UConn was the victim of a LOT of bad luck and circumstance, as well as bad decision making by others, and bad decision making on its own part.
Bad decisions by UConn:
- P. Duh. An absolutely disastrous hire by UConn at the worst possible time.
- Failing to value attendance at football games and allowing the numbers to dwindle without much response, thus furthering the narrative that no one shows up to our football games.
- I don't know how much difference it would've made with the upswell of the southern ACC football schools wanting a football team rather than "another" basketball school, but UConn's monitoring of the UL/UConn decision by the ACC in 2012 was at the very least bad from a PR perspective. The confluence of events that led to the UL decision may have been out of our hands by that point, but the public image of what Warde and Herbst did during that time was not good.
- No matter how many of you don't want to hear it, the perception is that since our football team does not play on campus, we're somehow second rate. Right or wrong, it is what it is.
- Of course, not moving to FBS football sooner. That's the underlying issue behind everything. If we'd upgraded sooner and began the process sooner, it's highly unlikely we're in the AAC right now.
I'm probably forgetting what other things happened, but these are most of them. We're not in a P5 league right now for all of these reasons.