Back Where They Belong

UConn is coming home!  The news that first broke over the weekend has finally been made official.  UConn is returning to the Big East!

When I first heard they were making the move, I was somewhat surprised but not totally shocked.  The truth is UConn never belonged in the American, a conference that was created for football.  They were the only ones left out of the great conference realignment, which was 100 percent football-motivated.  And when the Big East split, the football schools went one way while the basketball schools went another.  Seeing the money that was there because of football, even in a non-Power 5 league, UConn made the difficult decision to separate from its longtime rivals to create the American, which is, essentially, a football conference.

But the American was never a fit.  UConn is, was and always will be a basketball school.  And, for the most part, the American is a weak basketball league.  And the UConn basketball programs have suffered as a result.  

The men won the National Championship as members of the American in 2014, but have only been to one NCAA Tournament since.  The women will always be a national power, but they got a 2-seed in the NCAA Tournament last year despite being No. 2 in the polls, mainly because the committee had very little regard for the competition they faced in their own conference.  In fact, the UConn women have never lost a conference game in the six-year existence of the American.

And they're hurting financially, too.  One of the numbers that I saw was $40 million.  That's the amount of the budget deficit faced by the UConn Athletic Department.  Because instead of hopping on a bus to go to St. John's or Villanova, they're flying everywhere.  The only American school that's remotely close to UConn is Temple.  Every other conference road game involves a trip to Tulsa or Houston or Memphis or another far-off city.

They also took a hit at the ticket office.  UConn's football team isn't any good and the fans don't care about any of their opponents.  Rutgers being in the Big Ten doesn't make any sense either, but they at least play home games against Ohio State and Michigan every once in a while.  Central Florida and Tulane don't have that same appeal, though.  As a result, Rentschler Field is half empty (at best) for pretty much every game.

What's worse, though, is that their basketball attendance has also been effected.  It's not just because the men's team has had a few down years (which I think isn't unrelated to the "strength" of the conference, or lack thereof).  People aren't going to see the women either.  Why?  Because East Carolina and SMU simply don't get them going the way Villanova and Georgetown do.

Those rivalries are what helped build the Big East and make it what it is.  UConn was a founding member of the league, and it never felt right to see them playing teams like Tulane and South Florida instead of St. John's and Seton Hall.  Sure, the Syracuse rivalry is no more.  But they missed playing Villanova and Providence twice a year.  So did the fans.

It's been six years, but it's still extremely weird to see a Big East Tournament without UConn, while the Huskies were busy playing their conference tournament somewhere other than Madison Square Garden.  There are some things that just go together.  UConn basketball and the Big East are two of those things.

This is also a declaration that UConn no longer has aspirations of joining a Power 5 football conference.  Frankly, that never really seemed like a possibility to begin with (Boston College doesn't want them in the ACC).  The American was probably the best conference they were going to get.  But their brand is basketball, and the American was hurting their brand.

They haven't said what'll happen to the football team.  That's one of the many details that needs to be figured out.  My best guess is that they'll either become a football-only member of the MAC or an independent (which would give them the flexibility to play more local teams).  There are no indications that they'll drop down to FCS.  And, who knows?, maybe staying in the American just for football is still possible (although that seems unlikely).

For the American, meanwhile, this was one of the worst possible things that could happen to them.  The conference has always been in a kind of awkward position to begin with.  It's not a Power 5 league, but it's got some of the biggest name schools that aren't in one.  And the next one of those conferences wants to expand, you know exactly where they'll look first.

There were those few marquee programs that brought the American credibility, though.  And UConn was the biggest of those big dogs.  Their departure relegates the American almost completely to mid-major status.  Sure, they've still got the ESPN deal (which was another factor in UConn's decision), but everyone in the American knows that the conference won't be the same.

Ultimately, though, this is a great day.  It's a great day for UConn.  It's a great day for the Big East.  It's a great day for college basketball fans everywhere.  The Huskies are back where they belong.  And the Big East feels like itself again.