HARTFORD, Conn. — The head follows the money. The heart wants what it wants.
In the near future, UConn may have to let such an internal conflict play out, and choose between the conference ties and rivalries that tug our heart strings in Connecticut, or chase the revenue that each annual budget indicates is so necessary.
If Big 12 commissioner, Brett Yormark, as numerous reports this week have suggested, is considering UConn as a new addition, would UConn stay married for love in the Big East, or leave for a more lucrative partnership?
“We love being a part of the Big East,” UConn AD David Benedict said Saturday. “The outcomes of our sport programs and the success we’ve had since we joined what is now the new Big East has all been great. Is it viable? Absolutely. We’re having a ton of success, so there is no plan other than to do exactly what we are doing.”
But Power Five money is Power Five money. A move to the Big 12 would add roughly $30 million per year to UConn’s revenue, but costs would also rise and there would be cost to leave the Big East ($30 million) and join the Big 12. It would have to be negotiated how long before a new member becomes a full member.
Benedict would neither confirm nor deny reports that Yormark has been on campus for a tour of facilities and conversations. UConn may be a second-tier option in his Big 12 expansion designs, and may be a tough sell to some league members. However, it’s safe to say there has been too much smoke for there not to be a flame somewhere. Benedict is headed to Florida for Big East meetings this week, where such reports will certainly come up.
UConn ran a $53 million athletic deficit in the last fiscal year. With Kevin Ollie’s contract off the books and increased revenue from the men’s basketball championship, the gap could finally close some, but for this and other considerations, any move that could close the gap further, or keep it from widening, must be explored, for long-term upside must outweigh the emotions of the moment for both schools and conferences.
“It’s extremely complicated from the standpoint there are a lot of things going on in college athletics,” Benedict said. “There’s the opportunity, not necessarily the requirement, to invest more than we currently are.”
Coaching staffs can now be expanded in sports other than football, and colleges can give all student athletes up to $6,000 per year. UConn cannot do all of this, at least not across the board. Increased levels of support for health care, including mental health, and a longer period of time for athletes to return and get their degrees will also increase costs in the future.
“These are things most Power Five programs are doing, which is going to create a further divide among haves and have nots,” Benedict said. “But money is not the only thing that determines outcomes.”
Now, the affairs of the heart: The seven-year period between the breakup of the original Big East and UConn’s entry into the reconfigured version in 2020 felt like purgatory around here, and the scars, in the form of reluctance to take a risk, remain. The return to the Big East brand helped rejuvenate the men’s basketball program, which Dan Hurley had been improving.
Though it left football as an independent, it is generally more favorable to state fans to see old rivals like Providence, Villanova, St John’s, Seton Hall and Georgetown come back to Gampel and XL, and to have that wonderful week in New York for the conference tournament back on the calendar and let the football issues work themselves out later.
The Big 12, to some, may feel like The American with a more familiar name. With Texas and Oklahoma the latest to depart, the Big 12 is looking for new members and Yormark is hunting big game like Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, Colorado. He is said to envision a coast-to-coast conference like the Big Ten is becoming and, as a longtime Nets executive, he understands the importance of that media market and UConn’s potential to bring a piece of that action.
Maybe the Big 12 spurned a desperate UConn a few years ago. That was then, this is now.
Let’s try to correct the false narrative that a move to the Big 12 would be repeating a past mistake. UConn did not leave the Big East and jeopardize its basketball because it was deluded about football. This is revisionist history. The original Big East wanted UConn to upgrade football in what proved to be a futile attempt to keep its football schools in the conference, and actually urged UConn to speed up the timetable.
When the conference broke up several years later, the seven private basketball-centric schools left to form their own conference, bought the Big East name and did not invite UConn to join them. So what became known as the American Athletic Conference was the only option for UConn at the time.
If the Big 12 came calling now, it would be UConn’s choice to join or pass, and the continued conference realignment leaves UConn holding some cards. With Hurley’s championship and the improved football credibility that Jim Mora has brought, it must look a lot better to suitors than it did when the conference dancing began.
No longer desperate to escape the AAC, UConn would still be in a good place if it stays put.
As for the Big 12, yes, it would be a conference that no longer includes Texas and Oklahoma and would include former AAC members Houston, Central Florida and Cincinnati. But it has been one of the top men’s basketball conferences the last few years, with Kansas, the 2022 national champ, Baylor, the 2021 champ, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Iowa State, TCU, et al., and Houston and Cincinnati will add to that.
So if such a move were to happen, UConn would sacrifice its emotional ties to the Big East and Madison Square Garden all over again, and that would hurt, but it would not suffer competitively or financially in basketball. It would not be the dismal days of 2012-13 all over again.
Benedict compares the college sports landscape to the board game “Risk,” where old alliances can fall by the wayside.
“One could say it makes sense to have very geographic-centric conferences,” Benedict said, “but in what’s driving the current environment and the value for media, that strategy doesn’t necessarily apply anymore. So creating a footprint that drives eyeballs and creates media value is in some ways more important than what used to be 40 years ago and geographic rivals.”
So what to do?
If it comes down to going to the Big 12 or staying put, the massive increase in revenue would seem to make the move an easy choice. But is there a third option coming around the blind curve? What if the ACC sees seismic changes — as other reports have suggested is possible — and a new arrangement could be forged that creates a best-of-both-worlds scenario where UConn could remain in the new Big East in most sports and play some of its original Big East football rivals?
“There are definitely things on the horizon that none of us can see,” Benedict said. “There’s lots of conversation, people are talking about all kinds of things. Leagues that appear very stable are having challenges. I wouldn’t say anything is off the table.”
Conference realignment has become an extra-inning ballgame without ghost runners. The next blow could end it, or it could go on all night, or be suspended and resumed in the future. It’s not over, and the new question confronting UConn in this at-bat is not “Why doesn’t anyone want us?” but rather, “What do we want?” And, whatever comes next, that is a good place to be.
