
UConn at Army CBSSN
Cincinnati at UConn CBSSN
UConn at Memphis ESPN News
SMU at UConn CBSSN

Does UConn have the bargaining power to get every football game on TV? I doubt that because Aresco was the only commissioner of the Big East / American Athletic to pull this off. Every UConn game will be televised this year too.

EDIT to include B12:
I don't think last year was an exceptional year in regards to the Big 12. They and the ACC are the two conferences that are most likely to get left out of the playoffs. The Big 12 is Texas, Oklahoma, and 8 other schools just as the ACC is Florida State, Clemson, Miami, and 11 other schools. This is a problem when people are making the final determination of who is in and who is out. Baylor and TCU have been successful, but they were the two SWC schools who were on the bubble for the original Big 12 when the SWC merged with the Big 8 and Baylor made it because they had more alumni in power in Texas. TCU and Baylor won 11 games whereas there were 4 other conference champions who won 12 or more. The Big 12 gets the short end of the stick every time in this scenario unless one of the teams is either Texas or Oklahoma. Schools like TCU, Baylor, Kansas State, Duke, Georgia Tech, Rutgers, Iowa, Washington, Cal, Mississippi, South Carolina, etc NEED a championship game to enhance their resume enough to overcome their lack of "name".

This post was edited on 4/8 2:12 PM by sherrane

 

[Kbee3]

Originally posted by CuredbywinningRU:
"Liberal Peacenik" - huh - (i) how does that relate to anything? and (ii) if you don't like "liberal peaceniks" I guess you think we were better off with the conservative "warnik" George W Bush who singlehandedly upset the balance of power in the Middle East and made Iran a power by making Iraq (the thing that Iran spent most of its defense budget defending against) into Iran's Shia-dominated ally and costing us the lives of many fine young men and women and billions of dollars for absolutely nothing. Now let's get to bashing UConn.

Aw, come on. Bush had no choice but to attack Saddam after what he did to us on 9/11.
We're just lucky the smoking gun wasn't a mushroom cloud.
This post was edited on 4/8 2:00 PM by Kbee3

 

[mikefla]

Originally posted by CuredbywinningRU:
"Liberal Peacenik" - huh - (i) how does that relate to anything? and (ii) if you don't like "liberal peaceniks" I guess you think we were better off with the conservative "warnik" George W Bush who singlehandedly upset the balance of power in the Middle East and made Iran a power by making Iraq (the thing that Iran spent most of its defense budget defending against) into Iran's Shia-dominated ally and costing us the lives of many fine young men and women and billions of dollars for absolutely nothing. Now let's get to bashing UConn.

+1

 

[derleider]

Yes I think UConn could get every home game on TV, especially if its willing to play on weeknights. This isnt 2000. There are alot of national TV sports networks. I mean Army, who lost to Yale and is bad on a yearly basis, has a deal with CBSSN for its home games.

The question for UConn is - should they sacrifice some football prestige for enhancing their BB program and would being in the BIg East actually enhance their BB program (I think it would - more local and NY area interest.)

 

[Scarlet_Scourge]

Basketball is very different than Football.

Uconn has no problems making the NCAA from within the AAC.

As long as that is true, they don't have anything to worry about it. They can sell making the NCAA every year to recruits.

 

[justinslot]

UConn would be foolish to degrade football because--minimally--all they have to do is wait for Delany to raid the ACC again to get a Cartel position.

More optimistically, they can wait for Delany to pick them up as part of a package with whatever ACC school he steals next. I just assume there will be more chaos at the top in the next ten years and it's a good gamble on UConn's part to keep funding football at the highest level they can (the AAC is the next rung below the lower Cartel leagues, so they're doing that; going independent would not be doing that) in addition to raising their institutional profile as they seem to be doing.

 

[sherrane]

Originally posted by derleider:
Yes I think UConn could get every home game on TV, especially if its willing to play on weeknights. This isnt 2000. There are alot of national TV sports networks. I mean Army, who lost to Yale and is bad on a yearly basis, has a deal with CBSSN for its home games.

