FanPost

Can We Get UConn In a Better Basketball Conference?

Hello, UConn Huskies fans!

I think we can all agree, being in the American Athletic Conference sucks. There isn't any other member of the original Big East Conference and only two members of the final Big East Conference (Cincinnati and South Florida, which I never considered a real Big East member) before the Catholic 7 split off. The nearest member to Storrs, CT and the only conference member in the Northeast is the Temple Owls. Connecticut, Temple, and Cincinnati look like the oddballs in the conference now because if you look at the AAC it is now mainly mostly Southern teams. Four of the AAC members (Houston, SMU, Tulsa, and newest member Wichita State) are west of the Mississippi River. Tulane is right along the Mississippi. These are insanely long trips for Connecticut's men's basketball team, especially in the middle of winter. UConn's men's basketball team (2018 schedule) doesn't play at SMU this year but plays at the other three and at Tulane. If the AAC were smart they would stack the trips back to back like the Pacific 12 does but they're not. Luckily the only mid week trip is Tulsa and that is January 3 which is during winter break. The women's basketball team also faces a similar schedule as do other Connecticut sports. Or in the case of fellow AAC member Temple, the sports don't exist at all as they dropped them rather than pay for them to travel to Tulsa.

At the beginning of the decade, UConn played Syracuse, Villanova, Louisville, Notre Dame, and Georgetown. Now they play Tulane and Tulsa. In 2014, the Huskies got a #7 seed which was too low (I had them a #5 seed) and they proved that by winning the national championship. But because the AAC is so weak one year when they are on the bubble they could wind up not making the championship. Or in 2016 they wound up a #9 seed and lost to Kansas in the 2nd round. If they are in a better conference they are a #7 seed and 2014 proved a higher seed could lead to a national championship rather than a 2nd round exit.

Currently it is not an issue but long term the move to the AAC could hurt the UConn women's basketball team. Right now Geno Auriemma's team is just too good. But think about Louisiana Tech's women's basketball team. They were nowhere near as good as the Huskies now but they won a couple of national championships and made a lot of Final Fours. But then Louisiana Tech moved to the WAC and they started to struggle after that. I don't think that was coincidental. When a team spends a long time on the road and doesn't play a lot of exciting opponents at home anymore, it's not as attractive a program as it was when Notre Dame, Louisville, and Villanova were still in the Big East and the Huskies played more games closer to home. What happens when Auriemma retires? Could UConn be Louisiana Tech twenty years from now?

By far the ideal conference for UConn is the ACC. Several of the Huskies old Big East rivals (Boston College Eagles, the Syracuse Orange, Pittsburgh Panthers, Louisville Cardinals, and Notre Dame Fighting Irish) are in the ACC. They are by far the premier basketball conference in the country with not only those schools but the reigning national champion North Carolina Tar Heels and 2015 national champion Duke Blue Devils. Geographically, all the teams in the conference are east of the Mississippi River and the farthest west teams would be Louisville and Notre Dame.

Can you imagine the men's basketball tickets in Storrs/Hartford if UConn joined the ACC? With a 16 team ACC they wouldn't be able to play everyone twice. Assuming a 20 game conference schedule they would play 5 teams twice. It would be impossible to do it for every team but for Connecticut, just say the top five old Big East rivals twice and alternate Duke and Carolina home and away every year so each year one of them comes to Connecticut. Are you excited yet? As for the women, the UConn-Notre Dame rivalry is renewed and they would be an obvious two a year annual play.

The ACC should want Connecticut since they give them an additional member in the Northeast and New England (Boston College really hasn't helped that much). There is no current member of the ACC closer to New York than UConn and it would help both their men's and women's basketball. It also gives them an even 16 members in men's and women's basketball which would help them in scheduling.

The biggest problem when it comes to the ACC? Notre Dame. They seem to be a headache when it comes to a lot of things. If the ACC adds UConn it would give them 16 in men's basketball but 15 in football which would be a problem if they keep their current divisional setup. But maybe the ACC should just get rid of divisions altogether. There was talk of getting rid of the Big Ten divisions because of the imbalance between the East and West and they linked back to this plan of just having permanent rivals and the top two teams play for the championship.

