Yeah, Buddy.
Outside the Lines is a fluff show.
It's the sports equivalent of 60 Minutes and has been a staple of ESPN Sunday Morning for 23 years. Do you know how many peoples' Sundays begin with OTL, Sports Reporters and the 1.5 hour Live SportsCenter? You can't count that high...That's called exposure. When the goal is to gain AAU status, increase the endowment and gain a Big Ten invite, being mentioned on OTL in a research capacity is huge. How do you know there are no plans? How do know Warde Manuel isn't playing lip service?
Conference realignment is a fluid situation. Louisville was tabbed by the ACC not because of Tom Zurich vs. Warde Manuel, per se. Manuel and Herbst had already put their best foot forward. Louisville was tabbed because of a number of factors already detailed on this board (1. BCs continual smear campaign. 2. FSUs travel concerns, 3. FSUs potential defection. Another prevailing rumor was that the Big XII was pursuing Louisville. If the ACC offered to UConn like they had already hinted, they would lose Louisville, who went on to win the Orange Bowl and reach the College World Series. There was something else as well...oh yeah...They made 2 Final 4s and won the Men's Basketball National Championship!!! UConn was coming off probation...
I wrote the following in another thread regarding UConn and the ACC:
I appreciate your level headed reply. However, I believe the following: ESPN has not assisted UConn in any way is getting out of the mid majors, and actually may have thwarted any hopes of relevance in the future. The best foot forward of our leaders was clearly not a good foot. You seem to say that Louisville's athletic success secured them the ACC spot. Yet..neither Pitt nor Syracuse have had anything to brag about over many years, and they are in. The Syracuse basketball championship came with Carmelo. Otherwise they have been dismal failures. So I don't see how athletic success has anything to do with getting into a power conference. The other example is Rutgers and Maryland who have also been pretty bad. The previous rationale of the ACC during the BC-Miami poach of academics we now know to be untrue given Louisville's less than stellar academic standing. So, I am dumbfounded as to how UConn has been left behind. My comment reflected frustration with speculators who know nothing. If the B1G is interested in UConn, why didn't they take them instead of Maryland, who has a bankrupt athletic department, was to face a major payout to the ACC instead, when UConn would have gotten to them with no expense at all! That is why I believe that if anyone wanted UConn they would have taken them by now.