The question for UConn is - should they sacrifice some football prestige for enhancing their BB program and would being in the BIg East actually enhance their BB program (I think it would - more local and NY area interest.)

Why can't you ever admit when you are wrong? Rutgers didn't get all their games on TV in the only year in the AAC (Eastern Michigan at RU was an ESPN3 exclusive), when the AAC was a BCS Conference.

Army and Navy have national contracts because they are national teams. Are you suggesting that UConn is a national program? LOL. Army and Navy can both be 0-11 heading into their showdown and the game will still get decent ratings. How would you expect 0-11 UConn vs 0-11 SMU to do in the ratings? Yeah, I know, that's different. Welcome to my point.

The question is UConn's priorities. They have a good basketball program and a mediocre at best football program. They decided to move up to join the Big East football conference, it was a BCS conference and predominantly northeastern conference. Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, West Virginia, as well as Virginia and Miami in football with a presense in Rhode Island and Washington DC in basketball. Their conference now is Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland (Navy football), Ohio, North Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. Their closest conference opponent (Temple) used to be their 4th closest football opponent and about their 7th closest basketball opponent. Not only has the conference moved away from their location, but it has been downgraded from a top level conference to a middle conference.

Do it for prestige? Anyone who does things to protect their vanity at the expense of all else have already lost. 5 years ago Villanova wanted the Big East football schools to finance their move to Big East football. The notion was they needed big time football to maintain their basketball prowess. Is that accurate? The last 1A football school that was not in a BCS / Power 5 conference to make the men's final four was Memphis in 2008. There have been 5 non-football schools who made the final four since (Villanova 2009, Butler in 2010, Butler and VCU in 2011, and Wichita State in 2013). The point here was that Villanova was wrong thinking 1A football would help their basketball. You need to be in a P5 (or BCS) to help your basketball programs otherwise you are better off not drowning in football debt unless football is your priority.

I'm glad RU is in a P5 conference. Had we been in UConn's shoes I wouldn't fight the notion of dropping back a level and resume playing our historic rivals. Take a close look at what the P5 is doing. The playing field has always been slanted and it is getting even more so every day. There are two distinct levels in 1A -- FBSP5 and FBSG5. The pending deregulation of the conference championship games are just another way to ensure FBSG5 is excluded from the playoffs and the supersized payout. UConn is in the tough spot that I'm grateful Rutgers eluded.

 

[Knight_Light]

Why can't you ever admit when you are wrong? Rutgers didn't get all their games on TV in the only year in the AAC (Eastern Michigan at RU was an ESPN3 exclusive), when the AAC was a BCS Conference.

Army and Navy have national contracts because they are national teams. Are you suggesting that UConn is a national program? LOL. Army and Navy can both be 0-11 heading into their showdown and the game will still get decent ratings. How would you expect 0-11 UConn vs 0-11 SMU to do in the ratings? Yeah, I know, that's different. Welcome to my point.

The question is UConn's priorities. They have a good basketball program and a mediocre at best football program. They decided to move up to join the Big East football conference, it was a BCS conference and predominantly northeastern conference. Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, West Virginia, as well as Virginia and Miami in football with a presense in Rhode Island and Washington DC in basketball. Their conference now is Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland (Navy football), Ohio, North Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. Their closest conference opponent (Temple) used to be their 4th closest football opponent and about their 7th closest basketball opponent. Not only has the conference moved away from their location, but it has been downgraded from a top level conference to a middle conference.

Do it for prestige? Anyone who does things to protect their vanity at the expense of all else have already lost. 5 years ago Villanova wanted the Big East football schools to finance their move to Big East football. The notion was they needed big time football to maintain their basketball prowess. Is that accurate? The last 1A football school that was not in a BCS / Power 5 conference to make the men's final four was Memphis in 2008. There have been 5 non-football schools who made the final four since (Villanova 2009, Butler in 2010, Butler and VCU in 2011, and Wichita State in 2013). The point here was that Villanova was wrong thinking 1A football would help their basketball. You need to be in a P5 (or BCS) to help your basketball programs otherwise you are better off not drowning in football debt unless football is your priority.

