Retrospective - 2013 v. 2019

[GoldenWarrior11]

UConn's return to the Big East obviously created a wave of emotions from a variety of fans. Reading some of the posts on the other site helped me remember some of the hottest of hot takes when the C7 separated and reformed the Big East several years ago. Below are some of the best gems I came across.

C7 Separates from Football Schools - December, 2012
"Bunch of heathens. They should be pursuing an intelligent design. This new league is destined to go straight to h***."

"This is good. Very good. Years from now, when we have a stable 16 team allsports conference, we'll look back and know this was the best damn week in the history of the BE evolution. Yet the internet was on fire with doom and gloom, when we had not even lost a single FB playing member... Just nuts."

"No one will care or watch a Little Sisters of the Poor Conference. They have small alumni and enrollments, small viewership, and haven't done squat in over twenty years. Good riddance."

"ECU Football will ultimately bring more value than any of this tiny private basketball schools ever will. Football drives the bus."

"Small secular schools will never compete with large state institutions. Not worried about it."

C7 Reorganizes the Big East - March, 2013
"The nBE isn't going to last anyway, so this is a stupid conversation to have. There will likely be 1-2 new conferences after this is all said and done. Those conferences will ultimately reflect the attitudes and programs of the mid-majors that are involved in them. There are too many splinters in the current nBE for it to function. If the C7 were smart, they'd decide AGAINST paying for the name - and instead just simply wait until the nBe remnants whittle away so they can get it for nothing in an acquisition of sorts."

"While we're being honest, it wouldn't be a restructured Big East with the C7. It would be restructured A10. It has been a long time since any of the original BE in the c7 (outside of Georgetown and Nova) have been relevant."

"The C7 have been the one constant throughout the history of a conference that has turned down a billion dollar tv deal, lost every good football school that has ever been a member and now after 30 or so years of existence cant even be sure whether they get to keep the conference name they coined. thats just pitiful. I think the c7 should be forced to keep the big east name, it is synonymous with mismanagement, poor leadership, duplicity, and a lack of vision. If history is any indicator in 20 years you will probably be fighting a bunch of sunbelt schools for the whatever name the c7 ends up calling themselves and the C7 will be playing in the NAIA. Completely pathetic."

"Even without Louisville, the AAC will be better than the Big East. With Louisville, it's not even close."

UConn Re-Joins Big East, June 2019
"No One Outside of Connecticut Cares About the Big East."

"The AAC is Better than the Big East at Basketball. The zombie Big East is basically an updated version of the old Atlantic 10 and I simply don’t understand why UConn fans are excited about this."

"Hahaha they do know this is not the same Big East. They still have to travel to the Midwest a lot. Complaining about late games at Tulsa well you got to play Creighton. I know they'll have more NE games now but still there is no Pitt, Syracuse, West Virginia, etc just a bunch of small Catholic schools spread out from the NE to the Mid-West. UConn will be the only public school and will really only have two big conference games a year in Georgetown and Villanova as there is no Syracuse or Louisville on the schedule."

"When institutions are in crisis they tend to look back on glory days and say in a delusional way, if we could only go back to how things used to be. So yes Uconn has MSG back, but here is the reality, the days of Bug East being a must see in the Garden are over. This move feels like it is being driven by those who lived through the heyday of the Big East and now believe it's going to be just like it was before. Uconn doesn't need the NBE it needs an intervention."

"Go down by choice in the most stupidest way imaginable. People of CT screwed up really badly here. Destroy a whole academic institution for...basketball."

[gtmoBlue]

This one describes both UConn, all you "olde timers", and the Big East leadership:

"When institutions are in crisis they tend to look back on glory days and say in a delusional way, if we could only go back to how things used to be. So yes Uconn has MSG back, but here is the reality, the days of Bug East being a must see in the Garden are over. This move feels like it is being driven by those who lived through the heyday of the Big East and now believe it's going to be just like it was before. Uconn doesn't need the NBE it needs an intervention."

Things won't be like they "used to be", adding UConn back into the mix will not recreate past glories. Our new glory resides in the new guys and in forward-looking strategies, not clinging to the past and the bygone years.
Uconn will not become relevant anytime soon.

[scoscox]

People seemed to think at the time that the BE was adding three mid majors to it's basketball league, or atleast that's the spin they gave. People severely underestimated the programs at creighton, butler, and xavier, which is not atypical, but still foolish.

[billyjack]

Funny thread. Man, some people are idiots. I always liken them to the Flat Earth Society. The odds were in our favor because we set out with a clear and sensible plan of action.

[billyjack]

This one describes both UConn, all you "olde timers", and the Big East leadership:

"When institutions are in crisis they tend to look back on glory days and say in a delusional way, if we could only go back to how things used to be. So yes Uconn has MSG back, but here is the reality, the days of Bug East being a must see in the Garden are over. This move feels like it is being driven by those who lived through the heyday of the Big East and now believe it's going to be just like it was before. Uconn doesn't need the NBE it needs an intervention."

