UConn is one of the kings of the college sports landscapes. With back-to-back championships in men’s basketball, few would argue against them being the best in the sport. Their women’s basketball team also continued to dominate the sport. Sure they don’t run the sport as they did back in the mid-2010s, however, they made their 8th final four appearances since 2015. Their success isn’t contained to the court. The baseball team is coming off a Cinderella run to the Super Regionals.
Because of this success, and the drastic changes going on in conference realignment, everyone questions if the Huskies will ever make the jump to a bigger conference. The only thing holding them back is the poor play of the football program. One of the conferences expressing interest in UConn is the Big 12. Recently the Big 12 has been having discussions about the possibility of having UConn join the conference. Despite it being a power conference, it would be a mistake for UConn to leave the Big East.
Historic Ties to the Conference
You can’t tell the story of the Big East without bringing up UConn. Yes the current iteration of the conference, isn’t the same one UConn was in for years. However, that doesn’t take away the conference’s historical importance for UConn. The Huskies were one of the founding members of the original Big East. Of the five remaining original members, UConn is the biggest brand out of them. Meaning they’re the face of the conference. When people think of the Big East, UConn is one of the first schools that come to mind. That’s a unique status. Something that wouldn’t carry over to the Big 12. They’re probably an afterthought outside of basketball if they move.
UConn also has a lot of their rivals in the Big East. One of the main problems fans had with the Huskies in the AAC was they didn’t have any organic rivals. The rivalries felt forced and the fanbase didn’t care about these new rivals compared to their more traditional rivals. If UConn leaves for the Big 12, that problem will re-appear. The only schools UConn has a connection to are West Virginia, Cincinnati, and UCF. With that only connection, they were in the same conference at one point. There is no rivalry or hatred. Not like the rivals they have in the Big East like Georgetown and Vilanova. These games give meaning to UConn’s schedule, and a reason for fans to care outside of tournament games.
UConn Football Isn’t Worth Prioritizing
The reason why UConn is considering joining the Big 12 is to try and capitalize on football television money. It’s been the main catalyst for this round of conference realignment. And when the deals being signed right expire in the next 10-15 years, we’ll see another round of realignment. Take a look at the Big 12 current TV contract. Over the next six to seven years ESPN and Fox will pay two billion to broadcast conference games. This means each member school will get between 220-380 million. That’s a nice payday for the school.
However, to get the most money out of this contract, UConn will have to start prioritizing football. But it wouldn’t make much sense for football to be the main sport at UConn. They’ve had very minimal success in football. The best moment in Huskies football history was being blown out in the 2011 Fiesta Bowl. UConn football is known for being a punchline, rather than a threat. The football program just will never be able to reach the level of excellence its other sports have seen. No matter how many resources are put into it, at best it’ll be around an eight-win team getting less important bowl game appearances. The only thing about prioritizing football is that it takes away valuable resources from sports they dominate like basketball and baseball. If these programs begin to stagnate, they’ll lose their standing in the college sports landscape.
Thanks for reading! Credit for my feature image goes to Mitchell Layton. You can find more college football content at Belly Up Sports and follow me on Twitter/X.
