Sounds like a mid major conference.
America East
Mid-American
Wait. UCONN was until recently a basketball school, fitting squarely within the athletic footprint of the catholic schools that were the heart of the Big East conference. It is reasonable for the Catholic aggregation to keep the Big East name.
As conference alignments are weighted towards football, it is necessary to consider uconn's football history. In so doing, we can see that UCONN has about a decade's worth of top level football legacy; a modern, though smallish stadium; interested, but not overly football-obsessed fans (CT is not AL, let alone OK) and going to high school football games on Friday night is not a religion in CT as it is elsewhere. So, if we are ever to see UCONN #1 in football, it will require special circumstances and a bit of luck.
Now, here's the kicker (pun intended): UCONN has a better chance of a -0- or -1- loss football season on a consistent basis in the leftover conference than it does in the conferences that BYers covet. UCONN has little or no chance of regularly whupping up on FSU, Miami, Clemson in the same season, year after year. Instead, UCONN would be lucky to achieve 6-6 football status on a regular basis in the Big Bad conferences. BC has gotten all but lost in the shuffle in the ACC. I doubt Rutgers will overwhelm the Big Umpteen and I'm not dure WV really fits in well with TX and OK.
Those who covet Big Bad conference may wish to consider whether it's worthwhile and fan friendly to be a football doormat, like, say, Duke, Northwestern, and soon to include Rutgers, I think; or whether it's better to dominate a leftover conference like a BYU or a Boise State?
All UCONN has to do is play well in The Leftover Conference, schedule big reputation no conference games. And win them. Beating Michigan this coming season would be a good way to start the process of elevating The Leftover Conference up to, say, the status of The Flyover Conference (also a suitable name for the Big 12 IMHO) and then, if the conference continues to well it could ultimately be known as The We Shocked the World Conference.
All I'm really saying is UCONN needs time to develop its football chops. Imho, the best wsy to do that is to dominate in the new conference. Doing that probably won't be easy. Even among uconn's new conference rivals there are those among them that have storied football tradition , including Heisman winners and championship seasons. So, even there, I'm not sure it serves any putpose in bad mouthing schools that have a much stronger football tradition than uconn, and holding up our noses at them to boot. What's up with that?
We'll do fine in the leftover conference; and in actual football terms, that is where we fit the best.
Meanwhile, there's still a good chance its 7 WCBB championships will be 8 in <1 month.
