This is the inevitable result when you don’t have conference revenues to worry about:
The UConn football season is over before it could get started.
With a schedule that was already eroded after several canceled games and the ongoing concerns related to coronavirus being transferred through close contact, UConn officially canceled its football season Wednesday sources close to the program told the Courant. It was set to be the first season for the Huskies as an independent program.
“After receiving guidance from state and public health officials and consulting with football student-athletes, we’ve decided that we will not compete on the gridiron this season,” athletic director David Benedict said in a statement. “The safety challenges created by COVID-19 place our football student-athletes at an unacceptable level of risk.”
It just makes the rationale behind the P5’s approach that much more obvious.
Get The Picture 
I wonder what will happen to BYU.
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I don’t think they’ll fold that easy. UConn is a basketball school anyway, but mediocre football is all BYU has. It’s extremely important to Morman culture. They lost half their schedule. Had games with 3 PAC 12 teams, 2 Big 10 teams, and Missouri. The rest were against group of 5 teams.
My guess is they’ve been working the phones hard with the Big 12 and ACC.
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Interestingly, Randy Edsall’s contract calls for a $250k bonus for a canceled season due to pandemic… (I recognize that this only makes sense if you understand the joke of a structure that his contract is)
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Plus $5K per day spent practicing ahead of the canceled season
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Surely there’s an incentive in there for an undefeated season.
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Let’s see how they handle basketball season
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UConn football? This announcement reminds me of the adage “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
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Agree. Their blaming it on “The safety challenges created by COVID-19 place our football student-athletes at an unacceptable level of risk.” is a load of horseshit.
When your program operates in the red during a normal year, Covid-19 is your biggest ally.
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“When your program operates in the red during a normal year, Covid-19 is your biggest ally.”
For all the talk we hear about the impact on G5 schools because of having to cancel games, I’m wondering to what extent we might actually see G5 schools lose less money than what they were before. While some expenses can’t be cut easily, there are probably quite a few that can, and even some of the salary obligations might prove flexible in a pandemic. My undergraduate alma mater loses money on football almost every year, needing subsidies from student fees to keep the program “in the black.” Perhaps this will be the wake-up call to it and many other G5 schools that the cost of FBS is too high, and they should bump down a level that is more affordable overall.
Ah hell, who am I kidding? College athletics officials can’t ever make a sensible decision without someone there to shoot them every minute of their lives.
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My thoughts exactly. Other than being a filler on the schedule and homecoming opponent, is there any reason for UConn football?
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Connecticut needs to move down to FCS.
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Maybe they could sell the Civil ConFLiCT 🏆 trophy to make up a few bucks 💵!!!!
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Odds that UConn never plays football again ? Me thinks the Coronavirus may be all too convenient for that administration.
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Will the NCAA grant immediate waivers for transfer? Anyone on that roster worth going after for a P5 program?
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So much for the UCONN players boycott & demands…..
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It sounds like their demands were met.
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If UConn had received an invitation to join the ACC or the Big East hadn’t broken up for football, I doubt Edsall would be claiming the moral high ground.
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From a basketball component, it was a mistake for the ACC to add Pitt and not UConn. Pitt should’ve gone to the Big Ten (sorry Rutgers) and UConn to the ACC. You could even make the argument from a football component as UConn had recently made a NY6 bowl, and with an influx of ACC television rights cash, could quickly right the ship at least to BC or Syracuse levels.
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Excellent point, Corch. The B1G thought the millions of people in NYC and northern NJ would become college football fans with the addition of Rutgers. Dumb decision by self-proclaimed smartest man in the room Jim Delany. Pitt with its natural tie to Ped State and a national championship on their resume would have been an excellent add except Pitt wouldn’t have moved the needle on the B1G’s media rights (see above).
UConn hoops combined with their recent football success could have been a nice addition to the ACC.
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Pitt doesn’t even draw 30,000 for Home football games….
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For What it’s Worth:
It’s the same roots at the base of three that dies first. That leads to the tallest branches evidence of its own demise.
Laugh if you will the snowball is staring to roll. College football no matter where it’s played or in this case not played will have shattering effects on the community they are in. Just saying your favorite restaurant or novelty UGA store in Athens may not be there come basketball, gymnastic or baseball season. There are more than AD’s, coaches that depend on you for 4-5 weekends out of the year and they depend on that money to stay open all year.
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My comments never really garnished any traction but this is exactly one of the things I wondered about several months ago. Will smaller school survive. I don’t personally wish a death nail on any program but I simply think there’s too many programs and there may be an adjustment. Football is an expensive sport to operate a. I mean basketball you need 12 guys 2 hoops and a ball and a court that’s reasonably safe and flat, 3 coaches. May not be ideal but it’s doable. The equipment and logistics of football alone is pretty big. I’ve never liked the idea of paying a school for a home game victory. And that’s the only way they would survive. Market is changing.
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Chuck, if I remember correctly, UConn was pretty competitive as an I-AA program. They made the jump to big boy football and added football to their conference affiliation with the Big East. They made it to the Fiesta Bowl where they got curb-stomped by Oklahoma. After that, the program collapsed. When the Big East collapsed for football with the ACC and Big 12 defections, UConn had nowhere to turn, and the program went into full free fall. As mentioned above, they should drop to FCS where they would likely be pretty darn competitive.
You’re right … there are WAAAAAAY too many schools trying to play big boy football. Another reason for the Power 5 plus Notre Dame and a few others should leave the NCAA and start over.
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Yeah we’re at a 130 or is it a 132 schools? I think it should be somewhere between 75 and 90 at most. The power 5 = 62 schools? 64? I’d like division one restructured and nobody gets to play division 2 cup cakes at all. I realize this may very negatively impact those smaller schools but I just don’t feel that they even need the sport if it takes playing a couple of out a conferences to get paid to exist. The power 5 could go to 16 schools a conference, That’s 80 schools. That just seems like good math to me. 16 schools also allows for 4 pods rotating. I think this allows for mostly historical rivalries and geographies while giving a little better picture at determining conference champions and playoff contenders.
In my little dream world utopia here I really don’t want to go beyond 15 games. I really think 14 should be enough, even at the expense of a conference game.
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Randy Edsall is an example of someone who’s done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more
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Do they reimburse the student fees?
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I bet that is a one way street…you pay your fees but you never get em back. On a similar vein what happens to our ticket money at UGA? I want my refund when they say we’re doing some NBA/MLB games made for TV BS. Even if they return my monies do they reimburse me for lost interest income. Hell to the no.
This virus may well be the death knoll for in person/ in stadium football. Add in a few BLM ceremonies, paying players and losing traditional rivals and the boomers who attend and fund these games may well leave it to younger fans. I believe, admittedly don’t know for certain, but believe that these younger fans are already abandoning season tickets and this leads to empty stadiums. Just as we reach top tier status it all turns to shit. Is this the most Georgia Way ever? I’m cracking open the Crown Royal.
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only at uconn is no wins > 1 win
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