There are some floating a rumor that this was all the new president's idea and Herbst had little to do with it. That seems absurd at first glance since he publicly stated before that football will continue to be played at UCONN. I'm highly skeptical, but I also would be surprised if he hasn't been in on this process. It's not something you would want to drop blindly onto a new president's desk on his first day in the office. They also wouldn't have wanted him finding out about it by surprise like the rest of us did. It will be very interesting to see what he has to say about football after he gets settled in.
BTW, if they kill the football program sometime soon, no matter what we accomplish in the NBE, Herbst's long term legacy will include that she axed football and killed whatever slim chance we had of making a P5 league.