Last month, the University of Connecticut’s men and women’s basketball squads both won national championships, a feat that they duplicated from 2004. UConn is the largest state university in Connecticut and is renowned for its academics. If there was a university that was closest to AAU membership, it would be UConn. The GPA of an athlete at UConn is 3.0. UConn has sent quite a few male and female basketball players to the professional level including Rebecca Lobo, Swin Cash, Maya Moore, Diana Taurasi, Rip Hamilton, Emeka Okafor and a slew of many others. UConn has won a total of eighteen national titles in the following sports: women’s field hockey, men’s soccer, and men and women’s basketball. It is a school that strives for excellence academically and athletically. FBS football is a relatively new thing with UConn. They did not start playing at this level until the early 2000s. Before that, they played in the Colonial Athletic Association. Since then, they have stayed in the Big East or now the American Athletic Conference.
Along with its academics, its programs are currently on the outside looking in. UConn is currently stuck in a conference that they do not want to be in. Starting in 2002, the ACC made a major move and lured Miami and Virginia Tech away from the Big East. At that time, the Big East kicked Temple out, due to lack of performance. When this happened, the BE added Connecticut to its ranks sooner than expected. In 2005, Boston College followed the Hokies and Hurricanes and left for the ACC. Although depleted, the Big East still held its own and consistently performed well winning BCS bowls. UConn even was able to qualify for a BCS bowl in 2010. They actually were able to compete with Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl until eventually losing to them 48-20. In 2012, Syracuse and Pittsburgh accepted invitations to the ACC, further gutting the already beleaguered Big East. To add insult to injury, Notre Dame discontinued its association with the BE and yoked themselves with you guessed it: the ACC.
To exacerbate problems, West Virginia saw its conference crumbling and left for a much maligned Big 12 Conference. When the Big Ten got into expansion mania, they looked at Maryland and the Terrapins accepted an invitation to join them. When Maryland departed, the ACC once again drew from the well, which by now was rebranded as the American Athletic Conference, and stole away Louisville, who was all but too eager to leave the less potent AAC. With all this happening, Connecticut has been the most unfortunate victim of the expansion craze. Despite their success, Connecticut was snubbed in favor of Louisville. The coup de gras came when the non-football members got fed up with the less than stellar additions like Tulane and East Carolina and left to form a new Big East conference consisting of Georgetown, DePaul, Marquette, Providence, St. John’s, Villanova, and Seton Hall along with new additions Creighton, Butler, and Xavier.
Currently, Connecticut sits in a conference they do not want to be in and they have been very vocal about their displeasure. UConn has not been able to shatter that glass ceiling when it comes to their conference affiliation. As it stands, their football program is subpar and lackluster. This is the main reason that they are still in their predicament. Nonetheless, should expansion be just about football only? Look at the Big Ten. They not only were able to add Nebraska, Maryland, and Rutgers in the past few years, but also had the foresight of adding Johns Hopkins in order to form a lacrosse league within the Big Ten. The best chance that UConn has in leaving the AAC is the Big 12. The Big 12 sits at ten members and Bob Bowlsby, commissioner of the Big 12 once said that “we are to have an electronic footprint” and “we are to be like an exclusive club that will try to attract the best members.”
Ideally, I do not see any school that is any more qualified for membership than UConn. UConn has got the chops to prove themselves and the Big 12 would be getting a strong basketball school. Could you imagine these match-ups:
UConn vs. Kansas
UConn vs. Oklahoma State
This is just the men. For the women, imagine :
UConn vs. Baylor
Nonetheless, UConn still has a lot of work to do in football and football success has been in short supply as of late. Also, their stadium, Rentschler Field, seats only 40,000 people. They need to seriously upgrade their football facilities if they want to compete for recruits. If they were to join the Big 12, they would receive a much-needed infusion of cash at the tune of $20 million plus the ability to shop around their Tier 3 programming. Also, their nearest opponent West Virginia, is about 500 miles away. All this being said, I think UConn has more than proved themselves as a school of excellence by winning both the men and women’s NCAA championship in basketball again this year. Their only crime is being loyal to their football program. If they did not have football, they would already be in the Big East or the ACC. In the end, the Big 12 needs to get rid of its ridiculous stance of ten members and expand their footprint into New England. Eventually, UConn will be able to compete with the other schools and just imagine how much stronger the Big 12 would be as a basketball conference.
Filed under: News, Discussion and Rumors
