That article goes completely off the duck*ing rails about 2/3rds of the way through.
You think Rutgers having a tough road to the Rose Bowl should be of any consolation to a school that's looking at a third-string bowl if they win the AAC? Or that West Virginia had to settle for the Pinstripe Bowl when that very bowl is being yanked out of UConn's orbit? Or that Boston College going 2-10 last year is in any way as dire a circumstance as the one we're in.
We'll realize around one-million dollars a year in television revenue. That's about 2.5-5% of what those schools have to work with - our problem is not how we'll pay for a new baseball facility, but how we'll pay for baseball itself.
I guess my thinking is that under the new playoff structure, the team that wins the AAC has at least a decent shot at making a contract bowl and the odds of us making that seem a lot better than Rutgers getting to the Rose Bowl.
While the TV revenue is certainly a drag in the future, the differences in total athletics budget is not remotely as extreme. It's not like our programs were ever completely funded by TV revenue either. The question is going to be, going forward, what is all this incremental money from TV contracts going to fund for the Big 5? More coaches and higher pay? Sure. Paying players? Not yet. Improving facilities? Sure. PR / Marketing? Yes. Reduce student fees required to subsidize athletics? Possibly.
Aside from paying players, I feel like UConn is already competitive on most metrics as an athletic program. Reputationally, we've taken / will continue to take a hit being part of the AAC and that will affect recruiting, etc. but it effects everyone else not in the Big 5 similarly. Would I rather be sitting in the B1G as the likely doormat of football, making a lot more money? Probably but I'll admit that my passion for a football team that consistently finishes in the bottom half of its conference would be diminished.
At the end of the day, I'm not ready to jump off a cliff because we're in the AAC for the next few years. What would depress the hell out of me though is more losing seasons in football in what is a very watered down conference.