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The UConn Daily Tournament Challenge
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Want to show off your basketball knowledge? Interested in competing against other UConn fans? Join The UConn Daily’s NCAA tournament pool on ESPN.com!
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AAC Windfall? Not Quite in New TV Deal
The Story: The AAC will have a new television deal when its current contract expires as it resigned with ESPN for $1 billion over 12 years and an average of $88.7 million per year, according to Sports Business Journal.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR UCONN? First off, the payment for its TV rights almost quadruples from $2.16 million to a shade under $7 million per school. That will help put a dent in UConn’s $40 million in subsidies provided by the school and is a much more market-value contract than the last AAC deal, which was severely underpriced. That’s the money end of the deal; the TV end of the deal is also worth examining.
ESPN+ THE NEW PARTNER? The new TV package will result in many UConn games on ESPN+, is the direct-to-consumer service that ESPN has invested in heavily over the last 18 months by gaining rights to UFC and boxing events and international soccer. ESPN+ isn’t available on your regular cable bundle but is instead a separate streaming service that costs $4.99 a month. (Think Netflix for sports.) If you are a UConn fan, it would be best to get used to seeing UConn games on this premium service. They will still be on ESPN cable networks, but most will be on ESPN+. What does that mean for you? Get a smart TV or Roku, an Amazon Fire Stick or Apple TV.
NO GRANT OF RIGHTS: The AAC floated the idea of putting a grant of rights on the TV deal last year and the trial balloon fell flat. That would have prevented any AAC team from leaving the conference and going to the ACC (we know what you are thinking). If the league was willing to sign that agreement, we are sure the payout would be higher. It wasn’t for many reasons, which is why the conference is still well behind others.
SO WHAT ABOUT SNY? This is the issue for us at this point in time. The SNY deal has been great for women’s basketball and we are unsure how that will shake out in the long run. Since the AAC deal started, ESPN has had rights to all UConn women’s games. Those it didn’t pick up were granted to SNY. SNY, of course, has had gangbusters ratings for women’s basketball in Connecticut. Now with the new ESPN+ service, which was not in existence during the last AAC TV deal, we are skeptical that ESPN+ would not take the inventory and broadcast it on its own platform.
SNY is great for the program and is UConn-centric, so we are concerned ESPN+ will just air the games and not have any other additional UConn content. That should be addressed as football and men’s basketball saw their SNY content plunge when the school went into the AAC. It would be a shame if the women’s program suffered the same fate. Right now, that’s our one big question how this shakes out.
STREAMING IS THE NEXT FRONTIER: We have some tertiary knowledge of the thinking behind ESPN+ and its direct-to-consumer streaming service and are bullish on the platform. This is a priority for our friends in Bristol and we are well aware the cable bundle is dying and that a la carte TV is here. Skinny bundles and direct-to-consumer products are the way the industry is moving and we like the fact that we can now get our UConn athletics anywhere in the United States (or the world with a VPN) on our phone, tablet, etc. The downside is that non-millennials who are used to cable TV are going to struggle with the new service. It is an additional cost to watch UConn sports and is now $60 a year to get the Huskies year-round.
If you are reading this newsletter, ESPN has just made you a customer. This isn’t going to sit well with many. The deal is going to alter the way you watch TV and provide additional cost and at the end of the day is a hassle. If you are not a streaming household, you are not going to like learning how to navigate the platform. On the positive side, the games should be easier to find than anything on CBS Sports Network or a TV network such as FS1 or FS2, which struggles to beat SpongeBob Squarepants in the ratings. At least the games are on ESPN, and if UConn is ranked in the top 25, games will probably be aired on its legacy channels. The deal is great for UConn fans outside of Connecticut.
BOTTOM LINE: Is this a good deal or bad deal? That’s TBD, but this was likely the best deal the league could have negotiated. It gets exposure, gives the conference more money and provides fans across the country access to the games. Is the $7 million enough for UConn to survive? Probably not, and that’s going to be a point of frustration. The Huskies are earning much less than their peers in P5 conferences and is nowhere near what the ACC and others will receive. The disparity between the Group of 5 conferences and the P5 conferences will continue.