I'm glad RU is in a P5 conference. Had we been in UConn's shoes I wouldn't fight the notion of dropping back a level and resume playing our historic rivals. Take a close look at what the P5 is doing. The playing field has always been slanted and it is getting even more so every day. There are two distinct levels in 1A -- FBSP5 and FBSG5. The pending deregulation of the conference championship games are just another way to ensure FBSG5 is excluded from the playoffs and the supersized payout. UConn is in the tough spot that I'm grateful Rutgers eluded.

Good points...especially bringing up Villanova's sharade with the then Big East Blind Monkey Commish (along with Presidents at USF and others) who spent almost a year trying to force the conf to accept Nova Div I-AA Football, a program with no football fans and NO STADIUM...all because certain President's (like USF), were rightfully afraid of programs like UCF if they ever got the BCS label...same label that USF wasted for almost 10 years in both sports.

 

[Abro1975]

I'm guessing Bob Diacco (from NJ) might be having second thoughs taking the UConn job, if he had waited another year, much better jobs Might have been available. Then again UConn might regret hiring Diacco, as results on the field as well as recruiting, as difficult as it is at UConn FB, has been very bad. If UConn doesn't somehow get in the ACC, then the future for UConn FB is bleak. So far, UConn, as well as BYU & Cinn, are the biggest losers in conference realignment.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

With the likey increase of the playoffs to 8 teams, it has never been a better situation to be in a non-P5 conference... and now they want to leave? What happens to that East Hartford "stadium" if that happens? Gets converted to an airport terminal?

 

[getmyjive11]

With the likey increase of the playoffs to 8 teams, it has never been a better situation to be in a non-P5 conference... and now they want to leave? What happens to that East Hartford "stadium" if that happens? Gets converted to an airport terminal?

I agree. They should wait until the playoffs expand to 8 teams to see how the spots are determined for the non-P5 teams. There is a real possibility that they would give one spot to the highest ranking non-P5 team. In that case, the UConn just is not that bad.

 

[JoeRU0304]

Good points...especially bringing up Villanova's sharade with the then Big East Blind Monkey Commish (along with Presidents at USF and others) who spent almost a year trying to force the conf to accept Nova Div I-AA Football, a program with no football fans and NO STADIUM...all because certain President's (like USF), were rightfully afraid of programs like UCF if they ever got the BCS label...same label that USF wasted for almost 10 years in both sports.

I'll never forget Coach Schiano talking about possible BE expansion back in November 2008 on his weekly radio show; one caller asked about it and his answer was something along the lines of, "yes, we've talked about it and think some schools would be a great fit. UCF would fit, but USF would fight that "kicking and screaming" (that I do remember exactly).

The nova plan was and still is complete clownshow garbage and an absolute slap in the face to schools like Rutgers who were doing everything they could to build themselves up, and it's also exactly why the BE was never going to viable in the long run- it was a bball centric conference that looked to protect the interests of some and not all.


Joe P.

 

[JoeRU0304]

I'm guessing Bob Diacco (from NJ) might be having second thoughs taking the UConn job, if he had waited another year, much better jobs Might have been available. Then again UConn might regret hiring Diacco, as results on the field as well as recruiting, as difficult as it is at UConn FB, has been very bad. If UConn doesn't somehow get in the ACC, then the future for UConn FB is bleak. So far, UConn, as well as BYU & Cinn, are the biggest losers in conference realignment.

As unfair as realignment has been to schools like Cincy, I still say the biggest losers in realignment are USF. They went from beating Auburn, Clemson, WVU, Notre Dame, Florida State and Miami to getting trounced by McNeese State and just about completely falling off the map in a matter of 3 seasons...and I don't think they have the infrastructure to weather the storm like Cincy, UCF and UConn.


Joe P.

 

[MADHAT1]

UCONN was a member of Big East Football for 9 seasons and won 2 Co-Championships and played in one BCS Bowl Game.

