This is not an easy column to write. I have loved UConn basketball since I moved to Connecticut in fall of '77. I have loved UConn football with maybe even a greater passion (as it was part of a more exclusive club) since they opened the Rent. The last few years have just been incredibly painful, watching something you love suffer the way our programs have. And it's not like I don't understand the move to the NBE. (And no, we are not moving back to the Big East -- we are leaving the real Big East, and woo to any of you who pretends this is really the Big East in my presence.) I get it. Political decisions unfortunately are made for the short term, and I get this in the short term. And I get that the majority of our fanbase will see this as a good thing. This is death for our football program (more on that in a moment) and disadvantageous to our baseball program, but is generally a very good thing for all our other non-revenue sports just based on cutting travel time and expenses alone and at least in the short term is a very good thing for basketball. But do I believe this is a good thing overall? No, I don't. I'd like to -- I really would -- but I can't get there. Let's take it in pieces.
For sports generally, this is a good thing. Less travel that has to be done on airplanes. Playing against more geographic rivals, which means more kids you played against growing up. More road games/matches/meets that your family can attend. Lower costs for the school. Generally it's a good thing, whether competition is up a little or down a little. Maybe it will help soccer revive, although I think that has more to do with needing a new coach. Hockey isn't effected -- plays in its own hockey league. For baseball, it's not a good thing but they'll survive. We have an outstanding coach, we have new facilities coming on line and we have established ourselves as THE program in the Northeastern United States. Not just New England, but the entire coast from PA up. Travel will be a little easier, in conference play will pull down SOS, you're not going to convince me this is a good thing for our baseball program but it will be fine. But let's talk women's basketball, men's basketball and football.
I don't follow women's hoops nearly as closely as many here, but I have to think that their inability to string together a few tough wins deep in the NCAAs and thus win championships is made more difficult by the fact that we don't seem to get any competition at all in the AAC. Yes, the NBE isn't the Big East. No Louisville, no Notre Dame, not even a Syracuse -- but even if it's just somewhat better maybe that will help. Other than that, Geno coaches the Globetrotters. Their popularity during the season doesn't come from their conference schedule anyway. Now, add the factors that we'll cover on the men's side in a moment (less travel, more rivalries that the fans and players care about) and I don't doubt this is a plus on the women's side.
For men's basketball, this is a short term boost, but not as big of one long term as many think. It will reduce travel, which should make road wins a little easier. While the conference is also spread out, it is obviously more northeast - centric than the American, which also helps fan interest and should increase attendance and fan intensity. The tourney in MSG is obviously a good thing both for our fanbase and recruiting. And, to be fair, over the last few years the NBE has been a better basketball conference than the American. By a ton? No. Are there factors (like the explosive growth of non-flagship state institutions in sunbelt states) that might cause the American to catch up or even surpass the NBE in hoops in the intermediate term? Yes, that's possible, although it's also possible their relative rank won't change. Do we run the risk that the football schools one day want to run their own basketball tourney and leave the basketball onlies entirely? Yes. That risk is still there, and I view it as more acute than when Lou Perkins convinced the administration that we needed football to protect basketball decades ago. But that's all long term. Short term, football fans can whine all they want but this is a good thing for the men's basketball program and that makes it popular overall with students, alumni and the state. Football having become as unwatchable as the last three years have been has guaranteed that the decisionmakers aren't listening to football fans because there aren't enough of them.
So what does this mean for football? Probably that FBS level football is on deathwatch. The fact that we applied to the NBE before we knew what we were doing with the football program says it all. The plan -- if you can call it that -- is that we don't have one because we don't care. We're putting our other sports in the NBE, we'll see if someone will take our football and if not we'll go independent. But that's a short term solution only. We won't survive as an independent. People don't care about our football program enough. I'm not even sure I do. If winning doesn't get you rewards and bowls, and you can't compare yourself to the teams you play every year, our program will die. Yes, I understand many think it's already dead but it's not. In the AAC, it only needs to start winning again and some attendance will come back. And winning just takes a great coach, a financial commitment and time in college football. Can Edsall get us back to our mildly winning ways? I don't know. If you've given up on him based on the last two years, that's fine and I get that. But someone could. But now I don't see it. We're UMass with a closer off campus stadium. We won't be playing FBS football in 10 years. I don't see how that's possible. For those that are saying they will pay that price because you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel anyway -- well, you need better eyesight. There was no light at the end of the tunnel about how we were going to compete on a P-6 level before we did it the first time either. Luckily, we didn't listen to the naysayers.
So that's it. I do get this. It will make people happier short term. And there are long term benefits. (And note I'm not dwelling on TV deals, because long term water will find its level.) But I hope basketball becomes Jim Calhoun era UConn again, because while this will be a great short term boost I'm not convinced the Big East will be so much better than the American long term that it will be a great long term boost. But I do know this will kill football. And without football, I fear one day basketball will die anyway.
