“The pressure is on the leagues to try and figure things out, as long as the uncertainty is out there that causes you to try and determine what this all means. I do feel some pressure as an athletic director of a Big East member school waiting to see what is going to happen, what’s laying out there for us, making sure we are in the best position [to act].
“But as much as I am looking out for us, we also need to be invited to join. I can’t just decide that I would like [UConn] to join a new league. I can’t just get up and take our team with me. It’s more complicated than that. The process is much more detailed than just deciding what it is I want to do on behalf of Connecticut.
“So we continue to work and operate and learn what the landscape is within intercollegiate athletics and make the best decision we can make.”
“We have so many selling points already out there,,” Manuel said. “It’s a great institution with great athletics that is committed to excellence. We’ve invested in our facilities. We done tremendous things in basketball [10 national championships]. We’ve elevated football and won a Big East championship in very short time. Our portfolio is strong and we’ll see where it goes.”