Rutgers was a member of Big East Football for 22 seasons and had just 1 co-championship to show for it in their last season, in which half the conf tied at the top (4 teams0.

UCONN made one really bad hire (PP) and that really set them back a few years...but just like Temple, who has improved their program over the last few years, UCONN could do the same.

Rutgers is in the B1G and things are looking up.
UConn is stuck in the AAC and things aren't looking so good.

 

[REDRICH65]

If the B1G adds UVA and UNC, UConn will get added to the ACC, with BC and Cuse as their major rivals. That's the hope for their FB program.

 

[Scarlet_Scourge]

Keep dreaming...

 

[DJ Spanky]

Rutgers is in the B1G and things are looking up.
UConn is stuck in the AAC and things aren't looking so good.

Ditto for UCF!

 

[Jim_from_RU]

What goes around comes around UConn! Lol!

 

[restartRU]

of all the pain before RU flat out won the conference expansion game the movement to allow and subsidize Nova's move up in football was a total disaster and disturbing. That conference was friggin awful and the Providence clan was a bunch of a-holes with a huge conflict of interest and no real clue - pricks.

i do sort of wish that Nova was stuck in purgatory (AAC). that would be fitting.

 

[Ridge 22]

UConn needs to take a longer term view here and wait for the next round of realignment in 10 years or so. It will happen once the GOR's start expiring and when it does, I can't see them not being included as a backfill somewhere. In the meantime they need to grin and bear it and hope their programs don't get too beaten down while they wait it out. Got to be painful but it is their reality. I don't like them, but I do feel some sympathy towards them. As much as we made out, they got screwed.

 

[DJ Spanky]

Well, you know what they say: if you can't get into a good conference, change your uniforms!

LOOK: UConn unveils new uniforms, helmet

 

[JoeRU0304]

The BE's villanova expansion plan was the equivalent of two guys in an action comedy sneaking into the bad guys' hideout, getting pinned behind a corner, and then one of the guys says, "wait, I have an idea" as they jump out and throw a Nerf ball at 5 guys with machine guns.


Joe P.

 

[cubuffsdoug]

Great point on how Syracuse use to build their program....as they were almost the #1 top destination for recruits in South Florida in the 80's and 90's that wanted to go play out-of-state. (Dome certainly helped attract FLA kids that wanted to play up north)..

But Syracuse lost that recruiting edge in FLA (dozens of other programs started to do the same...plus 4 schools in FLA joined Div I-A status), as the last time Syracuse won an out right conf title was 1998...which was the last time CUSE played in a major bowl game (1999 Orange Bowl, where they got dominated by UF).

Not many Div I-A recruits come out of New York State in any given year so CUSE has always had to look elsewhere for recruits...similar to what UCONN has had to do, especially since they moved up to Div I-A ball...which sometimes makes it more difficult to field a winning team.

RU has almost the opposite problem...as NJ has some top HS Recruits but RU gets so few of them as most sign with out-of-state teams.

This post was edited on 4/8 7:25 AM by Knight_Light

Shouldn't you be more concern with the welfare of Central Florida? That' s a different Knight team.

 

[NickyNewark51]

UConn needs to take a longer term view here and wait for the next round of realignment in 10 years or so. It will happen once the GOR's start expiring and when it does, I can't see them not being included as a backfill somewhere. In the meantime they need to grin and bear it and hope their programs don't get too beaten down while they wait it out. Got to be painful but it is their reality. I don't like them, but I do feel some sympathy towards them. As much as we made out, they got screwed.

I feel just like you...imagine the ACC took them and we were left holding the bag? I sympathize more with them than SU or BC. How could you leave a large state school out and throw in a little private? UConn fans can be arrogant but so can we. I liked playing and beating them and SU too!!

 

[NickyNewark51]

Shouldn't you be more concern with the welfare of Central Florida? That' s a different Knight team.

I hate that arrogant Cuse guy O'Leary and his snaring puss!!! He thinks UCF is above losing to us.

