Winners / Losers if UConn joins the Big East

[Django]

As long as the Big East stays a top 3 power conference and continues its upward trends and national championships in basketball I think it will help UCONN football. One way to think about it is there is only one other independent football team with basketball/Olympic sports in a power conference, Norte Dame. I for one would watch Husky football just because they are now the only BE FBS football team.

[kayako]

I'll say this to uconn fans, the C7 picked 3 best programs to join this conference 6 years ago. The atmosphere at the Clink, Cintas, and Hinkle are incredible, unlike, say Liacouras center. I've personally become a fan of Creighton's ridiculously entertaining brand of bball. Everyone's thinking about renewing rivalries, but I think uconn fans will come to appreciate the 3 newest additions in time. Xavier fans are real chippy.

[Husky_U]

I've admired Xavier for some time now. Nice to see that someone from the Queen City can win in March.

[Hall2012]

As long as the Big East stays a top 3 power conference and continues its upward trends and national championships in basketball I think it will help UCONN football. One way to think about it is there is only one other independent football team with basketball/Olympic sports in a power conference, Norte Dame. I for one would watch Husky football just because they are now the only BE FBS football team.

So I don't think Big East basketball will directly do much for UConn football, but I do think the move gives the football program a much needed reset. Staying in the AAC would have just meant burning $40mil/year spinning their wheels in the mud.

Now they can just take a few years to forget about trying to keep up with the P5, cut some spending, and get their finances stabilized. They won't compete for national titles, but I do think the program can carve out a place where it's sustainable and has a nice fan base. Once that's happened they'll have to decide if they're happy with that or if they want to go it again. At least they'll have solid footing to start with.

[Hall2012]

Actually, it's not exactly the same thing but I think a good example could be the reset that several C7 schools - most notably Providence and Seton Hall - got with the Big East split. Both schools were pretty much buried in the old Big East - occasionally springing upsets or fighting towards the top 10 (in the league) to get mentioned with the bubble, but never really a threat to win anything or sustain success. Now the current Big East is still a great league (though that first year was pretty rough) but the split immediately halved the mountain they needed to climb and made the light of success visible. It was a chance to regain their footing without having to face a top 20 team every other night - and look at them now. Providence has been to 5 of the last 6 NCAA Tournaments while Seton Hall is at 4 straight and counting. I don't know about PC, but I believe Seton Hall had a streak of about 10 straight years in the old league without winning a game against UConn - I think Husky fans will find that this isn't the same Pirates team that they kicked around for fun for so long.

[Jet915]

This from the Providence Journal:

More importantly, TV partner Fox Sports certainly pushed for this. Word is the addition of UConn can trigger a clause in the Big East's deal with Fox and re-open talks on a contract that has six years to run. This will mean a bump from the current $4 million or so per school TV payout; perhaps an additional $2 million per school.

[marquette]

This from the Providence Journal:

More importantly, TV partner Fox Sports certainly pushed for this. Word is the addition of UConn can trigger a clause in the Big East's deal with Fox and re-open talks on a contract that has six years to run. This will mean a bump from the current $4 million or so per school TV payout; perhaps an additional $2 million per school.

If that winds up being true it would be huge for everyone involved.

[Warriortommy]

Losers are Dayton and St. Louis

[Husky_U]

Winner: UCONN recruiting

"Because of where we want to recruit and how we want to build it, the thing that we had to talk around to a kid from Brooklyn was, you know, Tulsa, Tulane, the Texas schools,'' Hurley said. "That didn't necessarily fit what they envisioned in college -- Madison Square Garden, the Big East Tournament, Villanova.''

"Kids are getting back to me a lot quicker,'' he said. "And some guys who weren't being as responsive, who I stopped communicating with, did come out of the woodwork and ask me how I was doing.''

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/27099127/uconn-sees-recruiting-bump-big-east-move

[Vill]

UCONN is the biggest winner, no doubt. Wouldn't have minded seeing them continue to circle the drain into the college hoops abyss.