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UConn seems to be doubling down on its bet that it can produce a successful football program. It came close with Randy Edsall the first time around, until he jumped ship. Jim Mora is well respected and could be just what the program needs. Will see. Jay
Funny how you double and triple down on your awful take. You are entitled to your opinion. It is wrong, but you are entitled to it. But surely you realize 300 million has been spent on fball so far, you think the UNI is just going to walk away from that? They just hired Jim Mora, a well-known name, ex-UCLA, ex-NFL coach. Despite their struggles, to get a coach of that caliber speaks volumes about UConn's brand, and dropping fball damages that brand.
Coach of what caliber? He did excellent with the recruits that were left behind to him at UCLA and then once those guys moved on his teams got worse year over year.
There is a reason he has been out of coaching for the last 4 seasons. There have been more than enough openings and nobody wanted him.
Also, he is not even an East Coast guy! He has no ties or relationships in the Northeast. What, you think all these California players are suddenly going to want to come Connecticut to play football? At least hire someone who knows his way around the surrounding states. Closest he ever came was on NFL road trips.
As for being a name, yeah no. No recruit is going to care he failed in Atlanta or Seattle as a NFL coach prior to them being born. His father is still more famous then the son will even be.
And enough with this P5 get aligned in a top conference. UConn, even as a .500 football team has NOTHING to offer a P5 conference. And again, there will be no P5 soon anyway. It is going away. The SEC is going to be a league to itself with how many colleges they are going to have. Trust me, the SEC is going to leave the NCAA soon enough. Why will they want to share $$$ with other leagues when they have all the most important programs outside of Ohio State, Michigan, and Notre Dame? When they leave, bye-bye NCAA football as we know it, and nobody will still want UConn.
Getting back into the Big East for the other sports was the first start in getting things moving back in the proper direction for the school. Now you are aligned with local schools you have a history with, something BC and Syracuse are dying for right now. Next step is to kill football, take those dollars and continue to build up your other sports and get them ALL on a National Level.
Whatever has been spent on the football team to date is a sunk cost. Not going to get it back, but doubling down on it would be even more stupid. To many people with huge egos keeping this thing afloat.
Coach of what caliber? He did excellent with the recruits that were left behind to him at UCLA and then once those guys moved on his teams got worse year over year.
There is a reason he has been out of coaching for the last 4 seasons. There have been more than enough openings and nobody wanted him.
Also, he is not even an East Coast guy! He has no ties or relationships in the Northeast. What, you think all these California players are suddenly going to want to come Connecticut to play football? At least hire someone who knows his way around the surrounding states. Closest he ever came was on NFL road trips.
As for being a name, yeah no. No recruit is going to care he failed in Atlanta or Seattle as a NFL coach prior to them being born. His father is still more famous then the son will even be.
And enough with this P5 get aligned in a top conference. UConn, even as a .500 football team has NOTHING to offer a P5 conference. And again, there will be no P5 soon anyway. It is going away. The SEC is going to be a league to itself with how many colleges they are going to have. Trust me, the SEC is going to leave the NCAA soon enough. Why will they want to share $$$ with other leagues when they have all the most important programs outside of Ohio State, Michigan, and Notre Dame? When they leave, bye-bye NCAA football as we know it, and nobody will still want UConn.
Getting back into the Big East for the other sports was the first start in getting things moving back in the proper direction for the school. Now you are aligned with local schools you have a history with, something BC and Syracuse are dying for right now. Next step is to kill football, take those dollars and continue to build up your other sports and get them ALL on a National Level.
Whatever has been spent on the football team to date is a sunk cost. Not going to get it back, but doubling down on it would be even more stupid. To many people with huge egos keeping this thing afloat.
If you dislike UConn football that much (apparent from your posts on the subject) why bother to post all the negativity about the program? Looks like you are a NU Grad anyway.
College Football recruiting goes beyond the borders of a single region. True about most college teams in Div. 1 these days. UConn basketball recruits outside of the Northeast and the football program does the same. And that includes the coaching staff. Personally I was hoping they would have signed Phil Fulmer formerly of TN after Randy Edsall left which would likely have led to better recruits from outside the Northeast coming to the program.
Major College Football is still a cash cow for most Div. 1 teams. And it is also an image booster for a college that helps recruit both athletic talent as well as academic talent. That is the driving force behind their attempts to make this work again. No different than pro sports teams getting special treatment from most cities. Sometimes they are a loss leader and at other times they make money for the owners in addition to enhancing the image of the city and region they reside. BTW. Attendance was pretty good during the Randy Edsall era, not abysmal like you suggest.
The SEC ain't going anywhere.
BTW. Kobe Bryant's daughter was interested in attending UConn and also playing for the women's basketball team but thanks to the untimely passing of her and her father (both living in CA) that won't happen. So, I guess CA recruiting is a possibility? Jim Mora is a good coach and he'll surely help the program. He has a proven track record and a winning record at that.
If you dislike UConn football that much (apparent from your posts on the subject) why bother to post all the negativity about the program? Looks like you are a NU Grad anyway.
College Football recruiting goes beyond the borders of a single region. True about most college teams in Div. 1 these days. UConn basketball recruits outside of the Northeast and the football program does the same. And that includes the coaching staff. Personally I was hoping they would have signed Phil Fulmer formerly of TN after Randy Edsall left which would likely have led to better recruits from outside the Northeast coming to the program.
Major College Football is still a cash cow for most Div. 1 teams. And it is also an image booster for a college that helps recruit both athletic talent as well as academic talent. That is the driving force behind their attempts to make this work again. No different than pro sports teams getting special treatment from most cities. Sometimes they are a loss leader and at other times they make money for the owners in addition to enhancing the image of the city and region they reside. BTW. Attendance was pretty good during the Randy Edsall era, not abysmal like you suggest.
