Hello, friends, and welcome back to the A Dime Back mailbag! Last week, we asked you to send in questions regarding conference realignment. It seems to be the one thing atop every UConn fan’s mind, so we did our best to give you clarity where we could and irresponsibly speculate everywhere else.
Remember: If your question wasn’t answered, or you’re just hearing about this and want to get in on the fun, you can submit your questions here or on Twitter.
Colin B: What is the single most important thing that uconn can do to get into a better conference?
Win football games. Plain and simple. With the football program in its current state, it’s hard to imagine any P5 conference eager to add UConn.
Of course even that isn’t a guarantee. It’s not like conferences are regularly shopping for new members — even the Big 12, which has every reason to. At some point, realignment talk will heat up again and it would behoove UConn to have its shit in order this time. Aside from winning football games, that includes:
- Putting more butts in the seats. Last night was not a good look. This is on the UConn fans (who already don’t have a good reputation) and the administration, which needs to figure out ways to draw crowds despite the team’s record.
- Be ready to expand the Rent and figure out how to pay for it. Right now, it’d be one of the smallest stadiums in the P5 leagues. The stadium was built with expansion in mind and Warde Manuel has already said he’d like to add about 10k more seats. Having a tangible plan in place to present to any conference suitor would help.
- Gain admission to the AAU, which UConn has already applied for. This would up UConn’s already strong academic reputation, and every member of the Big Ten is either a member right now or was when they joined the league.
- Stay out of trouble off the court/field. A basketball program on probation last time around certainly didn’t help.
- Stay visible in New York. They’re doing a good job of this now, with men’s and women’s basketball playing games at MSG this season, #IceBus playing at Barclays and football playing at Yankee Stadium last year. That’s big.
- Keep improving in non-revenue sports. This might be an afterthought to many, but Peter will explain why this could make a difference down below.
But again, none of this matters if UConn doesn’t have a football program it can sell. That’s the most important thing.
Brian: Not IF, but WHEN we are invited to the Big 10 (B1G, baby!) how will they structure the league, assuming they add another east coast team along with UConn? Knowing UConn’s luck, do they decide to make a B1G division D consisting of Rutgers, Illinois, Northwestern, and UConn that becomes the shit drain of the Power 5?
This all depends on how conference championship game deregulation goes. If leagues are granted autonomy to choose how to set up their own CCG, we won’t be stuck with just two-division systems. So if the B1G chose to invite Connecticut and, say, Virginia, they could stick them in an eastern division (a B1G East, if you will) with Maryland and Rutgers. A clean way to handle scheduling would be for teams to play their own division every year in football, twice yearly in basketball, while playing the rest of the league biannually in football (so you’d play half the league one year, the other half the next), and once each for basketball. That keeps travel under control, it keeps the power programs (Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State) in the same league, and it gives us a great rivalry with Maryland that I’d really enjoy.
Jon: Do you think it’s possible to become an associate member of the ACC in field hockey? They only have 7 teams currently, including recent final four teams Duke, UNC, Syracuse, Virginia, and Wake Forest. Those 5 teams all have multiple final four appearances in the last 10 years. With 5 final fours and 2 championships in that time, UConn seems to fit in well with those teams. If we could ditch the big East and join the ACC for field hockey, it might put a foot in the door for us next time realignment heats up. It’s worth a shot, right?
The primary issue here is that the ACC does not yet have a network, like the PAC, the B1G and the SEC have. When a league has a network, it needs content, and that increases the value of its non-revenue sports, like field hockey, baseball, soccer, lacrosse and ice hockey. As a result, UConn might find itself a better fit for field hockey in the B1G, which currently sits at 9 teams, including Michigan, Michigan State, Maryland and Penn State, all strong programs that make it to the tournament regularly. It’s also a reason that UConn might consider supporting additional non-revenue sports that the B1G has shown itself to value, like men’s lacrosse. While it’s not a big piece of the athletic pie, having a D1 lacrosse team (in a state that produces a lot of great lacrosse players) would make UConn more attractive to a better conference.
– Peter
