You are right, because every step UConn has taken so far has been tip top. Just look back to 2010-2011. How many schools coming off a national championship in basketball and a major conference championship in football got demoted to mid-major status the next year? It takes some talent to screw things up that badly.
Whenever I point out that the current situation is completely unsustainable, you and the rest of the Big 10 fanboys attack me, as if it is my fault the school is in this situation. You can search posts of mine from 2011 through 2013 where I pointed out that UConn was going to be playing in front of 20k people if it didn't do something, and look what happened. Even people taking shots at me in this thread, like Fishy, agree with where this is going to end up if the school continues to do nothing.
The Big 10 is NEVER happening, and I no longer see a viable path into the ACC. We will know soon enough about the Big 12, but if it doesn't happen in the next month or two, that door is shut. It is unlikely any conference is coming to our rescue. UConn has to rescue itself, and that is not going to happen while waiting for ESPN to give more money to the AAC. If UConn wants to show it deserves $20MM+ in media rights a year from someone, it should be generating more than $2MM.
I'm 99% sure I've typed this post before, but here we go :
No one is attacking or blaming you. Yes, UConn screwed up badly - look who was steering the ship at the time things went south (Hathaway et al, lest you put names in my mouth). Yes, the status quo is unsustainable (Do you really want a cookie for predicting smaller crowds in the AAC, as if you were the only one to think that?). Yes, UConn should explore out of the box options.
However - there are real world constraints on our current option set, and you have never once proposed a solution that's actually viable given our constraints. You've merely shouted louder that the fire is getting hotter. Gee, thanks.
UConn's plan - and it is a plan, whether you happen to agree with it or not - is to make themselves as attractive as possible in all areas so that when a slot opens up, we will be the most attractive option - simultaneously, have discreet discussions with the decision makers. No one knows when that slot will open. But you control the things you can control to always be ready for the next move. Previous administrations failed spectacularly at this.
While I think it's the best plan for now, it's also not a guarantee. You may have noticed that UConn has hired multiple skilled fundraisers in the last couple of years, from the Foundation to our new AD and his new assistant. This serves multiple purposes, the first objective being survival. The next objective is the continual improvements. If things were to work out sooner on the conference front, more can go in to improvements. If not, fundraising will be a critical lifeline.
Long term - I think that AAU is a goal for Herbst, her focus on research is not a coincidence. But that designation benefits the university as a whole, I don't think the primary objective is to satisfy any B1G requirements - though it's a nice side benefit if anything happens in 2024-2025.
If you disagree with the plan, by all means come up with a better one - but given multiple opportunities over the years, you haven't. Again that's not an attack or blame, that's a reflection of the very difficult position the university has been boxed in to. There are no easy answers, and saying "do something" doesn't make it so.