 

[ecojew]

I really hope that the NCAA does not approve the proposal to allow the B12 to have a CCG without having 12 or more teams in the league. And I'm hoping that the ACC won't be permitted to abandon their strange divisions and allow just their two best teams to play in a CCG. The B1G, SEC, and PAC12 should all resist this and try to bring the G5 conferences along with them by using the argument that the rule change further reduces the possibility of one of their champions from ever making the playoff. I would like to see the GOR's challenged in court and be ruled unenforceable, so that a final wave of conference realignment could take place, minimally forcing the B12 to expand to 12 schools, and re-opening the possibility of the B1G and SEC both going to 16 schools, four team pods, and CCG semifinals and finals.

 

[RUJohnny99]

As unfair as realignment has been to schools like Cincy, I still say the biggest losers in realignment are USF. They went from beating Auburn, Clemson, WVU, Notre Dame, Florida State and Miami to getting trounced by McNeese State and just about completely falling off the map in a matter of 3 seasons...and I don't think they have the infrastructure to weather the storm like Cincy, UCF and UConn.


Joe P.

No way. USF was built completely on smoke & mirrors. No fan base, no stadium, no facilities, no tradition. They were admitted simply because Big East teams wanted to play games in Florida every year & UCF went 0-11 when the ACC raid went down.

Even those wins over big names are suspect since Leavitt's entire recruiting strategy was taking hardship transfers from 4 & 5 star players who were cut from SEC schools.

 

[DJ Spanky]

I really hope that the NCAA does not approve the proposal to allow the B12 to have a CCG without having 12 or more teams in the league. And I'm hoping that the ACC won't be permitted to abandon their strange divisions and allow just their two best teams to play in a CCG.

I completely agree with both of these statements - what was the point of expanding leagues and setting up divisions if you can not just circumvent all of that?

 

[JoeRU0304]

No way. USF was built completely on smoke & mirrors. No fan base, no stadium, no facilities, no tradition. They were admitted simply because Big East teams wanted to play games in Florida every year & UCF went 0-11 when the ACC raid went down.

Even those wins over big names are suspect since Leavitt's entire recruiting strategy was taking hardship transfers from 4 & 5 star players who were cut from SEC schools.

Johnny, I agree and that's also my point- USF's period of success was almost totally predicated on 'just' being in a AQ/ P5-type league. Once they lost that, IMO they lost almost everything. They had no real infastructre that drew kids to the program, whereas Cincy and UConn had stadiums, practice facilities, history of success in other sports, etc. Cincy and UConn were the most 'ripped off' by the realignment carousel, but they still have their infrastructure. USF doesn't, hence my reasoning they lost the 'most'.


Joe P.

 

[JoeRU0304]

I do agree that had the ACC 'raid' taken place 2-3 years later UCF would have probably been the Florida team tagged for expansion. When everything first went down UCF football was in the MAC and playing in an aging Citrus Bowl stadium with no real fanfare or excitement; their bball and Olympic sports were in the Atlantic Sun, which was like 2 steps below the MAC. Over the next 5 years they went bananas building all new facilities.


Joe P.

 

[TheB1GTerp]

also doesn't help that Cincinnatii is looking to join the Big12 when they need 2 more teams for a conference championship.

 

[Knight_Light]

No way. USF was built completely on smoke & mirrors. No fan base, no stadium, no facilities, no tradition. They were admitted simply because Big East teams wanted to play games in Florida every year & UCF went 0-11 when the ACC raid went down.

Even those wins over big names are suspect since Leavitt's entire recruiting strategy was taking hardship transfers from 4 & 5 star players who were cut from SEC schools.

Johnny, I agree and that's also my point- USF's period of success was almost totally predicated on 'just' being in a AQ/ P5-type league. Once they lost that, IMO they lost almost everything. They had no real infastructre that drew kids to the program, whereas Cincy and UConn had stadiums, practice facilities, history of success in other sports, etc. Cincy and UConn were the most 'ripped off' by the realignment carousel, but they still have their infrastructure. USF doesn't, hence my reasoning they lost the 'most'.
Joe P.

