The UConn addition

[Letsgonova]

I was and am 100% for adding UCONN to the league. Nothing but positives from a competition standpoint.

But their fans. Oh, their fans. I would suggest all of the fans who didn't previously experience a BET with UCONN to withhold their judgement until they see one firsthand. 10,000 drunk middle-aged white guys with long-sleeve t-shirts tucked securely into their carpenter jeans, New Balance 409s squeaking on the polished concrete of MSG, secure in their knowledge that college basketball started around 1992 and Jim Calhoun is basically Jesus Christ with better man-to-man concepts and more capacity for forgiving (his players') sins.

Well, that paints a picture!

In all fairness, I should add that this stereotype mostly refers to the non-alum fanbase, which UCONN has in spades. Much more than other BE members, which makes sense as a flagship state university.

One thing I forgot - they do this U-C-O-N-N chant possibly 50 times a game. I mostly congratulate them for spelling it correctly. They love that.

[ArmyVet]

Which current Big East program suffers most as a result of UCONN joining? Providence or Hall maybe?

[Letsgonova]

I think the Hall is the right answer. Hurley has deep NJ roots, obviously, and will win a lot of straight-up battles with Willard. Cooley I think is less affected.

[thunderbird]

I didn’t want the BE to stand pat as a Xavier fan.

I was always 100% for adding UCONN and stopping at 11 to maintain the RR (my presumption is that we are safe on the content quantity issue; if that ever changes and the media agreement demands additional content from us, then OK, we add a 12th member).

Always seemed to be an obvious move - for TV, for MSG, optics for the composition of the conference, etc.

I’m looking forward to watching some of the old rivalries, while providing UCONN a better Cincy rivalry.

I agree on the content quantity. Fox College Hoops now has us and B1G in the eastern/central time zones and Pac-12 and MW in the mountain/pacific time zones. Some might not realize, but the addition of UConn didn't necessarily increase our package quantity by much. The 2 OOC games that UConn replaces for each school most likely would've been buy home games, so those 20 games gets reduced to 10 games in quantity. UConn's 10 home conference games negates that reduction of OOC games, so only their OOC schedule is an increase in quantity. Out of those 11 games, you subtract however many for a MTE, challenge, h/h, etc. and you're hovering around an increase of 7 games in quantity. However, as for content quality, that increases exponentially. And that's what they're ultimately paying for. On top of that, they obtain broadcasting rights to the most decorated program in women's college basketball. Again, the quality is what's valuable. Now, if we were to expand to 12 and maintain the 20 conference game schedule, that'd be an increase of ~17 games in quantity. If Fox College Hoops truly wanted that much additional content from us then they simply wouldn't sublicense the 20 games to CBS and CBS Sports Network they currently do or even the few games aired on Fox Sports Regional Networks. That's why I don't see them demanding us to expand simply for additional content. If it's just filler they need, then there are much cheaper avenues than us expanding. Now, if they wanted us to expand with a quality program (e.g. Gonzaga) or national brand (e.g. Notre Dame) or, hell, into an untapped TV market for them so they could sell more subscriptions to FS1 (e.g. Saint Louis), then maybe. But as it stands right now, the addition of UConn is a net positive for all parties involved—BE, UConn, and Fox Sports—and I don't expect the composition of the conference to change any time soon.

[thunderbird]

I was and am 100% for adding UCONN to the league. Nothing but positives from a competition standpoint.

But their fans. Oh, their fans. I would suggest all of the fans who didn't previously experience a BET with UCONN to withhold their judgement until they see one firsthand. 10,000 drunk middle-aged white guys with long-sleeve t-shirts tucked securely into their carpenter jeans, New Balance 409s squeaking on the polished concrete of MSG, secure in their knowledge that college basketball started around 1992 and Jim Calhoun is basically Jesus Christ with better man-to-man concepts and more capacity for forgiving (his players') sins.

Haha.

[gtmoBlue]

I was and am 100% for adding UCONN to the league. Nothing but positives from a competition standpoint.

But their fans. Oh, their fans. I would suggest all of the fans who didn't previously experience a BET with UCONN to withhold their judgement until they see one firsthand. 10,000 drunk middle-aged white guys with long-sleeve t-shirts tucked securely into their carpenter jeans, New Balance 409s squeaking on the polished concrete of MSG, secure in their knowledge that college basketball started around 1992 and Jim Calhoun is basically Jesus Christ with better man-to-man concepts and more capacity for forgiving (his players') sins.

Well, that paints a picture!

It certainly does! I need one for my den. Goes with the other nine for darts!



Gumby, Gumby my man. This is a nice stir, but I hardly think the Huskies need any help in pot stirring. Where is the lub?
As one who hopes for a 12-14 member (ND, S'cuse, and Duke) conference welcome. My only bitch is that UConn isn't private.
None of us newbies are shakin in our boots - bring it! The Muskies wear the black hats around here, so there's competition.

Now, let's hope there is a season to have.

[HartfordHusky]

I didn’t want the BE to stand pat as a Xavier fan.

I was always 100% for adding UCONN and stopping at 11 to maintain the RR (my presumption is that we are safe on the content quantity issue; if that ever changes and the media agreement demands additional content from us, then OK, we add a 12th member).

Always seemed to be an obvious move - for TV, for MSG, optics for the composition of the conference, etc.

I’m looking forward to watching some of the old rivalries, while providing UCONN a better Cincy rivalry.

