(04-03-2018 10:07 AM)stever20 Wrote:  

(04-03-2018 10:00 AM)Huskypride Wrote:  

(04-02-2018 02:56 PM)stever20 Wrote:  

(04-02-2018 02:34 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(04-02-2018 11:36 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  This is like saying the AAC would keep ECU basketball around if ECU decided to go independent in football. UConn has tremendous brand value in basketball. on the other hand---UConn was playing FCS football less than 20 years ago. Its football brand is far far less developed than their basketball brand. If I were UConn, I'd assume football independence would be necessary in a move to Big East.

ECU really has no brand value of any kind these days, football or basketball.

UConn is UConn, the brand they built in hoops has rubbed off to an extent on football. Plus, they are a good academic school, a flagship, and have easily the biggest athletic budget. Not comparable to ECU in any way.

UConn has absolutely no brand in football. NONE.

As far as your claim that the AAC wouldn't have the right to kick them out- of course they would. They would, and they absolutely would use that right to do just that. And UConn probably knows that. Anyone with a functional brain knows that. But you see, you want UConn in the Big East so bad that you think the AAC would screw themselves to allow UConn to do it. The AAC isn't going to help UConn in any fashion. Why should they?

we still build a program in a power conference and made 5 bowls (4 straight) including the fiesta bowl in like our first 10 years. that's more then a lot of new programs can say...we may not be Michigan but we are a bigger brand then UMass in football...that success still has to mean something.

Bigger brand than UMass in football. Wow, such high standards. Whoop de dam doo.

It was coming along, though. There was potential. It just ran out of gas...and still sits abandoned along the side of the road.

To some extent, UConn's progress was almost model for a FBS up-conversion. Had things stuck together in the Big East, and Villanova upgraded, their transition into a smaller-scale venue would have been model for aspiring programs, too. But, it never fully realized. Potential and pieces are what we got instead.

I don't know what track would get UConn to better FBS prominence. There's recognizable names in the AAC. However, independence offers a national schedule, which, as Notre Dame and the Service Academies have proven over the years...can get results (insert Fred McGriff meme here). Of course, you're right...you could still be UMass.