Agree with this but wanted to add a few thoughts. It is consistent with the above but Uconn's OOC schedule was usually split between maybe 3-5 of the very best teams in the country, and a number of teams that were fairly good but not a serious threat. The later group was probably better than the "average" AAC team, but compared to the big east, not so much. So we will be replacing the second tier of our OOC schedule with a better conference schedule of roughly the same level.
That assumes that we keep the 3-5 games against the best of the best, and the extra 4 conference games come at the expense of more the filler part of the OOC schedule than the marquee games. I think that is reasonable and what will happen.
So top tier games about the same, four more better conference opponents instead of the second tier OOC games, which is pretty close, and a substantially better conference schedule, resulting in a SOS overall increase.
As for so called boring blowout games, in years where there is little interest in the tail end of the bench that might be true. When our team has a deep an interesting bench (for at least the next few years) for many fans that is not the case. If we wound up with largely an 8 player rotation, and making a few assumptions, I for one would look forward to seeing more of perhaps Mir, Piath and Autumn in a blowout.
And finally the Big East is a geographical and recruiting advantage compared to the AAC Also Uconn in the Big East lifts the status of the conference overall, and the other conference teams can probably recruit at a little higher level as a result. the same in reverse for the AAC The other teams in the conference Uconn joins get a little better, and the other teams in the conference they leave get a little worse.
