I am not sure if this is sarcasm, intentionally hyperbolic, or just naivete showing itself. UConn is a fine institution with very good standards. However, the bolded statement is far from accurate.
The majority of the BE schools have more in common with the academic standards of UConn than UConn does with Georgetown and Villanova. Whether you look at SAT/ACT scores for accepted students, graduation rates, median salaries upon graduation, the data all shows the same thing. UConn only slightly outpaces most of the BE except for Nova and Georgetown who are at a different level. Xavier and St. Johns, maybe Seton Hall being the only schools lower... but even those are fine schools.
I happen to have the data to back that up (except from DePaul for some reason). For example (and I can give you whichever category you'd like to see):
| SAT Verb 25th | SAT Verb 75th | |
| Villanova University | 620 | 710 |
| Georgetown University | 680 | 760 |
| University of Connecticut | 600 | 680 |
| Providence College | 580 | 660 |
| Creighton University | 520 | 640 |
| Butler University | 580 | 660 |
| Marquette University | 570 | 660 |
| Seton Hall University | 570 | 640 |
| St John's University-New York | 540 | 620 |
| Xavier University | 540 | 620 |
| Central Connecticut State University | 500 | 590 |
Median earnings of graduates 10 years after enrollment:
| Row Labels | Sum of MD_EARN_WNE_P10 |
| Georgetown University | $ 93,500.00 |
| Villanova University | $ 77,900.00 |
| Providence College | $ 64,100.00 |
| Marquette University | $ 62,600.00 |
| Creighton University | $ 59,700.00 |
| University of Connecticut | $ 58,400.00 |
| Seton Hall University | $ 57,200.00 |
| Butler University | $ 56,600.00 |
| St John's University-New York | $ 55,200.00 |
| DePaul University | $ 53,300.00 |
| Xavier University | $ 51,600.00 |
| Central Connecticut State University | $ 47,900.00 |
I have a lot more data I can show, I'm just not familiar enough with this format of message board to show it in an easy to read format.
This whole land grant vs private university argument is kind of superfluous to the conversation of conference realignment. This is about sports (mainly basketball) and the target market for future students. I think UConn fits the BE just fine in both regards.
