They don't resent us. They don't think much about us at all. People are overthinking this. It's no different than it was with the ACC.
Culturally, do we have a lot of Frats and Sororities, with game day traditions? Do we have any game day traditions for football? Do the people of Connecticut hold weddings on Saturdays in the fall? Do our HS teams still play on Saturday instead of Friday night? That what that does to our audience? Every CT HS football player and their family is often unavailable to attend or even watch our games on TV.
They know how we feel about college basketball, and I think that garners some respect. They want to see that we feel that way about football. They want us to be all-in. We say "add us and we will be", but that's a tough sell. I think the ramp-up proposal is to allow us to build what is needed, culture, not facilities. TCU and Baylor play in 45k stadiums. So does BC. KState is 50k. Colorado 50k. Houston 40k. KU's new stadium is getting smaller from 47k.