(06-23-2021 10:20 PM)bill dazzle Wrote: (06-23-2021 09:52 PM)random asian guy Wrote: (06-23-2021 06:43 PM)Bogg Wrote: (06-23-2021 05:50 PM)random asian guy Wrote: Even when the old Big East splitted, they stayed with the football schools. So I guess UConn would consider BC, Cuse, or Rutgers as their peers rather than Villanova or Georgetown.
The rivals are Nova, Georgetown, and Syracuse. BC and Rutgers don't register because they were never any good for any length of time. Played a couple good football games against Rutgers at least, but BC was already gone by then.
UConn went with the AAC in the split because it was supposed to be a short layover before the next round of expansion. It became clear it was actually a 20+ year home when the Big 12 got threatened out of expanding by the networks, showing the money wasn't there anymore. That's when UConn cut their losses and went back to playing their rivals.
By peers, I didn’t mean rivals. Cuse and G’town are rivals to each other but their peer groups are different. IMO UConn’s current athletic profile is close to that of Syracuse, BC and Rutgers than that of Georgetown or Nova.
Agree fully. UConn's peers are the large universities in the Northeast that play football and big-time baseball and that are members of the ACC and Big Ten: Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse and Boston College (and, to a lesser extent, Maryland) — and not, as you note, Georgetown and Nova.
In many respects (and as I have previously posted), UConn is an odd fit in the Big East. But the university was even odder fit in the AAC.
The best home (all factors considered and if you are a UConn fan) would be the ACC. The second best home would be the Big Ten. The third best home is essentially a tie between either the Big 12 or the Big East/AAC football only. The fifth best arrangement is what UConn has: BE and indy football.
UConn being all-sports in the AAC was less ideal than the five situations I list.
Damn, I thought I could avoid this thread, but it's now 9 pages long and keeps popping up the top of my news feed, so what the hell ...
1) Agree that as an institution, UConn's peers are schools like Syracuse, Maryland and Rutgers, not Villanova and Georgetown and Seton Hall.
2) But as a basketball program, UConn fits like a glove in the Big East.
3) Still, as a Big East fan, I recognize that institutionally, and for football, UConn would dump us in a red hot minute if a call from the B1G or ACC came through. That is the one hesitation I had when I welcomed them back to the Big East fold.
4) I think the B1G, not ACC, is more of their natural institutional home, but it's close. Either tower over anything else.
Anything extant thing. Their true natural home was the Big East of 10+ years ago, but thanks to B1G and ACC raids, that doesn't exist anymore.
5) UConn is nowhere near getting a B1G or ACC invite, so they might be the most institutionally-stuck, out of place major athletic school in the country.
6) Oh well. I don't think there's any chance UConn tries to rejoin the AAC, or join the MAC. The MAC is a bad fit for them and the MAC.