UConn's future?

I had a nice conversation at work with the JI UConn women's hoops writer Carl Adamec about the fate of the Big East, UConn football and the future. It's a topic these days that I think can't be ignored.

I wonder if Randy Edsall floating fan support and Rentschler expansion was in regards to the expansion plans of the Big 10. He knows the rumors flying perhaps he was thinking out loud. Edsall knows that if another shakeup of the Big East happens the school is going to need to land somewhere, and the MAC or A-10 isn't where they want to be. UConn needs to find itself in a BCS conference, that's certain.


There is one thing Adamec and I both agreed about while talking,  and it's a quote that sticks with me that I think I read almost 15 years ago. Lew Perkins was still AD here and I know I am paraphrasing, but when asked why UConn should invest money in football Perkins talked about how in essence it really is to protect the basketball programs.

Of course, us New Englanders laughed at the idea, but it's 2010 and how right has Perkins been? UConn could easily be Holy Cross or UMass if it didn't go to big time football. What if the Big East dissolves? Where would UConn hoops go?

It's a pertinent question because I know all of you here are keeping up tabs with the Big 10 and expansion. The Big 10 wants a championship game and to break into the Northeast market --  something the ACC has tried to do unsuccessfully with the addition of Boston College. CBS' Dennis Dodd has written a ton on this topic and here is a scenario from today. There is talk that the expansion plans are accelerating and Dodd writes about UConn and the Big 10. (Note: this is most likely on background, despite what you guys think, most sports writers don't make scenarios up, rather it's grounded in some off the record conversations and pulled from various sources including what other people have written).

Here's what Dodd says about UConn and the Big 10.

2. Connecticut: A UConn/Syracuse/Rutgers triumvirate maybe makes New York care enough about the Big Ten for the region's big cable carriers to start putting the Big Ten Network on the basic tier. Theoretically, you get New Jersey, New England and, maybe, New York. Taking UConn would be a big of a departure for the Big Ten because it is not an AAU school.

Obviously, this is all get to Notre Dame, and Notre Dame has said there are scenarios where they will be forced to join a conference. The above one I think would resonate. The Big 10 wants to do something big, and short of adding only Notre Dame (which won't happen) they may just blow up college athletics.

The ACC raid was supposed to get the Northeast market and a conference championship game, but that was successfully defended against by the Big East and politics kicked Syracuse out and put Va. Tech in. BC went in later, but the lack of another Northeast team has really hurt that expansion and I don't think its worked for BC. They gave up all their regional rivalries for what?

The Big 10 won't make the same mistake. Let's play with Dodd's scenario. If the Big 10 wants to grab that New York market and also force Notre Dame's hands they can't just do it by taking Rutgers. The market in NYC is shared by all three of those teams as well as Penn St. and Notre Dame. I thought once I read that the Big 10 wants to go to 14 and even 16 teams that this was going to be not a raid of the Big East, rather an annexation of the conference. 

NYC is so huge and untapped, but adding all three Big East teams to the conference, plus Pittsburgh and ultimately Notre Dame, that would lock down the Northeast for the Big 10. That famous Eastern Football conference that Joe Paterno wanted in the early 1980s would come to fruition. A Big 10 East could look something like this.

1. Penn St
2. Notre Dame
3. Pittsburgh
4. Rutgers
5. Syracuse
6. UConn
7. Indiana
8. Purdue 

Of course the Midwest would be anchored by Michigan and Ohio State. Can a 16 team conference work? In football it would be easy. 7 divisional games and you play 2 or 3 crossover games based on previous years record.  The Big East showed that 16 works in the Big East for other sports, and that would be one hell of a hoops conference. This would also make a difficult run to the BCS. I would imagine they would have to change some BCS rules, notably allowing a third team from a conference to get a BCS bid.

Now, the ACC has said no more expansion, but if the Big 10 blows up the Big East then what's the ACC going to do? UConn would be a perfect fit with Syracuse to go to the ACC if the Big 10 only goes for 14 teams. That would be ironic.

I don't know what the Big 10 is going to do and everyone up here is in the dark. I do know Bill Stewart talked a couple of weeks ago about WVu getting into the SEC and when I asked Edsall about it he said those decisions aren't in his hands. It's going to be a chaotic time in college football and make no mistake, something big is coming.

Will UConn be a part of it? Or, will they have to struggle to find a hoops and football home that isn't a BCS league such as the MAC, CUSA or the A-10? I don't know the answers to those questions, and the uncertainty certainly isn't comforting. I can see all those scenarios plausibly.


I do know one thing is certain, if Perkins never pushed UConn to go I-A, and that stadium in East Hartford was never built, in five years we would be gearing up for that big season opener in hoops against Rhode Island. Essentially, the Huskies would be back in the Yankee Conference playing UMass, New Hampshire and Vermont.

Edit: Just doing basic research. Why is the Big 10 accelerating the time table? Big East has 27 month escape loyalty clause as well as $5 million buyout for teams. If a Big East team leaves May 1st, they can join Big 10 August 1, 2013 2012.

This is happening soon. Just a matter of who and how. Worst part is, no one in the Big East knows.  It's like waiting for your execution date.