The SEC ain't going anywhere.
BTW. Kobe Bryant's daughter was interested in attending UConn and also playing for the women's basketball team but thanks to the untimely passing of her and her father (both living in CA) that won't happen. So, I guess CA recruiting is a possibility? Jim Mora is a good coach and he'll surely help the program. He has a proven track record and a winning record at that.
Let's be fair. Kobe's daughter would be looking at UConn basketball no matter where she lived. She's would also be looking at the other top programs in the country. Yes, CA recruiting is possible but not until UConn can build a program that the best in the country are going to be interested in. It's going to take years to get to that level while Mora works with kids who weren't recruited by the big schools.
If you dislike UConn football that much (apparent from your posts on the subject) why bother to post all the negativity about the program? Looks like you are a NU Grad anyway.
College Football recruiting goes beyond the borders of a single region. True about most college teams in Div. 1 these days. UConn basketball recruits outside of the Northeast and the football program does the same. And that includes the coaching staff. Personally I was hoping they would have signed Phil Fulmer formerly of TN after Randy Edsall left which would likely have led to better recruits from outside the Northeast coming to the program.
Major College Football is still a cash cow for most Div. 1 teams. And it is also an image booster for a college that helps recruit both athletic talent as well as academic talent. That is the driving force behind their attempts to make this work again. No different than pro sports teams getting special treatment from most cities. Sometimes they are a loss leader and at other times they make money for the owners in addition to enhancing the image of the city and region they reside. BTW. Attendance was pretty good during the Randy Edsall era, not abysmal like you suggest.
The SEC ain't going anywhere.
BTW. Kobe Bryant's daughter was interested in attending UConn and also playing for the women's basketball team but thanks to the untimely passing of her and her father (both living in CA) that won't happen. So, I guess CA recruiting is a possibility? Jim Mora is a good coach and he'll surely help the program. He has a proven track record and a winning record at that.
Do not compare the National Championship basketball programs to the losing football program. Any top womens recruit in the nation is going to look at UConn. They don't have to really recruit, the recruits come to them. The men's hoops team has to work more just due to the amount of top programs in the area, but again, top basketball kids growing up in this area see that school as viable to win national championships, to get on tv, to build their own brand. If you are a top QB or LB you are not looking at the football team the same way.
If you do not think the end game for the SEC is to leave the NCAA to run their own independent minor league, you are kidding yourself. Otherwise why would they keep expanding their footprint into non-SEC territory like Texas and Oklahoma and Missouri?
Northeastern dropped football and it has done wonders for the rest of their programs as they have been allocate funds across more sports, driving more winning.
There are some really comical posts in this thread.
Please understand that college football money is all made in essentially ONE thing - TV deals. That’s it.
6 home games a year is not worthy of big investment for most programs in stadiums, coaches, etc.
As stated already, now that college players can make money off endorsements, some players making $1MM+ and this will continue to go up, the SEC won’t need the NCAA and will eventually be their own league. You can’t compare UCONN women’s hoops to UCONN football
Have you ever been to a college football game in a real college football market? The Northeast doesn’t care about college football and quite frankly the rest of the country doesn’t care about it either. Unless you have a tie to the state or program no one cares. However, I’ll gladly watch an average SEC game. You see a better product and future NFL players
. Football is also a sport where a star or two cannot carry a team. It’s not like the NCAA basketball tourney where anyone can win a few games and it’s exciting. Watching bad teams in college football is pointless.
I doubt a college football conference can form a professional league. For that to happen they would have to form a new league and cut all ties to the colleges. Player endorsements is one thing but allowing college conferences to create their own professional league is another matter entirely. Colleges are not businesses. They are tax exempt entities and have specific guidelines to follow concerning revenue streams. I suspect a change in their tax status would be the only way the SEC could become a pro league.
This is not about comparing UConn basketball to UConn football. This is about marketing and borrowing the same blue print that helped build the basketball team from a Yankee Conference team to a national champion. Think small and YOU WILL remain small. No question that TV revenue is what drives college sports and pro sports now. But to grow you have to invest. It appears that is the route the UConn football team is going to take and hopefully this will be a catalyst to getting back to a respectable conference. Nothing comical about this at all.
I doubt a college football conference can form a professional league. For that to happen they would have to form a new league and cut all ties to the colleges. Player endorsements is one thing but allowing college conferences to create their own professional league is another matter entirely. Colleges are not businesses. They are tax exempt entities and have specific guidelines to follow concerning revenue streams. I suspect a change in their tax status would be the only way the SEC could become a pro league.
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I’m not sure what you are talking about. They wouldn’t be forming a new league from scratch like the XFL or something like that. Everything is already in place - infrastructure, demand, players, coaches, branding, etc. the SEC currently has 14 teams, add some more, get it to let’s say 20 teams and you’ve got your “new sports league”. You don’t think ESPN would still want to televise all those games? If the SEC tells Ohio State, Michigan, Clemson, Norte Dame…any of the big boys “hey you want in”? You could even get to 30 teams and be all games with all big time schools where all top recruits would want to go. Right now no one cares when Alabama plays a crap non conference school. Imagine if they had to play a decent school each time?
I’m failing to see what the complexity is here. Your comment “colleges are not businesses” is very telling. These big football schools absolutely run like a business. Alabama football had $150M+ revenue and $30M+ profit in one year. UConn football, under $3M revenue (not a typo) and $15M+ in the hole. That is craptastic.
Look at other state universities in the Northeast. Vermont dropped football a long time ago. UNH was flat revenue/expenses. UMass also flat. Rhode Island flat. Maine flat. At best state universities in the northeast are a flat endeavor. Why? Because no one cares. We have our Patriots, Giants and Jets which is the football people in the NE care about, period
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