Connecticut has four national titles in men’s basketball since 1999 and 10 by the Huskies’ storied women’s hoops program since 1995. Any Power 5 conference should want to add that kind of championship success to its league, right? The Big 12, for example, has four national titles in men’s and women’s basketball from all of its institutions combined in the same time frame.
Storrs, Conn., where the UConn campus is located, is less than 25 miles from Hartford, which has the 47th largest metropolitan population base in the U.S. at more than 1.2 million. Boston is only about an hour away. New York City is only 140 miles. With the success and significant television market of the Connecticut athletic program, it should be among the elite of college athletics.
The Hartford Courant published a column this week by Jeff Jacobs titled: “No Excuses! If UConn Can’t Get Into Power 5 Conference I Want to Know Why!”
“A state university that has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in athletics and has won four national titles in the two major sports since 1999 — Florida with two in football and two in basketball is the only other — should not be looking in from the outside. No way,” Jacobs writes.
In stark contrast of UConn, Rutgers has far less success on a national scale, yet the Scarlet Knights left the Big East for the Big Ten in 2014. As a member of the small-scale American Athletic Conference, Connecticut does not reap the financial benefits of success-starved Power 5 institutions such as Rutgers, Wake Forest and Iowa State. According to Forbes, Rutgers took in $27.9 million in 2014 as part of the estimated $279 million from television contracts for the Big Ten.
The American Athletic Conference, on the other hand, signed a seven-year $126 million TV deal, which adds $18 million a year for the conference, not each school. That’s only $1.6 million per each school a year. It’s no wonder Connecticut trustees approved a 31 percent tuition hike for in-state students with a reported $10 million a year from student fees go to athletics.
Why can’t Connecticut catch a break and become part of the Big 12, Big Ten or ACC (the most realistic geographical possibilities)?
With only 10 teams, the Big 12 should expand and it makes sense to add UConn with West Virginia the only eastern-based school presently in the conference. The criticism of adding the Huskies instead of BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, Memphis or even San Diego State is the football factor, the most important element of expansion. Those schools have been competitive in football traditionally and as of late. UConn’s football program is improving, qualifying for a bowl this season after a dormant four years, but Power 5 conferences are not blown away by the Huskies. They finished 6-7 this season after losing to Marshall in the St. Petersburg Bowl.
The football factor did not come into play when the Big Ten added Rutgers, far from a power on the gridiron. The move to add Rutgers was made mostly because of the Scarlet Knights’ presence in the New York City area. The Rutgers’ alumni base there is much larger than UConn’s. Stat guru Nate King tabulated in 2014 that Rutgers has more than 600,000 fans in the New York City market while UConn has only 150,000. Chances are the Big Ten with already 14 teams and Rutgers commanding an East coast presence, UConn won’t be added anytime soon.
The ACC also already has 14 teams and Notre Dame as a charter member in football. The conference has passed on UConn for Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Louisville over the last four years. With nearby Boston College already in the conference, UConn can’t add much to the marketability of its location. Former Boston College athletic director Gene DeFilippo told USA Today about UConn: “We don’t want them in. It was a matter of turf. We wanted to be the New England team.”
Former Boston College AD Gene DeFilippo (via S. Savoia/AP)
Judging from all of these scenarios, UConn has the best chance to join the Big 12, which should expand further east with West Virginia already in the conference. The biggest factor will be football. UConn’s basketball success is pronounced, but obviously that does not matter when it comes to expansion. If the Huskies can string together some bowl appearances and demonstrate a better following of the program, they might have a better opportunity of joining a Power 5 conference by 2020.
UConn can complain about Rutgers joining the Big Ten despite having a moribund football program, but the Scarlet Knights’ stadium seats 10,000 more than the Huskies’ Rentschler Field that is 20 miles off-campus. Rutgers averaged 47,723 fans a game in 2015 while UConn averaged 28,224. At least the Huskies made a three-percent increase from 2014 at the 40,642-seat facility. Also, Rutgers is in a far more football fertile recruiting area in the New Jersey/New York area than UConn.
“My hope in the next 10 years is that we have reached the point where we are consistently competing for (football) championships, which will drive more demand and higher ticket prices,” UConn athletic director Warde Manuel has stated.
It’s unfortunate that UConn followed a Fiesta Bowl appearance against Oklahoma in 2010 by going 10-18 in parts of three seasons under Paul Pasqualoni. Bob Diaco, a former Notre Dame assistant, went 2-10 in his first season in 2014 but coached the Huskies to a bowl this season with a 6-6 record before losing to Marshall.
Manuel and UConn’s administrators must hold their breath when they see fellow non-Power 5 programs like Houston and Memphis make significant improvements on the field in football. The race is on to impress a conference like the Big 12, which is starved to improve its football presence nationally after a snub from the College Football Playoff in 2014 and Oklahoma’s big loss to Clemson this year.
But if Diaco can’t get the Huskies close to where Tom Herman is taking Houston, UConn’s Power 5 chances could likely slip away again.
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