I read your post and we can agree on one thing - we do all care about UConn athletics. It has been part of my life for decades and I am sure that you have been a fan for decades. However, I am unwilling to to yield to "sound and fury signifying nothing", so I will engage.
As far as where we are now, we have done as well as we can given the circumstances. Benedict has been a very effective AD. The propblem is that the upside is at best limited and may in fact be at risk. The "bitter pill" proposal is the only way I see out of this current conference situation so football can thrive in an appropriate conference. The "bitter pill" means we will probably have to buy in to a conference and it will be expensive and humilitating. Can you imagine writing checks to a conference so a BC or a Syracuse can get full payouts?
As far as conference being important in football, don't believe me - look at the facts. Only one D1 team has made it work as an independent - ND. NBC pays them about $50mm for football only and the ACC pays them about $17 mm for their Olympic sports and a football scheduiling agreement. Further, ND doesn't have to play in a conference championship or even play a difficult schedule to be favored for a CFP spot. Nobody else will get that deal and ND may not keep it the long run. In the Courant article, even Dan Hurley mentioned "conference" among the considerations in Mora's decision.
I hated the AAC experience as much as anyone. (especially the Diaco Civil War dream with UCF) I wouldn't go back there at the point of a gun. At the time we wanted out, the BE was the only realistic option that made sense. But times have changed and the BE is losing the arms race even in basketball. Consider, that 22 of the top 25 teams in the ESPN poll are from P4 conferences. More worrisome, I believe whats coming down the road is a CFP style attempted take over of basketball. The NCAA desparately wants to hold on to March Madness because it alone provides about 80% of their annual revenues. The P4 conferences like the money CFP provides and I believe would like to replicate it (or more) in basketball.
For schools like UConn with no big conference money to spread around, you must hit up donors and the state government. As an example, the ACC full payout last year was about $45mm. Big donors at UConn cross the $100k threshold and are treated like royalty as they should be. To match the ACC payout minus the BE payout you need about 350-400 of them. Thankfully, at the state level, we have Ned Lamont and Matt Ritter as friends. But, that won't last forever.
So what can done? Standing pat is not an option IMO. Because ultimately I think the P4 will prevail.
So pardon me for looking down the road, but we need to stay active conference wise. The BE has provided us with a stage to get our BB feet back on the ground, but now we need help in other ways it simply can't provide.
