UConn's independent scheduling

[Buckaineer]

Interesting to see what old Big East opponent UConn is doing.

After they moved their basketball back to the (new) BE basketball conference, people thought their football program would be dead.

Not so fast though, they've almost completed their first independent schedule for next season and its not terrible, when just a few months prior they only had 4 games and few teams had openings:

excerpt:
UConn Football 2020 Games Under Contract

Sept. 3: UMass

Sept. 12: at Illinois

Sept. 26: Indiana

Oct 24: at Ole Miss

Oct. 31: Liberty

Nov. 14: at San Jose State

Nov. 28: Army

Dates TBA: Maine, at Virginia.

...
That’s nine of 12. Those games are under contract. UConn was awaiting the finalization of agreements with three other programs, one of which is a Power Five team from the ACC....

......UConn’s guarantee games in the future will come mostly against top teams from the SEC and Big Ten. It will be balanced with home-and-home series with mid-level Power 5 teams and regionalized with expected annual games against Boston College, UMass, Syracuse and Army. BYU is expected to be a regular opponent.

That’s nine of 12. Those games are under contract. UConn was awaiting the finalization of agreements with three other programs, one of which is a Power Five team from the ACC.
https://www.courant.com/sports/hc-s...0191024-kepakk45xvccpcujkf22e26bhy-story.html


Will be interesting to see how this works out down the road--they are lining up lots more P5 teams than they had been able to play in the AAC and developing relationships with conferences for down the road at the same time.

 

[doneagain]

Interesting to see what old Big East opponent UConn is doing.

After they moved their basketball back to the (new) BE basketball conference, people thought their football program would be dead.

Not so fast though, they've almost completed their first independent schedule for next season and its not terrible, when just a few months prior they only had 4 games and few teams had openings:

excerpt:
UConn Football 2020 Games Under Contract

Sept. 3: UMass

Sept. 12: at Illinois

Sept. 26: Indiana

Oct 24: at Ole Miss

Oct. 31: Liberty

Nov. 14: at San Jose State

Nov. 28: Army

Dates TBA: Maine, at Virginia.

...
That’s nine of 12. Those games are under contract. UConn was awaiting the finalization of agreements with three other programs, one of which is a Power Five team from the ACC....

......UConn’s guarantee games in the future will come mostly against top teams from the SEC and Big Ten. It will be balanced with home-and-home series with mid-level Power 5 teams and regionalized with expected annual games against Boston College, UMass, Syracuse and Army. BYU is expected to be a regular opponent.

That’s nine of 12. Those games are under contract. UConn was awaiting the finalization of agreements with three other programs, one of which is a Power Five team from the ACC.
https://www.courant.com/sports/hc-s...0191024-kepakk45xvccpcujkf22e26bhy-story.html


Will be interesting to see how this works out down the road--they are lining up lots more P5 teams than they had been able to play in the AAC and developing relationships with conferences for down the road at the same time.

I would imagine they work out a deal with New Mexico State as well as they, too, are now independent.

I would not be surprised to see BYU move into the AAC for football only to fill the void left by UConn. Others have mentioned Army as a possibility to partner with Navy.

For divisional purposes within the AAC, I think BYU makes sense from a branding perspective, but also it gives another western team to the AAC West and allows Navy to move into the EAST where it should be. Not to mention BYU football is an upgrade over UConn football.

 

[WVUALLEN]

BYU will stay Independent. They schedule at least 9 to 10 P5 schools right now. Why would they want to lower their standards?

As far as UCONN look for an 0-12 or 1-11 record once they turn Independent. I would look for a Sun Belt or CUSA team to jump to AAC.

 

[doneagain]

BYU will stay Independent. They schedule at least 9 to 10 P5 schools right now. Why would they want to lower their standards?

As far as UCONN look for an 0-12 or 1-11 record once they turn Independent. I would look for a Sun Belt or CUSA team to jump to AAC.

I see 4 P5 schools on their schedule this year. Not saying I am right, just saying what I think would make sense. They have publicly stated their struggle to fill a schedule each year as an independent. If I was the AAC, and I am not, I would reach out to them.

They had 5 P5 schools on their schedule in 2018.

4 in 2017.

6 in 2016.

5 in 2015.

3 in 2014.

They could play an 8-game AAC schedule each year and still schedule about as many P5 games as they do now, one of which would be Utah.

 

[Fingon]

Might be a ripe opportunity to schedule them for a 2 or 3 for 1 several years out. Would beat having an FCS as the default cupcake.

 

[Buckaineer]

The AAC reportedly got a waiver from the NCAA to play a CCG with 11 teams and no divisions so they arent going to expand.

Seems as though UConn is going to be ok— they have 7 home games next year and also 5 P5 teams when normally they might get only one P5 team. The team is bad now but obviously can improve based on the level of play they had reached prior to the Big East collapsing.

