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Message: [QUOTE="ninety-nine, post: 5065553, member: 5497"] I'm just gonna say right off the bat that UConn's identity as a Big East behemoth still means something, but less now than it meant 20 or 30 years ago, because the conference itself is so different. Our most consistent men's basketball rivals since we got back have been Creighton and Marquette, who are expansion-wave Midwestern schools, one of whom we've only been playing for four years or so. Georgetown is a shadow of its former self. There is still a lot of that old feeling when we take on Villanova, PC, St. John's and SHU, but that only goes so far, especially with Nova being in a down cycle right now. UConn's most exciting benchmarks these days are the nonconference games against high-profile opponents, and NCAA tournament runs. That goes even more for the women's team. The Big 12 is not the AAC: the quality of our basketball opponents in that conference would be superior to what's in the Big East now, and several of our new conference opponents would have immediate cachet to UConn fans (Kansas, Arizona, Baylor, Houston, Iowa State to a degree, even Cincinnati). After this last run of greatness by the men's team, UConn basketball now carries its identity wherever it goes at this point. (The women were already there.) I seriously doubt we'd see a repeat of the AAC mess in a conference this compelling. [/QUOTE]