I think we give Benedict a tad too much credit - those basketball only fans love him but if you look at it globally, Big East move not so good.
I will say since the administration decided to pull plug on football and basically just try to get as much $$$ as possibly from the sinking product - Benedict has done awesome securing $$$ games with powerhouses and getting every last cent he could for tv contract.
Mmm, no. "Globally" the move to the Big East is a good move. The AAC was killing our sports brand, not just basketball. The travel costs were $2M higher and the travel was draining on our athletes and coaches. We were a geographic outlier in what the conference morphed into. Quality of life will be improved for every UConn athlete across all sports.
The final straw was the media deal. It is worth less on a net basis, than the BE deal is currently and lasts for 12 years. When NBE deal is renegotiated it will in all likelihood be considerably higher. Think about that. The NBE 7 year old deal without football is worth more than the American's brand new deal with football. Seriously, stop and think about that, given the relative value of football and basketball. It is striking.
The deal took away the opportunity for regional broadcasts (something that had considerable value to UConn) and replaced it with a for pay internet access produced by the local schools. UConn would have needed to invest to create the infrastructure to be able to do that. They also would have had to carry the per game production costs including paying for broadcasters. It was essentially FloSports on steriods. We would have had no say on the quality of other schools broadcasts.
The move to Big East was a good deal across the board, not because it is the perfect situation for us, but because that simmering pile of feces known as the American Conference was an absolutely awful choice for us. Yeah, it is better for basketball, but it is better in practically every aspect. I'd like to have bowl access but other than that, the move is all win.
