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Message: [QUOTE="DblCrossbar, post: 4717054, member: 12251"] Despite championships within MBB and WBB within the purgatory years of the AAC, interest waned with no natural rivals to compete against. The games that mattered were those scheduled out of conference vs former Big East teams. KO did mismanage the program, but there was no juice there and interest waned because of the makeup of the opponents. Regional appeal matters, at least at the gate, and is more humane for the experience of who we still pretend to be “student athletes”. The money is there now from standard media distribution, but it will not be the case in 10 years when streaming is the dominant form or some whacko ESPN brain implant comes to fruition. It’s not wrong to pursue entry into a P? Conference, but we must recognize it isn’t salvation over even a 20 year timeframe either. Change will be the only constant, history and tradition be damned. As an aside it would be interesting to trace application numbers to UConn following championship years. Is winning a better bump to the bottom line and prestige of a university that helps academics, or is the conference a better engine to attract better students and research funding, or is it all mutually exclusive. There’s a PHD thesis out there for someone interested at investigating these dynamics and ultimately what success or membership brings to an higher education institution. [/QUOTE]