If this is going to be the attitude, then fine, but we can't have it both ways where it's "Connecticut is a tough market, you have to put a great product out there" and then we're wondering why we're not in a better conference.
It's the attitude everywhere though. There's not a program in the country that wouldn't suffer a huge drop off in attendance and interest if they went through what we've gone through the past 7 years. All the comments about schools like Auburn, Michigan, Notre Dame still showing up in down years are so off base. Those programs "struggles" don't include 2-3 win seasons year after year. Charlie Weis was a disaster at ND, still went to like 4 bowl games. Rich Rodriguez after a terrible start made it to the Gator Bowl and was fired. Brady Hoke went to a bunch of bowl games, had one 5-7 season and they fired him. None of these major programs offer unconditional support, if things aren't going well they demand changes. Those schools a. listen, so things never get as bad as they got here, and b. recruit well enough based on their name that the floor isn't as low as it is here.
I wish we still got big crowds. And if we had continued to pack the rent for the past 7 years that would go a major way to showing we deserve a power 5 conference. But after 7 bad years, 4 in which we were non-competitive week after week, that's not a realistic goal. Not here, but also not anywhere