I think the two private schools, BC and Cuse, see it as a business issue. To both, it must seem that UCONN snapped its fingers to produce a new stadium and football facilities that, at the time (we're lagging in indoor water falls and in-laid Thai teak wood floors) , were comparable to any in the country. Suddenly, the new kid in the neighborhood had nicer Athletic Department stuff and was, according to USN & WR, jumping the line academically. And it was doing this with resources that many "privates," not named Stanford or one of the Ivies, find it hard to match. I believe the two privates think they have to kill us before we eat them. If that's the case, they're wrong and short sighted. But here we sit.
I don't understand Pitt, at all. They shouldn't see us as, at all, threatening. Miami? We'll have to wait for Shalala to retire, expire, get fired..... To her, it's personal. Finally, I think VT would be fine once the football program becomes a "buy" instead of its perceived "sell" for whatever you can get.