When we got passed over for the ACC we were in a very tricky position. But it isn't 1980 any more and we have very little in common with the New Big East schools. They have small athletic departments, limited resources and with a few exceptions like Georgetown, they are modest academic institutions on top of that. many don't have graduate schools outside maybe a law school a business school and an occasional masters program. We have very different views of where our programs want to go. Providence St johns Depaul, even Villanova and Georgetown if they are honest, those schools don't go into the basketball season looking for national championships. Oh they make the odd run now and again, Georgetown in 2007, Villanova in 2009, but those are few and far between. Go to other sports and it is even worse. Just to give some perspective, UConn recently announced the upgrade of its hockey program to Hockey East. Which of those schools would make a major upgrade to a program, one that will require a major new investment in facilities just to get started? When the D1 ECAC schools had to upgrade from D3 to D1 a dozen years ago, Villanova dropped the sport. It just indicates a totally different outlook between the modern day UConn and the schools of the New Big East.
