Diaco / Recruiting ratings bump ?

[Husky25]

Besides better on campus facilities than some of your list, the six teams you list have a chance to play on an annual basis at least one and possibly 2 top 10 teams. That is every single year. And if they go undefeated in their league (it could happen) they get into the playoff or a really good bowl. Uconn's best chance to play a highly ranked tean is for an undefeated AAC team to be ranked. If everyone has 1 loss, no one from the AAC sniffs the top 10. Uconn also needs to do whatever it can to beef up the OOC. That includes anyone, anywhere, 1 and done if it has to be. And the bowls having potential is really putting lipstick on the proverbial pig. Those are significant and real advantages for teams in the P5.

I'm taking more of a Glass is half full approach to UConn's situation.

As currently constituted, College Football haves will always be haves and the have-nots will always be have-nots. On the field, the lower half of the P5 conferences are on par with the upper echelon of the G5. Those 6 teams are in conferences that have a more direct path to the CFP, but those schools individually do not have a significant chance of taking advantage of that path. The CFP will be played by teams with 0 or 1 loss or that have generated buzz throughout the country (i.e. aTm beating 'Bama and Johnny Manziel winning the Heisman). The last time that happened for this group in the aggregate was 2007-08, and BC got stomped in the ACC title game (then lost their bowl game). This is a part of the sales pitch to recruits that I'd envision Coach Diaco have in his arsenal.

Though only 1 or 2 (on the outside) spots in the New Years Day Six are open to the G5 conference teams, I feel that the top 1/4 of teams in the G5 conferences (i.e. NIU, Boise, Cincinnati, etc.) have just as good if not better shot than teams in the lower half of the P5 conferences. Disregarding money, what good is being a tackling dummy every week? Exposure? FSU at Wake was on national TV. FSU exposed Wake for being a terrible football program. Because Wake is a private school and is not willing to devote the necessary resources in today's CFB environment, it will never achieve FSU's level. The trick, of course, for UConn is to develop into one of those upper echelon G5 programs. Secondary bowls are what they are. Disregarding money again, it looks like the AAC is held in slightly higher regard than the other G5 conferences by virtual of their past. The AAC will have a spot most years for every bowl eligible team until 2019. Nine bowl eligible programs did not get an invite this year and two had a better than .500 record (WVU: 8-4, Toledo: 7-5). Five came from the Sun Belt Conference, 1 from MWC, 1 from C-USA and 2 from the MAC.