Hypothetical and highly tongue-in-cheek recap of UConn's move to this version of the so-called "Big East" conference. I dare anyone to say all of this wouldn't happen...
April 2019: UConn pays $10M to drop football and hoops to leave AAC in 27 months. Mid-2021...OR...
April 2019: UConn pays ~$12M to drop football and hoops to leave AAC in 12 months. Begin-2020. Let's assume they take this route for ease of realistic (tongue-in-cheek), but incredibly hypothetical, timeline.
July 2019: AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco announces new TV/Media Stream deal for AAC that will pay members $7M/per school, per year, across multiple platforms and also allowing schools to retain their own Tier 3 stream/media rights.
*Beginning of 2020: $12M exit fee - $5M/per school from Big East payment; UConn in red $7M - all other things remaining equal. UConn plays Big East Conf tourney at MSG. Nostalgic UConn Big East fans are happy. Everyone else wishes we had more money to fend off the rumors of dozens of P5 schools from poaching Dan Hurley. New AAC member UMass is also rumored to be enamored with Hurley and can afford to outbid UConn with their newly acquired influx of cash.
*End of 2020: Madison Square Garden announces they will opt out of Big East tourney agreement following the 2022 season. High stakes bidding between B1G10 & ACC ensues. Nostalgic UConn Big East fans are livid.
**Also end of 2020: Following a Sweet 16 tournament run at UConn, Dan Hurley announces that he is resigning as head coach to be "closer with his family".
**2 weeks later: Rutgers University is excited to announce the hiring of Dan Hurley as its new men's basketball head coach. "We are excited to bring Coach Hurley and his family back home to New Jersey," Rutgers AD 'The Situation' said. "This move not only pays me more money than what UConn could afford, but I also get to coach against Seton Hall at a place that would actually be excited to see us schedule Seton Hall," new Rutgers Coach Dan Hurley said.
**1 month later: After an exhaustive and expensive search firm panel recommendation, new UConn AD Warde Manuel 2.0 makes the following announcement: "We would first like to thank our state's elected officials for bonding us the required $1,000,000 to hire Mike Tranghese Associates to conduct our coach search. After a thorough and extensive process, we are excited to introduce Dave Leitao as our new men's basketball head coach. Coach Leitao's ties to UConn, his resume at Big East powerhouse DePaul, and the fact that he'd accept a salary of less than $50,000/year were essential to this hire. We listened to our fanbase and wanted to ensure stability with this hire, so we are also excited to announce that we have included a $10M buyout clause of Coach Leitao's contract. Ironically, we have already been contacted by Rutgers, Syracuse, Boston College, UMass, Pitt, and Virginia about the buyout. Apparently, all of those schools have more money than they know what to do with. Must be nice."
*Beginning 2021: ACC announces deal with MSG to begin conference tourney games beginning in 2023.
UConn in red $2M - all other things remaining equal. UConn plays in its 2nd conference tournament at MSG. Nostalgic UConn Big East fans want to leave the Big East, bring back football, and go to the ACC before it's too late.
2022: FS1 airs a tearful 3 minute lead-in to its final telecast of the Big East conference tournament at MSG. Celine Dion and Bette Middler are asked to sing a Big East sendoff but both decline. Strapped for cash, the Big East settles on Drake to sing. UConn finally in green $3M - all other things remaining equal.
End of 2022: Big East commissioner Jeff Hathaway announces that the Big East has come to an agreement to play its conference tournament games at the beautiful newly redesigned Villanova Pavilion. "It was always important to us to reward our most loyal schools for their unwavering continued support of Big East basketball", Hathaway said. "Plus, we had nowhere else to go after the unfortunate XL Center roof collapse."
May 2023: The Power 6 conferences announce a new gazillion, bazillion dollar deal to break away from the rest of college athletics to form their own football/basketball hybrid crossover challenge. All football and all basketball games will be aired across all channels on all cable and stream platforms. Run in a similar manner as the old Capital One Cup, the winner of each year's challenge will get to personally hand select a non-P6 school to blow up, pave over, and construct a parking garage.
June 2023: UMass and Boston College announce a joint acquisition of Gilette Stadium and surrounding properties from the Kraft Family Estate, valued at an estimated gazillion trazillion dollars. "It has always been a matter of turf", BC's Father Aiden Leahy said. "And we are humbled to share that turf with the only other New England school that we have ever felt threatened by. Plus we both have more money than we know what to do with."
July 2023: Villanova announces that they will play football and have accepted an invitation to join Power 6 conference AAC for the 2024 season. "While we are saddened to have lost our most beloved member," Big East Commissioner Hathaway said. "We are also excited that nobody cares about our conference any more and likely won't notice that Villanova left." UConn officials also announce that they have re-hired Mike Tranghese Associates to conduct a 10 year study on the feasibility of re-adding football.
August 2023: Big East Commissioner Jeff Hathaway announces that original Big East 3.0 conference members - DePaul, Marquette, Seton Hall, St John's, Butler, Creighton, Xavier, Providence, and Georgetown have all added football and have accepted invitations to join Power 6 conference AAC once the FOX/FS1 Big East contract expires. "It's probably 10 years too early for us to comment on adding football back," UConn AD Warde Manuel 2.0 said. "But I promise you this: we will spend alot of unnecessary money that we don't have so that I can continue making these vague statements in the future."
September 2023: Warde Manuel 2.0 steps down from his role as UConn AD to pursue his dream job of emptying the spittoon at Michigan football practices. Acting UConn President Mark Emmert Jr. announces that Jeff Hathaway will resume his role as acting UConn AD. "There is no conflict of interest here because there is no interest left in UConn or the Big East," Hathaway said. "I don't even know who is paying me. Is it UConn or the Big East or Emmert Jr's side hustle or the Power 6 Capital One Cup Selection Committee? I don't know, but it doesn't matter. We're folding all sports at UConn and going back to agricultural only course offerings."
2033: Mike Tranghese Associates recommends that UConn upgrades football again. "Have you seen how much money UMass has made in the AAC after they replaced UConn?," Tranghese Associates' spokesperson Tom Jurich said. "They have bought out the Patriots, Celtics, Red Sox, Bruins, and Boston College in the past 10 years alone. Also, can you believe that my 2011 Louisville pact with the devil has kept me alive for this long?"
