UConn's football potential looking 10 to 20 years out blows Boston College and Syracuse off the map. They just started playing Division One football about 10 years ago and went to a BCS Bowl as recently as January 2012.
They have easy access to their stadium from all over New England. They have roughly 12 million more people living within a 150 mile radius of Storrs than Boston College has living within 150 miles of their campus. Penn State's campus has nothing but woods and mountains for 150 miles until you hit Pittsburgh or Philadelphia, yet we have a 110,000 seat stadium.
UConn is the state flagship University of Connecticut with basically NO competition for University loyalties within their own state (except maybe to a very small degree, Yale).
Boston College is a private University competing for attention within their own CITY from Harvard, Boston University, Tufts, Northeastern, and, within their own state, UMass. In fact, geographically, more of Massachusetts is closer to UConn's campus than BC's campus. UConn's campus is only 19 miles further from Boston than East Lansing is from Ann Arbor. NO ONE in Boston cares about BC football unless they are playing Notre Dame. In fact, truth be known, UConn and BC have about the same following in the Boston Metro.
New York state doesn't have a state "Flagship University". Their state University system is split up into so many loyalities that rooting interests are all over the map.
I live in Western New York, and absolutely NOBODY cares one whit about Syracuse. The Big Ten Network suprisingly has made Big Ten teams the most followed football teams in Western New York. Penn State is the most followed team followed by Notre Dame, Ohio State, West Virginia, Pitt, Michigan, etc. Then people have their own schools they root for like the University of Buffalo.
In basketball season, people in western New York follow St. Bonaventure, Canisius, Niagara, Notre Dame and the Big Ten schools. Syracuse is hardly talked about unless they are playing a Big Ten school like Michigan or Ohio State.
Neither Syracuse or Boston College have any room for expansion of their campuses or facilities. UConn has unlimited room for growth. And they have the full backing of their state government to improve and increase their research assets and facilities. Unlike the other two schools, UConn is dead serious about gaining AAU status, and, as I said, has the complete backing of their state government to achieve that goal.
In short, UConn reminds me a LOT of Penn State in the late 1960s. In the late 60s, we didn't have NEARLY the research assets and athletic facilities we have now, but since our entrance into the Big Ten and CIC, our growth has been beyond phenomenal. That can happen at UConn too. And they have one HUGE advantage over Penn State.
Whereas our state Government has been literally trying to destroy Penn State as a major research University since our current Governor took office soley to reduce our political lobbying ability in Harrisburg, UConn has the full support and financial backing from their state government and Governor.
Since that study Delany did, UConn has opened up a LOOOT of eyes in the Big Ten offices. They still probably won't get into the Big Ten on this round. But if they do, they will be a MAJOR asset to the Big Ten looking 10 years out.