An insightful column from Jeff Jacobs, exploring many of the iszue we have discussed here. Mr. Jacobs has the UconnAD and President on speed dial. He is without peer when it comes to Uconn shapining opinion leaders. Just an incredible writer. This piece is almostwritten in a cathartic style.

Some snippets:



Sitting here in Connecticut, witnessing all that glitz and glamour, didn't we feel waaaaay closer to the Yankee Conference than a Power Five Conference?
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And for the first time — yes, the first time — since the state's flagship university decided to play the big boys game of Division I-A football in the late 1990s, I'm wondering if it is worth it.
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Yet as we all know, the rules changed. In 1997, we couldn't have foreseen the seismic conference shifts. So I'm in the gray area now. More than a few emails have come my way the past two years advocating that UConn either go independent or drop football so the school can get back to Big East basketball. My response has always been the same: Pshaw!

I saw the talk as either overly basketball-centric or destructive to a necessary blueprint to fuel the athletic program. Now I see it as healthy discourse, something to be debated over months and years, not weeks and days, but something no longer to be dismissed in toto.

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It strikes me that Boston College, so set against UConn joining the ACC, is getting what it wants. UConn is slowly being bled dry.


http://www.courant.com/hartnews-jeff-jac...staff.html

UConn is in a really bad situation. A 'state' school in an area without a lot of P5 type football players period but even less willing to play G5 football. And every year they remain a G5 there's a danger it bleeds over to their basketball side. Time is ticking and I'm sensing their fan base is feeling it.

If UConn truly feels it's athletic future is in peril then it should drop down to the FCS level.I know the fanbase feels that way and wants to rejoin the Big East.I think their future is brighter than this but I don't have anything invested in UConn.Memphis fans really enjoy being in a league with the Huskies but of course there's no history between the schools and we certainly understand the feeling of being in a conference you think you're stuck in.I'm hopeful that the AAC can one day be regarded as one of the nation's best conferences in both football and basketball but the P5 can greatly delay that in football.It wouldn't be shocking if they tried to completely separate themselves from the NCAA but we can only wait and see.UConn needs to do whatever is in it's best interest but I sure wouldn't allow the BC Fluties to dictate my future.

UConn dropping down in football and rejoining the Big East is an interesting idea, but I wonder if the Big East would take them back at this point. UConn's media market, history with the league, and high level of bball competitiveness all are in favor of that, but the new Big E has become a league of private schools with religious affiliations and very strong academics with a "values orientation", and UConn does not fit that profile. And of course, there doesn't seem to be any rush to expand right now since the league is doing well nationally vs. P5 schools -- #2 in all the major computer ranking systems, and winning some recruiting battles. I continue to believe that St. Louis is the only slam dunk candidate for inclusion -- a Catholic school with high academic standards in a large, untapped media market, with a reasonable history of competitiveness, and it fills in the geographical hole between Creighton and the rest of the league. Final thought: if the Big East does decide to expand, going to 12 teams and a 2 division format would seem to make the most sense, and one of the new members would surely have to be an east coast school with a strong fan base and a national basketball profile -- so UConn might well be the choice.