Jim Calhoun's son went to Miami. He was going to UConn when I was there, then transferred to Miami.We're worth ~$20-30 mn/yr to someone with a cable network that needs to penetrate Connecticut, like SNY or the BTN. ESPN already gets $5 / month from Connecticut households and couldn't raise it much more with UConn sports; anyway they have UConn sports by owning AAC rights.
From the ACC's perspective, they have no cable network, so they can't exploit the willingness of CT cable households to pay for UConn sports. So their only way of monetizing UConn is by selling our media rights to ESPN. ESPN has them cheaply already, and ESPN is already maxing out the cable fees in CT. So there's no reason for them to pay the ACC a premium for taking UConn.
This is why I've thought we would go to the B1G, we fit their model much better, giving a hefty amount of money from CT cable and also more exposure/access to B1G alumni in NY and Boston. UConn could easily be worth $30-40 mn to the B1G. But there we have AAU status issues, also lack of a partner to reach 16.
So there is not an obvious way for UConn to monetize its value at the moment. But with continued evolution of TV markets and college sports, such as the D4 initiative, opportunities will arise. There will come a time when UConn and a league/network partner figure out how to grab that value. UConn should build relationships with SNY, Fox, and any non-ESPN TV group that can create a threat of leaving ESPN.
Honestly, I think we can fit in either the B1G or the ACC perfectly fine after hearing all that needed to be said. Whoever grabs us first. And I'd be fully content. I would actually rather have our hockey program in the Hockey East than the B1G.