USF was invited to join a BCS Conf back in Nov 2003...and they remained in a BCS Conf till July 1, 2014.

RUJohnny was right...as USF (especially under Leavitt) took short cuts at every turn..which is why USF had a losing conf record in Big East play under Leavitt (he never really built a program...he just built some teams that could never win consistently).

USF's best ever season in Big East play was just 4-3 and never sniffed a conf title.

Leavitt went just 8-8 in CUSA play.

Leavitt's Big East conf record was 25-26.

From 2010-2012, Skip Holtz went just 5-16 in Big East Play.

USF's current coach is just 5-11 in AAC Conf Play.

The last time USF had a winning conf record was back in 2007 (when they went 4-3) yet Joe P think USF only just took a down turn since leaving their BCS Conf 10 months ago.

Again, RUJohnny was spot on...USF was always smoke and mirrors (built on risky transfers, other "troubled" players off the field, etc...) as Leavitt always looked for the quick fix/short cut...and it never paid off.

 

[JoeRU0304]

K-L you don't seem to understand that I agree. I'm well aware of how USF bottle rocketed up quickly and that problems were evident even back in 2009-2011. However, I think the main reason they were even able to draw the 'hardship transfers' and the likes was mainly because of their AQ status. Once they lost that, it put the downward trend into hyperdrive. The AQ was almost all they had to hang their hat on because they didn't develop the program carefully. Once they lost AQ, they lost most of their chance to even have a 'shot' at the type of success that UCF has had even before 2013.


Joe P.

 

[Knight_Light]

K-L you don't seem to understand that I agree. I'm well aware of how USF bottle rocketed up quickly and that problems were evident even back in 2009-2011. However, I think the main reason they were even able to draw the 'hardship transfers' and the likes was mainly because of their AQ status. Once they lost that, it put the downward trend into hyperdrive. The AQ was almost all they had to hang their hat on because they didn't develop the program carefully. Once they lost AQ, they lost most of their chance to even have a 'shot' at the type of success that UCF has had even before 2013.


Joe P.

Gotcha Joe...I mistakenly thought that you meant USF was a solid program till they LOST AQ status and that USF lost that several years ago when it actually was last July.

USF getting blown out by a Div I-AA team in their first game after leaving the Big East was certainly a telling point that their program basically hit rock bottom.

USF still has a chance just because of their location (FLA) but even now their new AD has finally woken up and convinced many of their now tiny fan base that playing in front of 50,000 empty seats in an NFL off-campus stadium is not the way to go to build a college program.

 

[Abro1975]

UCF has gone from Sleeping Giant to taking over the College Football landscape in the Destination City of Orlando all the way to Tampa where USF is. UCF is HUGE with close to 50,000 students and now has a very successful program led by cranky, old George O'Leary. I predict UCF will the next team to get a Golden Ticket to a P5 conference due their Size, program, location, and number of potential TV eyeballs in that part of Florida. Every visiting team has family members and fans tag along to see Disney, Universal Studios, Sea World etc etc.

 

[NickyNewark51]

UCF has gone from Sleeping Giant to taking over the College Football landscape in the Destination City of Orlando all the way to Tampa where USF is. UCF is HUGE with close to 50,000 students and now has a very successful program led by cranky, old George O'Leary. I predict UCF will the next team to get a Golden Ticket to a P5 conference due their Size, program, location, and number of potential TV eyeballs in that part of Florida. Every visiting team has family members and fans tag along to see Disney, Universal Studios, Sea World etc etc.

I can't stand RU hater George O'Leary but gotta admit UCF reminds me of us ten yrs ago when we finally got some recognition but i still hope USF gets their golden ticket 1st as they repped the OBE well in OOC games against some big names therefore making us look that much better by whopping them on TV whilst they were higher ranked. All's O'Leary ever does is downplay us as overhyped even though we schooled them a few yrs ago in the St Petersburg bowl!! USF,BYU and UConn taken next in no particular order in CR musical chairs.