Their plan was written with Notre Dame listed as a full ACC member so we can put UConn in its place. They give each team four permanent members. Notre Dame's rivals were Boston College, Louisville, Miami, and Pittsburgh. If UConn took Notre Dame's place, certainly you'd want Syracuse as one of the four rivals. UConn (Notre Dame) replaces Miami with Syracuse, Syracuse replaces Virginia or Virginia Tech with Connecticut and then we'd have to juggle the others. Then the top two teams in the conference meet in the championship game. So it wouldn't matter that there is 15 members in football except that one member would either have to be off or would have to play a non conference game each week but that's the case right now in ACC men's/women's basketball with 15 members.

As long as Notre Dame wants to be an all but football member the ACC has to either have an odd number of members in football or men's/women's basketball. Is it that much worse to have an odd number in football? And if so, bring in Temple as well so you can bring in the Philadelphia market or Cincinnati so you can add/expand a presence in the Midwest. Or if the ACC had balls, try to steal the Kentucky Wildcats from the SEC. The one Power 5 conference without a Grant of Rights agreement is the SEC so they can leave "without penalty". The Wildcats are trapped in a basketball challenged conference like UConn although financially I'm guessing the SEC is in better shape than the ACC so it is unlikely UK will want to leave for the ACC just so they can play Duke and Carolina.

Another possibility if the ACC doesn't want 15 (or 16) members in football is for UConn to ask the ACC for an all but football membership. There were rumors of UConn wanting to join the Big East to the point that Connecticut Athletic Director Paul Doyle had to deny them. It's one thing to join the Big East but totally different if you can join the ACC in other sports where there's way more money involved. In the Big East, only Villanova men's basketball (maybe Georgetown) right now excite UConn fans. A lot of ACC men's teams would. You wouldn't want an all but football ACC membership? I'd take it in a heartbeat!

The problem there would be to find a home for the UConn football team. I don't know how any conferences would take them as a football only member and I don't know how practical it would be to be an independent (Notre Dame as a fellow ACC member should play UConn every year. Maybe the ACC should strike a deal so that would count as one of the 5 game. But the rest of the ACC would never go for it and UConn is trying to convince the ACC to invite them). Maybe UConn gives up and has to drop to FCS. But is that worth it just to help men's/women's basketball? But is UConn a football school or a basketball school? The men's team missed the NCAA Tournament two of the last three teams in the AAC. Coincidence? You enjoy playing SMU and Houston rather than Syracuse and Pittsburgh? This is what you sacrifice for your football team.

If the ACC is too stubborn, Plan B is the Big Ten. I doubt they are interested in UConn alone and they won't want either Cincinnati or Temple since they already have Ohio State and Penn State. If you believe the SEC is vulnerable, one idea suggested at the Penn State blog was UConn and Missouri. Missouri has wanted to be in the Big Ten before and the Big Ten is just as valuable if not more valuable than the SEC. Perhaps the Big Ten can get Missouri to jump to the SEC and UConn would be the ideal team on the Eastern side to make the jump while Missouri is the ideal team on the west side. UConn expands the B1G's presence in the East Coast and brings them into New England. A UConn-Kentucky pairing also works. UConn wouldn't have its old Big East rivals but they could team up with Penn State and Maryland.

Travel would still be challenging but you'd have a few more closer rivals (PSU, Md, Rutgers). You'd also have games in the New York and Washington areas (hopefully the Big Ten would let UConn play the Eastern teams home and away every year, it would help UConn and the western members as they wouldn't have to travel east as much. The furthest travel would be Nebraska. Also, you'd get to play better competition like Michigan State and Wisconsin. The last Big Ten team to win a national championship was Maryland in 2002 (and they were in the ACC, Michigan State in 2000 was the last to win while a member of the B1G). But since 2000, Indiana (2002), Illinois (2005), Ohio State (2007), Michigan (2013), and Wisconsin (2015) also made the national championship game. There's plenty of depth in the conference and UConn will enjoy the competition.

I guess the next best thing would be the Big 12. The only advantage there would be a lot of money to UConn's athletic department and the chance to play Kansas. The travel would suck but it couldn't suck much worse than it does now. I doubt the SEC would be really interested and I don't know who whether there would be less interest from the Pac-12 in UConn for from UConn in the Pac-12 (when it comes to men's basketball I think the Pathetic 12 would be a step down from the AAC).

Hopefully the ACC or Big Ten will rescue UConn from the trash heap of the AAC (me being from Philly I'd like Temple saved too). This is a realignment I made up if we can start from scratch. UConn is in the "Big Ten" which is really part Big Ten and part Big East (UConn, Syracuse, Villanova, Pitt, Temple, Penn State all together). It is a joke with some of the teams in the ACC while UConn is on the outside looking in.