Why so much UCONN hate?

[gosports1]

to expand a little on what billyjack said. UConn was not a must have when the BE formed or were they one of the first targets.In fact they were the last one invited. Turned out to be a great addition of course.

A brief history of how the BE formed, for those that may not know.
Gavitt got the ball running. He first talked to Georgetown and St Johns. Both were interested although STJ's took a little more convincing. These 3 included Syracuse and this core 4 began the planning. They wanted major east coast markets and NOT just private or catholic schools. Wanted Philadelphia, Boston and a 2nd nyc area team. Rutgers and Temple became the targets. Both said no, intersting enough because they wanted to stick with Penn St. Attention turned to Seton Hall and Villanova both were onboard. Nova wanted to wait a year since they were already in a conference. Total is now 6
There were 4 schools that were in mix for last 2 spots. All in New England. BC,Holy Cross URI and UConn. The 4 of them promised to stick together and to go or not go, as a group. All 4 werent an option since that would make the BE a new england dominant league. URI was ruled out since PC already was in and brought Rhode Island. Gavitt wanted Holy Cross but HC decided it wasnt interested. An offer was made to BC. They accepted after discussing move with HC. There were now 7 signed on. Gavitt and Cuse AD Crouthamel, made the case for UConn. UConn was given a call and told the BE needed a decision quickly. Realizing URI was not going to happen and HC was already out UConn accepted.

the rest is history!

[Hall2012]

I'm sure that this has been said somewhere throughout this 7 page long thread, but to reiterate- I'm sure that most fans on this board would jump at the chance to add UConn to league if we had any confidence that they would remain committed to the Big East for the long haul. Reality is, however, that even in joining the Big East they would still be actively campaigning for an F5 invite and would leave at the first opportunity. Set their buyout at $1 billion, and they're in.

[ecasadoSBU]

Billy, You can't expect the younger fans to have the respect for PC for the reasons you stated. It's been 30+ years since the Big East's creation! I'm 25 and I respect PC, but not for the reasons you stated above. I respect PC because its a Big East basketball program and its a school with a basketball first culture right next door. If you are a college basketball fan then you must respect the basketball schools and I think most of the Connecticut fan base does indeed respect PC. I respect St. John's the same way.

The only program I have no respect for is Syracuse. I hate that program to death and it has more to do with their Coach and the way they betrayed the B.E

[xusandy]

While I feel sorry for UConn and Cincy as the two biggest losers in re-alignment mania over the past couple of years, I definitely do NOT want to see the Huskies invited back into the Big East, AND I think those of you who continue to post repeatedly about it are delusional, because it will just NEVER happen. Well, maybe FOX will decide to drop $50 million or so on each league member to make it happen, or UConn suddenly goes private, becomes affiliated with the Catholic church, upgrades its academics, drops football, and Storrs becomes a major urban center, OR ... In other words, it just ain't possible, folks, so stop smoking that stuff and move on.

The new BEAST has one of the strongest conference identities in the country, and it's a truly unique one based on the several factors I alluded to in the above paragraph. That common identity is critical for the schools involved, and UConn absolutely does NOT fit it in any way. While those of us who post here are dedicated bball fans, and while it would be nice to have another bball program of UConn's caliber in the league, having strong shared values and shared circumstances is critical to the 10 schools that have come together to form the new BEAST. I simply can't imagine that a single league member's President or Board would EVER vote to extend an invitation to UConn, unless the money involved for doing so becomes ridiculously overwhelming.

Given the way things have been going for us over the past couple of seasons, I would be surprised to see ANY school extended an invitation anytime soon. But if FOX starts exerting pressure to expand the league into additional media markets in another year or two (and they might, just because they need programming and ESPN has tight contracts with all the other major conferences), the only logical invitees that I see out there are St. Louis, Detroit, and Boston University. All three schools would provide a great fit with our shared identity (private, Catholic, no meaningful football, urban, strong academics (well, 2 of 3 on that score)), and all three are in truly big media markets. St. Louis would bring an additional geographical advantage in being bit closer to lonely Creighton out there in the corn by itself. However, all three of those schools have truly mediocre bball programs (though "mediocre" may be too gentle a word here), so I would expect that each of them would have to make a truly major financial commitment to our favorite sport in order to be seriously considered.