We are also frustrated that the lower half of the AAC gets equal shares of the money. The Huskies are in a conference that distributes $7 million. The upper-tier AAC schools with legit Power 5 aspirations such as UConn, Houston, Cincinnati, Memphis and the Florida schools are not getting enough for their rights. Tulane, ECU, and Tulsa? Those teams don’t move the needle nationally and are probably getting more than they deserve at this time relative to their athletic prowess and history. That’s the tension that made any deal problematic. The AAC has too many mouths to feed, and at the end of the day, UConn’s athletic budget is still in the red.
Wholley Leaves Staff, Horton In
The Story: The football team hired a new defensive coach with former UConn player and coach Jon Wholley leaving the program to pursue other opportunities. The Huskies added Jarron Horton to the staff in a defensive role. From the looks of it, Horton will be a secondary coach.
WHOLLEY A UCONN GUY: We are sad to see Wholley, a Connecticut native who coached at UConn in two different stints for nearly a decade, leave the program. There is no word on what he will be doing or the circumstances of his departure after spring practice. The Huskies have now lost five coaches off last year’s staff in Wholley, Terry Richardson and John Dunn and fired Billy Crocker and Curome Cox. The only defensive coach who will return from last season is defensive line coach Dennis Dottin-Carter. That’s a coaching overhaul if we ever saw one.
WHO IS HORTON? Horton was with the Atlanta Legends of the AAF as a secondary coach and recently served as a grad assistant from Southeastern Lousiana in 2018. He played at Portland State and is a 2016 grad of Central Washington. He was a defensive analyst at Vanderbilt and gained experience in the NFL with the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers. He worked as a coaching assistant with defensive backs in 2016 and was a summer assistant to the Steelers coaching staff in 2017.
Temple Loses to Belmont in First Four
The Story: Coach Fran Dunphy will ride off into the sunset and begin his retirement a bit earlier than he may have planned as Temple lost 81-70 to Belmont in a First Four game last night. In the other game, Fairleigh Dickinson defeated Prairie View A&M 82-76 for its first NCAA tournament victory in school history.
SAYING GOODBYE: Dunphy is retiring after 13 seasons at Temple, where he replaced John Chaney. He previously coached 17 seasons at Penn and will be replaced by Aaron McKie, the former NBA player who played at Temple and has been an assistant to Dunphy for five seasons. “The game of basketball has given me way more than I have given to it,” Dunphy said after the game. As it turns out, Dunphy will be the second Philadelphia coach on his way out with Phil Martelli fired by St. Joseph’s yesterday night.
AAC TRACKER: Temple’s loss means the AAC is down to three teams remaining in the tournament, with Houston, Cincinnati and UCF all reaching the main draw. The Owls’ first tournament appearance since 2016 figured to be a more memorable one, but instead, Shizz Alston Jr. and teammates will be heading home.
UP NEXT: Belmont captures the No. 11 seed in the East Region and will face No. 6 seed Maryland tomorrow in Jacksonville, Florida. Fairleigh Dickinson, meanwhile, will be the No. 16 seed in the West Region and face No. 1 seed Gonzaga on Friday in Salt Lake City.
Tonight’s First Four games will pit North Dakota State against North Carolina Central and, later, perhaps the most intriguing matchup of the round in Arizona State against St. John’s.
Morning Read
OLLIE GOES NUCLEAR: Kevin Ollie and his lawsuit are back in the news. Ollie’s lawyers want to depose just about everyone who ever talked to Ollie at UConn in his wrongful termination lawsuit. UConn is balking at the list, which includes former players. (Hearst Connecticut Media)
MEASURING STICK: Geno Auriemma believes it will be unfair to evaluate Napheesa Collier and Katie Lou Samuelson by the number of national championships they have won — but they still have time to change that. (SNY.tv)
DAVIS RE-SIGNS: Former UConn wide receiver Geremy Davis has signed a one-year contract to stay with the Los Angeles Chargers. (Chargers.com)
NOTHING CERTAIN: The NCAA women’s basketball tournament is wide open for the first time in years, making it a must-see event and something that’s likely to be full of twists and turns. (ESPN)
BACK IN ACTION: The baseball team will play its first midweek game of the season today when it faces Virginia for the first time since 1986. Colby Dunlop will get the start for UConn. (UConnHuskies.com)
LATE DEFEAT: The women’s lacrosse team fell 15-14 at Coastal Carolina yesterday after giving up two goals in the final three minutes. (UConnHuskies.com)
