Random Homecoming Thoughts

When I left UConn, one of the questions I remember asking myself is, "How could I actually care about another school as much as UConn?"

I just figured nothing would be the same once I left.  I remember Mags telling me something that I wasn't sure I believed at the time, but now I know to be true.  Of her time at Hartford, which is not a Division I Powerhouse, like UConn is, she said you forget about the school you are at and you really just enjoy the team and student-athletes that you have.

She was completely right.

As I think back to Homecoming at Elon this weekend, I came to a very simple realization.  I'm much closer to the athletes at Elon than I ever was at UConn.  I had a much greater impact on the lives of the student-athletes at Elon, than I did at UConn. 

Time has a way of showing you who is and is not important.  I certainly still have UConn athletes, mostly Women's Soccer players, that I keep in contact with.  The list that I communicate with monthly is probably just two.  When I went and caught up with a few former players this summer in Storrs, there was some initial awkwardness.

I still encounter some of that awkwardness with Elon athletes now.  I went from meeting with them everyday, to seeing them for a few minutes once a month.

This is more of a stream of consciousness type of post.  I'm studying for the Series 7, so there is no need for me to really organize this when I need to be studying too.

One thing I am so grateful for and humbled by is the genuine delight that I seem to get from all of the people I run into at Elon.  Some of the students I work with really light up when they see me.

I had a big old lineman give me a huge bear hug, and pick me up in September.  I'll never forget when Dakota did that. 

I will never forget when Doane, Greg and Chelsea drove a couple of hours to see me and get dinner on my way home to Massachusetts from North Carolina.  I honestly had so much fun having dinner with them.  Everyone was laughing and smiling.  I did something right, because I was there academic adviser, not their friend.  That meant a lot to me.

Kim sent me a text message when I graduated with my MBA that is very special to me.  It means the world to me. 

Sydney and Espo and a few others wrote nice cards when they graduated, which I very much appreciated.  I treasure those and still have them.  They taught me a lot about myself.  Sydney taught me how much just caring makes a difference.

Shay left a nice note when I left too that I appreciated.

Having the throwers come to my MBA graduation and having Shay there was special.  My parents were in shock that I had such a loud cheering section and they are so proud of it. The three Bry, Bri and Bre are all nice and loud.  They love pointing out the cheers to those they show the video to.  It also meant a lot to me that one of the last things I did before walking towards the stage and getting my degree was to look up at Shay and Liggs.  Two students I advised.  They weren't there for just me, but it still meant a lot to me to see them there. 

Des and Lauren did something I will never forget either.  Both of them gave me hugs after they won the CAA Championship.  Those hugs were some of the biggest highlights I had doing my job.  I just felt like I did something right for them to want to celebrate with me when they won. 

I'm ending this stream of consciousness here.  It needs to end for now.  So many other stories and people should be written about.  Maybe I will. 

My last UConn thought is simple though, so before I forget, let me just say how happy I am that the UConn Women's Soccer program has such a great social media presence.  It's changed so much since I left. Yet I like to think I helped start the great student help that they now have.  I think I took things to another level and I'm glad people picked up what I started and ran with it.  The Instagram with video of goals is AWESOME! 

My Idea for the American Conference to Expand (A 2016 Post!)

The BIG 12 may make news on Monday by adding two schools.  They also may not add any schools, and that scenario is a scenario that I find intriguing. 

College athletics is a business.  Where the BIG 12 doesn’t see an opportunity is a place where the American Conference should look for one. 

The American Conference needs to grow their revenue and become a better known brand in college athletics.  They need to be taken seriously by winning Championships in anything and they need to show that they can bring value to television and media companies.  They also need to win in big sports on the national stage.

While they bring in revenue less than their peers, and will for a long time, they will also need to help schools cut expenses.  With this in mind, I advocate that the conference, and it’s leading schools (UConn, Cincinnati, Houston, South Florida, Central Florida, Memphis, Temple, East Carolina) come up with a plan together.  They should come up with opportunities for the future, ways to cut expenses now and invest in schools and sports of the future.