Things won't be like they "used to be", adding UConn back into the mix will not recreate past glories. Our new glory resides in the new guys and in forward-looking strategies, not clinging to the past and the bygone years.
Uconn will not become relevant anytime soon.

I think the BE can both have respect for its past, while also building for its future. It would be unnecessary to toss our history out the window, cuz it ties in generations of fans and has compelling storylines. Plus in the last 6 seasons we have had a ton of great highlights.

A couple of similar examples work really well:

Take the Red Sox. So, my kids wife and i are big Sox fans, watch a lot of games, know the players, etc. Part of the fun, in addition to the game action itself, is experiencing Boston, Fenway, the Green Monster, the statues of Teddy Ballgame with Dom DiMaggio, Pesky, Doerr... plus Yaz, etc. It's cool being at the actual location where Ruth starred, and all the visiting players, Cobb, Joe Jackson, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle, and so on.

Take the NFL. When they divided the league into 8 divisions, they built it around tradition conference foes, and kept the Leagues divided along historic lines. Oakland is in the original AF(L) West along with KC, the Chargers and Denver. Pats are with the Jets, Miami and Buffalo. Anyway, there are a bunch of examples. Why unnecessarily create a different layout than one that works perfectly.?

[GoldenWarrior11]

This one describes both UConn, all you "olde timers", and the Big East leadership:

"When institutions are in crisis they tend to look back on glory days and say in a delusional way, if we could only go back to how things used to be. So yes Uconn has MSG back, but here is the reality, the days of Bug East being a must see in the Garden are over. This move feels like it is being driven by those who lived through the heyday of the Big East and now believe it's going to be just like it was before. Uconn doesn't need the NBE it needs an intervention."

Things won't be like they "used to be", adding UConn back into the mix will not recreate past glories. Our new glory resides in the new guys and in forward-looking strategies, not clinging to the past and the bygone years.
Uconn will not become relevant anytime soon.

The fact of the matter is that UConn always had an ace in the hole with regards to returning to the Big East. Had UConn been giving absolute guarantees about where their athletic program would be headed while as a member in the American, there is no doubt in my mind that they stay with the C7 in 2013 and never choose to leave the Big East. They always an open door to back home - which speaks to the incredibly unique circumstance that UConn found itself in. What institution has had on-going discussions with a conference for years, able to realistically move whenever they choose? The answer is very, very small.

The Big East has a celebrated and storied past, along with a very bright and valuable future. UConn's season ticket purchases sky-rocketed when the announcement hit. If this wasn't such a forward-thinking plan, why would the UConn fan base be spending more money on men's basketball than what it was in the American? Why would the current Big East membership vote unanimously to approve them as a full-member? Maybe its because our content will go up; maybe its because we will get even more exposure in our home arena - Madison Square Garden; maybe its because we will get to offer an additional session at the Big East Tournament in March; maybe its because we will be able to increase our average number of bids and seeds in the NCAA Tournament. Perhaps it is quite possible that it is because of ALL of these reasons... which will drive the value of both the Big East (and its members) and UConn higher than what it was previously.

[billyjack]

Also gtmo,
I think I'd feel differently too if we were reconnecting with say West Virginia or Louisville or Rutgers... teams that arrived 20+ years late, that didn't help build the conference. UConn is different cuz they were there at the start back in 1980 (the same way we all were starting out in 2014 together with an uncertain future). They were really great conference mates for 34 years. Some fans are annoying, but that happens with every fanbase. From my experience, they're nothing at all like the fans of Wichita State (who acted like douches at the Dunk a couple of years ago), if that's what you're worried about.

[Hall2012]

Talk about ridiculous comments lol. I can't believe people are still trying to claim the AAC is a better basketball league. Would anyone in their league other than Memphis have a prayer at finishing top 5 in the Big East this year? And with how much Memphis will be relying on freshmen, I'm not even sure they could do it. Last year was likely that league's peak.

[Husky_U]

I didn't realize there were sooooooooooooo many closet UCONN haters in the AAC. They were all rainbows and butterflies until we bolted. Typical phony BS for a league full of phony "bless your heart" Southerners.

And the delusion... It's like escaping a cult. What an eye opener this last week has been.

Couldn't be happier to be back.

[Django]

I didn't realize there were sooooooooooooo many closet UCONN haters in the AAC. They were all rainbows and butterflies until we bolted. Typical phony BS for a league full of phony "bless your heart" Southerners.

And the delusion... It's like escaping a cult. What an eye opener this last week has been.

Couldn't be happier to be back.

No, they loved you until you left them, “HELL hath no fury like a woman scorned” applies here. Think about it, if Tulane left there would be dancing in the AAC streets.