FWIW
Earlier today I met with a very high placed person at UConn. Of course I asked about the CR status and was told that everyone in Herbst administration is being VERY tight lipped. Not surprisingly, I confirmed that we are indeed being vetted, and that NDAs have been signed.
I was told that while the outcome is still unknown (obviously), we are doing (and have been doing) "all the right tings". Which is definitely NOT what we were doing the last time around.
I also expressed my personal concern that while we may score well on the objective metrics, there is no way to analyze/evaluate the political angle and that I was worried about the talk of Texas governor involvement, etc. I was told that I'd be surprised to know who has been advocating on behalf of UConn and it's not just the current Governor. I wasn't told names, but the infernece was "former high ranking politicians".
The net-net of the discussion was that while we may not be certain how this will shake out, we can be certain that unlike last time, we are clearly doing this the right way and putting a full court press on -- despite what you may or may not hear in public.