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Message: [QUOTE="CL82, post: 5062338, member: 44"] So let me take those on one at a time. The notion that Bob and Christine Hurley wouldn't be able to attend away games because they're not drivable from New Jersey doesn't seem like much of a detriment to me. Multimillionaire Dan Hurley can certainly buy them plane tickets, or for that matter, get them a charter. (Of course, he probably can get them on board the team charter if he chooses as well.) The notion that UConn and the big east have shared History might be better stated that Connecticut fans have memories of the old Big East. With the exception of Georgetown, who no longer is the program that we remember, most of the teams left in the big east worthy "bad" games that people didn't care about. Certainly, Connecticut has no meaningful history with Depaul, Creighton, Xavier, etc. I guess nova could be the exception, but with the departure of Jay Wright, I'm not sure how competitive they will be. If "a recruit wants to play in the Northeast" They will still be playing in the northeast if Connecticut changes conferences. Changing conferences mean that we're going to load up the moving trucks and move out of Storrs. Connecticut right now is a destination school for top players. The reason for that has nothing to do with regionalism. The notion that that is somehow hinged to being a part of a conference that really started in 2013, is flawed. Regarding the notion that flying out to the midwest would somehow be a death knell for our program overlooks the point that we are currently doing just that for games to Depaul, Creighton, Marquette, Xavier, etc. Do those games not count because the conference name includes the word "east?" Now, you and I can't agree that playing in Madison Square Garden is a terrific venue, particularly for Connecticut fans. Seeing the big tournament in MSG is a phenomenal event, now that we're back in particular. I'll miss it but I would fully expect Connecticut to schedule games in various tournaments at MSG and all likelihood have at least one Big 12 game there, perhaps as an early season tournament challenge. Yormark is not an idiot and he is well aware of the value of the New York market. Where the big 12 to offer us, I think it is very likely that he would try to exploit and leverage our presence in that market. The more important point that I think you may be missing is that getting paid 4.5 million in media distributions, which is scheduled to go up to 6.5 million in the new deal is not sustainable. Essentially, our conference media rights distributions [I]almost[/I] pay for our head coaches salary, never mind the entire coaching staff salary. Salaries across-the-board for all sports are only going to increase. In addition to that, we also have the NIL settlement payments. Right now, the legislature has decided that state of Connecticut taxpayers can put that bill. As those numbers increase something has to give. What that something might be is the decision to continue playing high major sports. Right now, we are on the outside looking in at teams with the finances and higher media presence that makes them the quote "power" schools. Though Dan Hurley and staff has done a phenomenal job making us competitive. It's hard to see how we'll be able to put the bill as cost continue to escalate. That seems to be the thing that people who oppose a potential move forget about while they focus on memories of a big East conference that no longer exists. Our main rivalries with teams like Syracuse and BC are gone. Rivalries with once great teams like Georgetown and St. John's don't exist, either given the decline of the relevancy of those teams. Sure, there are regional games with teams like Seton Hall, and Providence that were yawn inducing in the old big east, but it's hard to use that as a justification for the notion that moving conferences would somehow hurt Connecticut. If we moved, things would no doubt be different, but the pros seem to outweigh the cons by a very wide margin. [/QUOTE]

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