(10-24-2019 09:53 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(10-24-2019 09:49 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(10-24-2019 08:38 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  Tidbits from the article:

“That was an extremely confidential process and there were very few people involved,” athletic director David Benedict said. “That's just the way it had to be.” Basically, Benedict chose not to let affected parties know because A) there was a risk the Big East deal would fall apart, as a prior one had a few years ago; and B) he couldn’t let word leak.

So, UConn had prior talks with the Big East years ago (while in the AAC). This would align with reports from several college basketball commentators (including those on ESPN) that echoed and reported that belief.

"The AAC’s new TV contract, one of the reasons it was so intent on leaving the conference, would have pushed many UConn games onto ESPN-Plus."

Once again, the deciding factor that UConn chose to bolt: the AAC TV deal.

"UConn’s guarantee games in the future will come mostly against top teams from the SEC and Big Ten. It will be balanced with home-and-home series with mid-level Power 5 teams and regionalized with expected annual games against Boston College, UMass, Syracuse and Army. BYU is expected to be a regular opponent."

This type of annual schedule will be as good, if not better in some years, than what UConn had in the Big East. This will immensely help with a TV contract and recruiting.

The previous talks also would tend to end any debate that the new TV deal was the straw that broke the camels back. Clearly, UConn had already decided it wanted back in the Big East years before the new TV deal was even negotiated.

On the other hand, I don't think it's a coincidence that UConn announced it was leaving the AAC shortly after the new TV deal was announced.

We don't know what caused UConn/Big East talks to break down a few years ago, but it seems likely that since then, UConn was waiting to see if the new AAC deal would result in exposure and money that was too good to turn down.

So in that sense, I think it is fair to say the TV deal played a significant role. I seriously doubt that if Aresco actually had produced money that was in the "P5 ballpark" that UConn would have left.

Oh--its clearly coincidental. The previous negotiations would indicate that the UConn was always looking to return to the BE. Its entirely coincidence that the Big East happened to be ready to take a team in Spring of 2019 and not in 2017.