Bottom Line: Expansion in the near future is very unlikely, but even if it becomes an issue, any serious discussions among the real decision makers will NEVER include UConn as a possibility. So let's just drop this topic, or start a thread under the heading "Delusional Thinking" and put all your UConn comments there.

[stever20]

The thing is, I don't think folks look at the Big East as being good because it's private, because it's got good academics, got no football, or urban centers....

Folks look at the Big East as being good because they have damn good basketball programs. That's what matters to folks, not all the other stuff. If UConn came to the Big East- having done away with football in this scenario- they are welcomed in so fast it'd make your head spin. This is a basketball conference. Can guarantee you in that scenario ALL 7 of the C7 would vote UConn in- and I have a feeling the by laws are in such a position that they would carry the day- even if X, Creighton, and Butler didn't want them.

[EMT]

Billy, You can't expect the younger fans to have the respect for PC for the reasons you stated. It's been 30+ years since the Big East's creation! I'm 25 and I respect PC, but not for the reasons you stated above. I respect PC because its a Big East basketball program and its a school with a basketball first culture right next door. If you are a college basketball fan then you must respect the basketball schools and I think most of the Connecticut fan base does indeed respect PC. I respect St. John's the same way.

The only program I have no respect for is Syracuse. I hate that program to death and it has more to do with their Coach and the way they betrayed the B.E

Did you steal Chandler Jones' synthetic stash?

[DudeAnon]

People should hate on UCONN while they can, I don't think they will be down for long.

http://espn.go.com/colleges/basketball/ ... class/2016

[Noonzy]

Check out the talent they have on the team right now. Pretty dang good, but they aren't getting it done.

Great post XUSandy.

[Dave]

I would take UConn in a heartbeat. I think the Big East would too.

UConn is a premier basketball brand and would add to the top end of the conference. It has a strong fan base and would enhance attendance and atmosphere at the MSG conference tourney. It adds TV viewership. It would boost our schedules. It is a no brainer to add UConn.

If there is fault to UConn it was that they were too loyal to the old Big East. When BC and Miami jumped they were very outspoken. Even litigious. When Pitt and WVU, Rutgers, and Cuse were hypocritically conspiring, UConn was a Big East defender. When it all fell apart they did seek options, but I don't fault them for that 9th inning desperation move. They were loyal when in hindsight they should have secretly conspired and beat Pitt to the ACC, because in hindsight the character of Pitt is exposed and the loyalty was abused.

UConn is a top tier rival. I hope Nova and UConn work out a long term OOC agreement. Better yet we would welcome you back to the conference. And we wouldn't "require" you to drop football a level - that is ridiculous.

The Big East is a better fit for UConn. We are basketball first. We are geographically strategic for all sports. We have remaining rivalries to rekindle, especially in the Nova - Georgetown - St Johns circle.

[adoraz]

UConn absolutely would need to drop football to get back into the Big East.

There's expansion rumors every other day and it's 100% guaranteed they would leave if a Football 5 conference came knocking. Didn't the OU president come out campaigning for expansion like two days ago?

The last thing this conference needs is a team leaving. Truth is UConn is a better brand than any team in the Big East, and if they joined and then left a year or two later it would be a major, major blow. The whole thing would be a net negative.

Now, if they joined and left after say 10-15 years that'd be a bit different, but I don't think it'd take that long. We're still forming an identity and it's going to be done the right way.

Taking UConn knowing they could (and would) leave at any point would be really short sighted. In fact, I'd rather take a bottom feeder A10 team.