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Message: [QUOTE="UConnNick, post: 3148448, member: 1526"] I didn't indicate the breakup of the old Big East was the cause of UCONN's football demise. There were many factors that played into that. Edsall left as HC after the Fiesta Bowl game in 2011, partly because he and AD Jeff Hathaway hated each other's guts. Hathaway, knowing he was on the way out as AD, then picked Paul Pasqualoni to take over the program, a hire that turned out to be disasterous. Then the new AD Warde Manuel replaced him with an even worse hire, Bob Diaco. UCONN never left the old Big East. The AAC is the successor entity to it. The catholic schools of the old Big East only bought the conference name. The new Big East has nothing to do with the old. Being in a BCS football league as we were up until 2014 helped with football recruiting because the conference had a guaranteed New Year's Day bowl slot for the winner. That's how we got into the Fiesta Bowl in 2011. The AAC, as Big East successor, retained the BCS bowl bid during its first season, but that went away with the end of the BCS and switch to the CFB 4-team playoff system after 2014. We went from a power conference to a non-power G5 league. Now the AAC must compete with the other G5 conference teams for one slot in the New Year six bowls. That affects recruiting. It's not the only reason for UCONN's football decline, but it's one factor. We're in a league largely comprised of southern, football centric schools. They have far more recruiting opportunities being located in hotbeds of elite high school football. We're at a decided recruiting disadvantage against those schools. Football is important but it isn't the sole determining factor that would or would not get us an invite to a P5 conference. Media market, brand, overall commitment to the entire athlectic program, and other factors come into play. We'd be better off with a strong football program, but it's not the only consideration. Temple has managed to build a successful program in essentially the same part of the country, and in the same conference. There should be no reason why we can't do the same. It will take a financial commitment from the school that up until now they haven't been willing to go all in on. There could be some movement among teams from certain conferences again when media rights deals start expiring in the 2020's. Whether an opportunity for UCONN to move up presents itself is anybody's guess. We would do well to make all our programs as competitive as possible by then. [/QUOTE]

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