 

[GhostofGraves]

I live in Utah. Utah just dropped BYU in 2022 and 2023 to schedule an SEC team.

BYU would like to be in a conference but it would have to pay more than they are making as an independent.

The Utes Pac-12 affiliation has completely flipped the situation here. In-state recruiting, including the large and heavily Latter-day Saint Polynesian population here, has changed to being in Utah's favor. Utah's population of over 3 million is growing at 14.4 percent and the Salt Lake-Ogden-Provo metroplex has a population of over 2 million. Playing USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington is a pretty big draw compared to BYU's recently announced series with UCF and Rice. There are a lot of Californians and Arizonans that have moved here, and the alignment is much more Pacific than anywhere else.

 

[muraca777]

I'm sure theres a money part to that equation, there always is, but Utah should drop somebody else, Utah and BYU not playing just sounds stupid

 

[WVUALLEN]

I see 4 P5 schools on their schedule this year. Not saying I am right, just saying what I think would make sense. They have publicly stated their struggle to fill a schedule each year as an independent. If I was the AAC, and I am not, I would reach out to them.

They had 5 P5 schools on their schedule in 2018.

4 in 2017.

6 in 2016.

5 in 2015.

3 in 2014.

They could play an 8-game AAC schedule each year and still schedule about as many P5 games as they do now, one of which would be Utah.

Why would they go AAC when they could join all their rivals in MWC.

P5 Future..
6 in 2020 - Utah, Michigan St., Arizona St., Minnesota, Missouri, Stanford
7 in 2021 - Arizona, Utah, Arizona State, Baylor, Washington, Virginia, USC
2022 schedule not complete but 4 P5 schools on it already - Baylor, Oregon, Arkansas, Stanford

ACC in 2015 decided that BYU will count as a P5 game. BYU would probably not finish last in any P5 conference, this is probably appropriate.

BYU wants to schedule 7 or more P5 Schools every year. They can't do that playing in a conference. They want to be Notre Dame.

BYU actually has a 42% winning percentage against P5 schools.

In 2017, 21 Power Five teams won 40% of less of their games against other P5 programs. With only 64 total P5 teams (not including Independents), that means that nearly 1/3 of the P5 teams last year matched BYU’s average record against major conference teams over the last 7 seasons.

Some of those teams are Ole Miss, UCLA, Baylor and Florida. Should these teams leave their conference so that they can have easier schedules?

 

[doneagain]

Why would they go AAC when they could join all their rivals in MWC.

P5 Future..
6 in 2020 - Utah, Michigan St., Arizona St., Minnesota, Missouri, Stanford
7 in 2021 - Arizona, Utah, Arizona State, Baylor, Washington, Virginia, USC
2022 schedule not complete but 4 P5 schools on it already - Baylor, Oregon, Arkansas, Stanford

ACC in 2015 decided that BYU will count as a P5 game. BYU would probably not finish last in any P5 conference, this is probably appropriate.

BYU wants to schedule 7 or more P5 Schools every year. They can't do that playing in a conference. They want to be Notre Dame.

BYU actually has a 42% winning percentage against P5 schools.

In 2017, 21 Power Five teams won 40% of less of their games against other P5 programs. With only 64 total P5 teams (not including Independents), that means that nearly 1/3 of the P5 teams last year matched BYU’s average record against major conference teams over the last 7 seasons.

Some of those teams are Ole Miss, UCLA, Baylor and Florida. Should these teams leave their conference so that they can have easier schedules?

I have no dog in the fight so I don’t care where they go ultimately. I know minus Boise, the AAC is a higher profile conference than the MWC and they abandoned the MWC in favor of independence. The P12 gets less press than the other P5 conferences and the MWC gets about 1/10 of what the P12 gets, so I can’t imagine there is much appeal to go back to what they left behind.

Like I said, I have no dog in the fight so I don’t care one way or the other. I was speaking from what would be good for the AAC as a replacement for UConn. The AAC wants to build their profile and fancies themselves a P6 conference so adding the highest profile available school would be a good answer.

 

[Buckaineer]

The AAC is smart to hold where they are because they still get the money doled out for Uconn with one less mouth to feed— and they can now go divisionless but still play a CCG.

If that holds indefinitely then you will see these big conferences— B10, SEC and ACC go divisionless and that could allow them to have the teams play more often with changing schedules.

if that happens then more realignment may be just around the corner as a team joining wont have to be concerned with a division and may be able to play the more attractive members of a new conference more often.

 

[Buckaineer]

Uconn was smart because theyve got a better home for all Olympic sports and now football can do what it wants when it wants with no entanglements.

if you need a football program but dont want to worry about Olympic sports travel— UConn a good fit perhaps— can join immediately without travel concerns and costs with Olympic sports. Biggest drawback now is lack of competitiveness.