Regarding the hypothetical situation where UConn could choose between the B1G and the ACC, my feeling was that UConn folks with research background would prefer the B1G, while the undergrad education / admissions and athletics people would prefer the ACC. We all know about the AAU and that would be a political boost to UConn's research enterprise, and in the hypothetical situation where we can get in the B1G and AAU, that would mean we've already made strides in building out the research infrastructure and faculty hires. B1G membership and CIC would be icing on the cake and would help consolidate those gains going forward.
I wrote a post last year about the admissions side of things, how UConn wants to bring in out-of-state students from the eastern seaboard and how the ACC would provide those benefits. UConn wants to attract HS kids who are also applying to schools like UVA, UNC, as well as Wisconsin, Michigan... the highest regarded state schools (and those kids also apply to Duke, Northwestern, the Ivies, Patriot league and NESCAC schools). This relates to the demographics trends... UConn would like to attract more valedectorians from Virgina, the Carolinas and Florida. However with the B1G expansion, the B1G would offer UConn to ability to put its academic brand to attract students in the MD/DC area, solidify NJ and PA (UConn already draws significant numbers from these states) and maybe increase its presence in Ohio and around Chicago. So I think the preference there is still the ACC, but the B1G wouldn't be a huge step down and would obviously be better than the AAC.
As far as athletics, there is an argument that flying to florida in the same time zone is better than flying to Texas and back with the time change. And this travel doesn't affect football as much as it affects the olympic sports, volleyball, etc. Fans can debate whether UConn football would fare better record-wise in the ACC, if the quality of bball competition would be worse in the B1G, but I think those questions would actually be secondary to questions about a) revenue b) conference stability in the hypothetical "who would you choose?" question. And besides that, for whatever preferences UConn might have with regards to research, admission, and athletics.... we're saying yes to whoever invites us first.