We're literally humiliating Texas as we speak.
I think that's great. But this is not about winning games. UConn can certainly do that.
I think I look at things in the big picture and what I see is college sports changing. It's basically a pro league with no salary caps and players can become free agents at any time.
So when I look at the Big East I see a league that is really not equipped to handle the new era of NIL sports as small religious schools who simply do not have the $ to play with the rich programs in other conferences who have donors willing to pay up. And I Am not sure that is the best path for UConn, but I understand the reluctance.
I also am not sure the MAC or Indy is really a path for UConn FB, to be honest I think Big East with FCS football is probably better as FB programs waste a lot of resources. Trying to play FBS football with little TV $ is a losing game IMO. The issue with the MAC is exposure as playing during the week so much is just bad for the program. Indy has the same issue as where are the games aired and how much $ are they worth.
UConn FB with a base of say 4-5 B12 games plus the other P-5 games UConn can get might give a TV partner a reason to pay for games. That's certainly going to have some good home P-4 games each year. That may be worth something.
My point is the Big East does not seem like a good long term plan even though it was better than the AAC in some ways.
The other thing to think about is this is might be the last chance to join what is the P-4. I don't really see another league adding non FB members so this is a really unique opportunity if given. They could easily have their own playoff and tournaments leaving little value in the leftovers. In that scenario UConn is completely screwed IMO basically playing Memphis, Loyola Chicago, Creighton, Dayton, Grand Canyon, SDSU, etc in NIT style tournaments each year for second tier NC's.
And even if the Big East was included in the breakaway is that really a good position to be in a religious conference playing against teams who are making a lot of $ on FB and have a lot more $ for NIL. UConn has an amazing history and AD but it feels like they are just putting things on the credit card with massive subsidy of the AD and not really addressing the realities of being sustainable. And if the excuse for the subsidy is branding then they need to look at where they get the most.
IF you look at TV ratings FS1 is a turd. There are like 50- 150k people watching BE games. FS2 is under 50k. That's not good exposure.
To me the best option could be Big East and FCS. The issue here is at some point the Big East is going to be similar to what Gonzaga is dealing with as those teams just can't compete due to $ issues. Unless they have big $ Donors willing to pay up it's going to be hard to compete in 5-10 years. The Big 12 facing the same issue in FB, they are second tier now no longer playing for NC's. But they are still able to make it work for BB due to 30 million in TV $ and donors who pay up.
For that reason I tend to think the B12 is probably better for BB long term, and hanging on in FB until there is a breakaway of the P-4 to join the new twener league is the best bet unless there is a path for P-4 FB membership. As you mentioned the schedule is still pretty good.
I read that UConn gets up to 100k per game for TV rights, not sure if that has changed but that's simply not sustainable in FBS as even the low level G-5 conferences make more than that.