So, SH gets into conference realignment discussion with the Courant Education reporter and then DB gets into conference realignment discussion w/ a drive time sports radio duo -- Different messages for different audiences or realigning the post Courant article narrative ?
Thanks to
@UConn07 for the
synopsis here.
>>On Big 12 expansion, Benedict answered a few questions, including the first that asked, 'so when are you going to the Big 12?'
"I really can't tell you anything more than what is already out there," he responded. "Everyone is slicing and dicing this thing every which way possible and there is a lot of speculation and opinions. I really don't have an opinion on it right now. As I've said many times when I've been asked this question, I feel very good and very confident about UConn and how we've approached this. I remain confident and I remain consistent with those statements and at this point in time I really don't think there is any change."
"Let's make it about UConn," he said. "We need to continue doing the things that have made us a successful program in the past. We've got to retain and hire great coaches, which we have a fabulous group of leaders in those positions at UConn. We need to continue winning at the highest level, which we expect to do. We have programs that on an annual basis can compete for conference championships and national championships. We have to continue to invest in facilities, which we are in the process of hopefully completing the fundraising for softball, baseball and soccer and hopefully in the next several months we will be able to announce some additional support and new gifts for those projects because that has to be a priority and those programs deserve to have great facilities just like football and basketball have right now. The university continues to build from already a great foundation. We have a great academic profile, the numbers of applications continue to go up, it just is a great university, a great experience. I've been meeting with all the head coaches here individually and there are certain business things that we have to talk about and we also just talk about things and actually one of the coaches this morning said once we get a kid on campus, it's over because this is such a great university. The university facilities are beautiful and President Herbst has done a wonderful job over the last five years, the new Storrs Center. We have great opportunity to continue to build off of a great foundation, I think we are going to be extremely successful and as I mentioned at my press conference, we have to dominate whatever conference that we are in, we need to be prepared to do that and that's what we are going to do."
When asked if he or any UConn personnel have made their presentation to the Big 12, he said the following.
"I wouldn't be at liberty to talk about it."
When asked for the reasoning on why the Huskies administration has not been as public as other schools in pursuit of the Big 12.
"The best way for me to respond to that would be that we have some very bright, intelligent people and I believe and am very confident that UConn is doing everything that we possibly can," he said. "Everyone is going to have an opinion, certainly no one has a crystal ball at this point in time, everything is speculation and opinion and based on whatever they decide to do, there will be opinions and you can't change that, but I feel really good about how we are approaching things and that's all that matters to me. As I said at the early stages of the conversation today, we have a game in two weeks that is pretty important, but this [conference realignment] is certainly important enough to us that we are going to give this the necessary attention that it needs and deserves. I don't necessarily have to tell anyone that is listening how important conference realignment is to individual schools and their members. I'm sure it is weighing on a lot of people's minds and there are a lot of people providing a lot of time and energy dedicated to whatever they may be responsible for as it relates to that subject, but it is important. The fact that there is so much speculation, so much media talking about it and writing about it, it would lead you to believe that there is a lot of people that are paying attention."<<