I think that idea should be for a conference that is 16 teams.

Criteria that should be important include: Geography, Rivalries, Public Schools, Scheduling that allows for RPI Opportunities and Non-conference Flexibility. 

The geography of the American Conference is actually pretty good.  Think about it, it has schools in established cities and growing places.  Tampa, New Orleans, Orlando, Dallas, Houston, Memphis, Cincinnati & Philadelphia give the conference some geographic advantages that other conferences don’t have.  UConn gives the conference a hand in New York and Boston and East Carolina adds the growing state of North Carolina.  Adding schools that are in growing cities and states is a plus for media rights money and potential for growth in those area universities. 

The sports that matter in college athletics are obvious.  They are Football, Men’s Basketball & Women’s Basketball.  Men’s Ice Hockey matters and so do Softball, Baseball and Men’s & Women’s Soccer.   The American should look at adding schools that can help compete in all sports, not just Football and Basketball.  Football may not be as popular in 20 years, and that is an opportunity that the Conference must exploit.  I’d expect Soccer and Lacrosse to gain in popularity.  Schools with little value in basketball or football, but lots of value in Men’s Soccer, is a school I’d consider for entry.      

USF & UCF and Houston & SMU can have natural geographic rivalries, and that is good for a conference.  UConn and Cincinnati don’t have close rivals.  Neither does Memphis or East Carolina.  Solving that problem or some of that problem should be a goal of conference expansion.

Adding teams can dilute the product of the American Conference even further.  The conference doesn’t need to have too many bad conference basketball etc. games.  They need enough games to get the big anchor schools to visit other cities and give every geographic part of the conference a chance to watch the best of the best come to town.  They need too little to give schools the chance to schedule marquee non-conference match-ups or their own out of conference rivalries. 

The sport of basketball will be key in keeping RPI up for the conferences best schools.  In order to do this you need to make sure that they best teams in the conference get to play each other as much as possible.  I envision a structure that has two eight team divisions. 

You borrow two ideas, Soccer’s relegation and the NFL’s scheduling of those in other divisions that finish the same place as you. 

10 conference basketball games come from home and home games against teams from where they finished in the standings the year before.  Teams that finished 1-4 in your division play home and home games against each other.  Same goes for those that finished 5-8.  The two teams in the other division that finished 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 and 7-8 play home and homes as well.  This gets you to 10 home and home games against what should be similar competition level.  Then you play the rest of your division alternating home and away games each year.  That gives you 4 more games.  The last four games include 3 alternating home and away games for the other division and one rotating game in your own division.  Confusing, probably.  The point of it is to give schools stuck in the bottom a chance to claw out of it and in to the top tier of play.  The good thing to me about this format is that it limits travel to far away places (because divisions will be split up based on geography) while insuring that travel to far away places is limited to schools that are usually similar in competition level to you.  Less travel keeps student in class and keeps travel expenses down. 

This sort of RPI inflator for the best teams in the league is important too, as it should prevent too much dilution in competition from the adding of more teams.  I’d hope that other sports in the league could adopt a similar structure to suit the needs of their sports. 

The next important thing is to invest in some sports.  Every school needs to get Men’s Soccer.  East Carolina doesn’t have it.  I assume some of the other southern schools don’t.  The American Conference should bet that it can be one of the premier Men’s Soccer leagues one day, and that being one of those conferences will pay off one day.    Football could very well be at its peak.  Boxing fell off in popularity, so did Horse Racing.  It could bet that concussions, less youth participation, sexual assault and this years decline in viewership is the beginning of a decline in football.  Is it a risky bet? Absolutely, especially when you know you won’t make any money on this soon.

Now lets move to the fun part.  Schools and Divisions.

Let’s start with the current teams and splitting them into divisions.  (This could change depending on schools being added, but I’ll go with my scenario).

