The world has "givers" and "takers", perhaps too few of the former and too many of the latter.
Geno exemplifies giving to the game of basketball. He has freely shared his coaching philosophy with opposing coaches, scheduled teams that want to raise their profiles and lift their programs to another level and taken myriad other actions over the years that benefited the game of women's basketball and helped grow its popularity. He has done so with the full support of UConn's leadership and the people of the state of Connecticut.
ND has a reputation for doing whatever is good for them.
UConn was a member of the Yankee Conference from 1974 to 1982 when they joined the Big East. Their history is/was stability and partnership with its league members until the conference realignments forced them to move to another league.
Meanwhile, ND has been an opportunist. It was a member of the Northstar Conference from 1977 to 1988, became a member of the Midwest Collegiate Conference from 1988 until 1995, then joined the Big East from 1995 to 2013 at which time they left to join the ACC. None of their moves was forced and their history, especially their separate TV deal for football, has always been school first. Conference? Not so much.
The net result? Big East membership, likely extended in the false hope football would join the conference along with all other sports, greatly benefited their women's basketball program. Then, when ND saw the Big East falling apart during the football lead conference realignments in 2005 and 2013, they jumped to the ACC.
ND has used their conference affiliations time and again for their benefit with little, if any, benefit to whichever conference they happened to be in at the time. As to the series with UConn, it may have filled the void from Tennessee's hissy fit over recruiting Maya Moore, but ND has benefited from the series way more than UConn. UConn leads 37-13, with the 7 straight losses over a two year period from 2011 to 2013 accounting for more than half of ND's wins in the 23 year series. 6 wins in the other 21 years........?
The series became a rivalry for several reasons. The two coaches had a long relationship which eventually lead to some banter back and forth, ND improved dramatically after joining the Big East, regularly playing three times a year made the opposing players familiar to the other fan base which, in turn, bred both admiration and contempt for the opponent.
So I say enough. Let's continue to share the wealth of the UConn brand and move on to build the game in other ways with other schools in other regions. For those concerned about recruiting exposure, UConn's profile is national and Marquette, Butler, DePaul and Creighton offer all the exposure we need in the Midwest.
In the last ten years, South Carolina, Baylor, UCLA, Texas, Mississippi State, Oregon and Oregon State have become worthy opponents. Schedule them and others that are on the rise. Even Duke and Fake Class U.
Finally, we should all remember the Big East was no powerhouse in women's basketball when the league was founded. The SEC ruled. UConn's rise lifted the entire league as others took the challenge and upgraded their programs. As a result, the Big East became equal to or superior to any league in the country. It can, and likely will, be done again with UConn back in the fold and Geno providing the leadership the league needs to grow.
ND wanted out of this year's game. Was it because they could foresee the outcome and didn't want to take the bloom off the rose of Ivey's first year? It's not important why, but let's make it a longer term hiatus. Ivey can recruit all she wants but there's no proof she'll be able to win against loaded Geno teams over the next five years so why schedule five annual blowouts when we can spend our energy building up the Big East and building bigger rivalries with the increased number of high profile programs around the country.
If ND is any good, we'll see how they do against us in the NCAA tournament (just don't play them in the National Semi-Final). And, let ND find out if ESPN and other networks will line up with large TV contracts for annual one off games with them as they have with UConn and its national opponents in the past. Who knows, maybe ESPN sees the rivalry aspect of the game as so big and important for ratings it'll sweeten the pot for UConn to get us to play the "new evil empire".