I agree on the content quantity. Fox College Hoops now has us and B1G in the eastern/central time zones and Pac-12 and MW in the mountain/pacific time zones. Some might not realize, but the addition of UConn didn't necessarily increase our package quantity by much. The 2 OOC games that UConn replaces for each school most likely would've been buy home games, so those 20 games gets reduced to 10 games in quantity. UConn's 10 home conference games negates that reduction of OOC games, so only their OOC schedule is an increase in quantity. Out of those 11 games, you subtract however many for a MTE, challenge, h/h, etc. and you're hovering around an increase of 7 games in quantity. However, as for content quality, that increases exponentially. And that's what they're ultimately paying for. On top of that, they obtain broadcasting rights to the most decorated program in women's college basketball. Again, the quality is what's valuable. Now, if we were to expand to 12 and maintain the 20 conference game schedule, that'd be an increase of ~17 games in quantity. If Fox College Hoops truly wanted that much additional content from us then they simply wouldn't sublicense the 20 games to CBS and CBS Sports Network they currently do or even the few games aired on Fox Sports Regional Networks. That's why I don't see them demanding us to expand simply for additional content. If it's just filler they need, then there are much cheaper avenues than us expanding. Now, if they wanted us to expand with a quality program (e.g. Gonzaga) or national brand (e.g. Notre Dame) or, hell, into an untapped TV market for them so they could sell more subscriptions to FS1 (e.g. Saint Louis), then maybe. But as it stands right now, the addition of UConn is a net positive for all parties involved—BE, UConn, and Fox Sports—and I don't expect the composition of the conference to change any time soon.

Good analysis and I'll also point out that adding UConn brings in the Hartford-New Haven TV market and further solidifies it's position in the NYC TV market which includes Fairfield County, CT. The addition of UConn women's hoops is pretty valuable from Fox's perspective nationally as well. I also agree that further additions would likely about adding untapped TV markets like St. Louis and possibly Richmond, VA. I personally like the idea of St. Louis the most as it could serve as a bridge to Creighton.

[Xudash]

I was and am 100% for adding UCONN to the league. Nothing but positives from a competition standpoint.

But their fans. Oh, their fans. I would suggest all of the fans who didn't previously experience a BET with UCONN to withhold their judgement until they see one firsthand. 10,000 drunk middle-aged white guys with long-sleeve t-shirts tucked securely into their carpenter jeans, New Balance 409s squeaking on the polished concrete of MSG, secure in their knowledge that college basketball started around 1992 and Jim Calhoun is basically Jesus Christ with better man-to-man concepts and more capacity for forgiving (his players') sins.

Well, that paints a picture!

It certainly does! I need one for my den. Goes with the other nine for darts!



Gumby, Gumby my man. This is a nice stir, but I hardly think the Huskies need any help in pot stirring. Where is the lub?
As one who hopes for a 12-14 member (ND, S'cuse, and Duke) conference welcome. My only bitch is that UConn isn't private.
None of us newbies are shakin in our boots - bring it! The Muskies wear the black hats around here, so there's competition.

Now, let's hope there is a season to have.

gtmo, gtmo - Xavier wears the black hat around here?

[GumbyDamnit!]

It certainly does! I need one for my den. Goes with the other nine for darts!


Gumby, Gumby my man. This is a nice stir, but I hardly think the Huskies need any help in pot stirring. Where is the lub?
As one who hopes for a 12-14 member (ND, S'cuse, and Duke) conference welcome. My only bitch is that UConn isn't private.
None of us newbies are shakin in our boots - bring it! The Muskies wear the black hats around here, so there's competition.

Now, let's hope there is a season to have.

gtmo, gtmo - Xavier wears the black hat around here?

I'm going to make a prediction now...I just have a hunch that the Huskies and the Muskies are going to be must see HLOH forums when games between them heat up. I enjoy the many facets of the X fanbase. There are several posters here that are top notch basketball minds and great posters for sure. But there is also an undercurrent among them that brings some juice to the table, albeit within their big blue shaded specs. That 2nd group is the norm for UConn fans--or at least when they were piling up F4's and NC's in the oBE. They are over the top loyal though. I will give them that. I think they'll be a great addition.

I would also like to add that as a young undergrad at V'Nova, one of my college buddies lived in CT. I spent a fall break up there and we hit up Storrs one weekend. I had a tremendous time! We ended up at a Female Rugby party. And these girls could drink and they did not look like anything you would expect. There were a couple with arms bigger than mine but the majority were these sprite, little, waterbugs. The drank hard Friday night, had a game on Saturday that we ended up checking out, then drank really hard from Saturday right after the game through late in the night. One of the most memorable weekends I had in my 4 years at Nova and it was at UConn. (cap tip to Husky Nation).

I can't wait til we win our 4th NC next year so you don't have that over our heads at least...

[BoukClub]

I'm going to make a prediction now...I just have a hunch that the Huskies and the Muskies are going to be must see HLOH forums when games between them heat up.

If the atmosphere at last year's double-OT thriller in Charleston is any indication, I think you're right. I seem to recall more than one poster over in the UConn Boneyard Forum last November commenting on how incredibly annoying X fans were.

Although, I am interested to see how many Husky fans actually become regulars on this board. There doesn't seem to be many right now. The Boneyard has been around many years (since the mid-90s, I believe) and is one of the most active CBB message boards I've seen (comparable to that of a small-market NBA team), where many of the topics overlap with those on this Board. And, as has been observed above, UConn fans tend to be some of the more... self-congratulatory... fans in CBB, and therefore wish nothing more than to carry on a circle jerk with other UConn fans about how good UConn is. I, for one, enjoy engaging with other CBB fans about their teams, conference play, and also getting a fresh perspective on how people view my Huskies outside the UConn biosphere.

Having said all of the above, I think you'll find that many UConn fans have eaten pretty large slices of humble pie over the past five years or so. Most have had the sense of entitlement beaten out of them during the Ollie years, and will just be thrilled to be out of the purgatory that is the AAC. We should be more pleasant this go-round