I envision a Stars and Stripes division for sports.  It builds on the “American” theme.

Stars Division: UConn, Cincinnati, Temple, East Carolina

Stripe Division: Memphis, SMU, Houston, Tulane, Tulsa, USF, UCF

Now in my scenario, obviously the Star division has a lot of schools to add. 

The first school I would add would be UMass.  UConn needs a geographic rival.  It’s Boston College to many, but it still needs one in it’s own conference.  UMass and UConn have history in Men’s Basketball, and UMass will add a respectable basketball program to the conference.  It’s football program is new and while it will probably not deliver the Boston TV market, it is still the state university of Massachusetts.  That should count for something.

East Carolina does not have a natural conference geographic rival in the conference either.  Fitting with the theme of growing southern cities and a respectable Men’s Soccer program I’d advocate adding Charlotte.   Charlotte is a great city (Very biased as I am writing from the city now).  It has a good Men’s Soccer program and gives East Carolina a local rival and travel partner.  College athletics are big in North Carolina and having another team in the state and the ability to have a rivalry in the future should be seen as an opportunity. 

Side note - Charlotte is another American Airlines hub that would be added to the conference.  Added to Philadelphia (Temple) and Dallas (SMU) already.  Maybe that can be leveraged into a sponsorship or at least reduced travel expenses.  American Conference and American Airlines does go together pretty well! 

Tulane doesn’t have a travel partner, and apparently Hattiesburg, MS is a two hour drive away.  Southern Miss would bring the stripe division to 8 teams and would add another team in the south for the conference.  It gives Tulane a geographic rival.  Southern Miss is also a good school to add for football and their baseball is pretty good from all that I know.  

What is more American than Army and Navy?  Not much.  This is by far the part of this scenario that I am most unsure about.  I am not sure if there would be issues with them joining a conference that are beyond my thought process right now.  I’m struggling with the, “What is in it for me (or should I say Army and Navy?”) question.  They do however fill out the Star division well.  They are both geographic fits and both national brands.  It also would make the annual “Army & Navy” football game a conference game which would be good for the conference (The conference should let Army and Navy keep every penny that the annual game generates from CBS.  It should just be happy to have free publicity on major network television every year).  Additionally, it can’t hurt that the conference already has Veteran and Military friendly states such as North Carolina, Florida and Texas represented in the conference.

Final Division Lay Out

Star: UConn, Cinci, Temple, East Carolina, UMass, Charlotte, Army, Navy

Stripe: Memphis, Houston, SMU, Tulane, USF, UCF, Tulsa, Southern Miss

Football: Let the coaches and AD’s decide on eight or nine conference games.  I prefer nine, with you playing your entire division, a game against the team that finished opposite in the standings in the other division and a random team from the other division to insure that everyone plays each other on occasion.   Obviously, there would be a championship game.

Possible Travel Partners

UConn & UMass

East Carolina & Charlotte

Navy and Temple

Army & Cincinnati (Not that great, but best I could do. Wish I could find a better school for Cincinnati. Xavier would be perfect, but they don’t have football and there is no reason for them to leave the Big East.)

USF & UCF

Houston & SMU

Tulane & Southern Miss

Memphis & Tulsa (Let’s just pretend Arkansas doesn’t exist)

Other Schools Considered (Seriously or in passing):

Marshall, Coastal Carolina, James Madison, App State, Bowling Green, Liberty

Now, hopefully other people can come up with some better ideas from this.  However, should the BIG 12 decide not to expand, this may be the best realistic option for the American Conference and it’s members.  Generate some rivalries, reduce travel costs, and be in a conference that should allow you to maximize your RPI.  Invest in growing cities and sports. 

It’s certainly not going to result in a cash windfall like your school ending up in the BIG 12 would.  However, in my eyes, it’s probably the option that gives everyone the most hope for a better 20 years from now, if the expansion merry go-round skips over them.