Does this push ND to join a conf?

[Hoophound]

Our football program is in the toilet. If we were still in the AAC we might be playing in the Military Bowl v BC or Fenway v UVA with a 6-6 or 7-5 record. No recruits wanted anything to do with an independent UConn. Games against Cincinnati, Houston, UCF, USF, ECU and Memphis were all quality opponents in a conference with bowl tie ins. We’re a laughing stock in major college football.

Basketball can succeed in any conference, just look at Gonzaga and Loyola-Chicago. I like the Big East, but it’s not like the old Big East. Don’t forget baseball was better off in the AAC.

What are you talking about? We’d be exactly the same as we are. Randy couldn’t win any games. The change that was needed has been made. Now we’ll win games.

 

[Vowelguy]

I believe that when we left the AAC we abandoned any chance at a P5 invite.

East Carolina
Florida Atlantic
Tulane
Tulsa
Charlotte
North Texas
Rice
UTSA

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

Our football program is in the toilet. If we were still in the AAC we might be playing in the Military Bowl v BC or Fenway v UVA with a 6-6 or 7-5 record. No recruits wanted anything to do with an independent UConn. Games against Cincinnati, Houston, UCF, USF, ECU and Memphis were all quality opponents in a conference with bowl tie ins. We’re a laughing stock in major college football.

Basketball can succeed in any conference, just look at Gonzaga and Loyola-Chicago. I like the Big East, but it’s not like the old Big East. Don’t forget baseball was better off in the AAC.

I think you have it backwards: basketball players from the East Coast (i.e. our recruiting hotbeds) and our fans wanted nothing to do with the AAC and EVERYTHING to do with the Big East.

Football started degrading after RE-1 left and tanked over the past 5 or so years and our football fans wanted nothing to do with the AAC and would rather sign up for schedule with some of our traditional rivals (from the Big East football conference and other geographic rivals) and some national names/pay day games.

We applied for the Big12 expansion charade and learned that we weren't viewed favorably enough.

So our only hope to resurrect/protect basketball and give the football fans and its program a chance to re-boot, was to go independent which if done correctly could position us to be attractive enough to the P5 in the future.

It's become pretty clear that staying in the AAC was a death spiral on so many levels because the top AAC football schools were going to jump ship and leave us with the leftovers and the handful of schools brought in as back-fills for the departed (i.e. Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF).

I think almost everyone now agrees that we're so thankful to have left the AAC when we did (though many of us were calling for it a few years before it happened).