The onus is on David Benedict and Dr. Maric to put on their salesmen's hats to show the benefit of adding UConn to the Big Ten, which IMO is the best fit for us and the BIG conference. Maybe even Gov. Lamont.
We all know the current weakness of UConn football and someone mentioned earlier that bringing on a school that finishes in the bottom half of the standings is not necessarily a knockout - Rutgers and Maryland have not impressed since joining BIG, and there are other perennial 2nd tier teams in that league too (including my dad's alma mater Purdue). That aside, the key to a UConn candidacy is the Olympic sports and how its addition to BIG has far more benefit to BIG than most other candidates. BIG has said that it's not only football but other sports and academic reputation and how accretive a new member will be.
Over the past 40 years UConn has won more national championships (22) across all NCAA sports than all other BIG school except Penn State (38) and Maryland (29). We know all about UConn WBB but if UConn joined BIG that its 4 NC's would be second only to Indiana's 5. Penn State's 38 are dominated by women's volleyball and wrestling, while Maryland has won many field hockey and men's & women's lacrosse championships. In doing the math that means UConn has more national championships than 12 other existing BIG members over the past 40 years (although both USC and UCLA jump right to the top upon joining BIG).
After football NCAA basketball is the second biggest revenue generator, followed by ice hockey and baseball. Softball is the fastest growing sport and both men's and women's lacrosse are rapidly growing a national footprint. Other Olympic sports that BIG is a top conference for include field hockey, volleyball, wrestling, swim & dive and gymnastics.
Basketball: Adding UConn MBB and WBB elevates the BIG to best basketball conference period (IMO). That's worth a lot of dough by itself.
Ice Hockey: Adding UConn ice hockey solidifies the men's conference with its 8th member and an important New England presence, while the women would be the 5th BIG team which means BIG only needs to get either Michigan or Michigan State to elevate it's club teams to create a 6-team BIG conference. These also add to the overall BIG media value.
Baseball: Husky baseball is also accretive to BIG, especially with the California schools. Believe it or not but Wisconsin does not offer D1 baseball. So UConn would be its 16th team. And don't forget Jim Pender's unranked squad ousted #15 Maryland in the regionals this year and gave a scare to #2 Stanford in the super regionals.
Other Husky Olympic sports teams: Women's lax can become the 8th BIG member and women's volleyball can only add to BIG dominance after adding USC and UCLA. UConn field hockey makes BIG a ridiculously good conference and softball helps too. And if UConn ever adds men's lacrosse there's no doubt in my mind that UConn can be a national power in a few years' time.
The Hartford DMA is 32nd in the US, ahead of most BIG markets! We could claim that we have a NY following (like Rutgers does) although one could argue that a FOX contract makes that moot.
I strongly believe that there's much upside and glamour in adding the pedigree of UConn to the BIG or any P5 conference. Football success ebbs and flows, as it does in many sports for every school, and I know all of us are hopeful that Coach Mora has us on the right track. Nevertheless, AD Benedict and President Maric need to accentuate the many, many positives of UConn as a great university with an athletic success story that not many other universities can claim.
And Dr. Maric needs to start working on AAU accreditation (although Nebraska doesn't have it nor does supposed candidate Notre Dame).
So let's focus on the positive attributes to get the attention of Kevin Warren, and let's not be shy to ask Warde Manuel for advice and guidance too.
Finally I think our Dairy Bar can compete with Penn State's Berkey Creamery for best ice cream in the BIG.
Go Huskies!
and another one this morning.
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