(02-14-2017 09:14 PM)billybobby777 Wrote:  Here's a crazy hypothetical for the realignment nuts:
If Uconn went Independent in ALL sports next season, and the women basketball team went undefeated, got an at large bid to the NCAA Tournament and won it.
1. How much money would UConn earn for winning the tournament?
2. Has an Independent team in basketball ever gone to and won the NCAA tournament?
3. Does the NCAA allow this/has it ever happened? (Going Independent in all sports)
That would be an amazing thing for sports fans to watch. Even if they tried it for 1 season..after everything they've accomplished, this would be an amazing way to say they are the most dominant college program in any sport by far.
Cheers!

A bunch of teams were independent in basketball in the 70s, though few in the past 20 years. I can't imagine why the NCAA would care if you went 100 percent independent, so long as you were meeting whatever requirements were established. Of course, scheduling would be a bear in sports like basketball and baseball (it's one thing to gin up a 12-game football schedule, it's another to get 28 basketball or 50-some baseball games when you're the only independent around). But if whoever (I always imagined Texas going this route, though that presumed a wildly popular Longhorn Network) could make it work, I would think they could.

As to UConn women's basketball: By brand alone, they would find it easier to get games than any other program that were to try that, but even then, how hard is it to get a full February when everyone is in the teeth of the conference schedule? Obviously OOC games happen, but to get eight or so? That'd be a tall order even for them.

But if they could, they'd probably still be the dominant force in women's basketball and would still win their titles, conference or no.