There is absolutely nothing in the world more pleasant than waking up on a Sunday morning to find that someone has called you an idiot. It is perhaps this kind of personal attack that has caused some people to leave the Board. But I digress.
In replying to the OP, at no time did I suggest that I personally believed that UConn would be going it alone as an independent. The OP raised the premise that UConn should be compared to ND's football team, which I'm sure you'll admit that even an idiot would know is an independent. In responding to him or her, I simply accepted the premise and answered it. If I had done something else, I would have been comparing apples and oranges. In fact, I do not believe that UConn would ever go independent, or ever be put in a position of having to do so. You're right: What is likely to happen is that it will be in the Leftover League, at least for a while until the other leagues iron out their situations, and will then be in a better league, perhaps the ACC. I actually think that's the best that can be hoped for at this point, and it is, IMHO, likely to happen. I do not see how that makes me miserable or pessimistic or a doomsayer, but you are, of course, entitled to your opinion, as I presume I am. But as this mess (and I don't see how even you can call it anything else) has developed, virtually everything that in the past I've thought and written might happen as a worst-case scenario has, in fact, happened. But as pessimistic as I was, even I did not figure the leftovers would abandoned by the Catholic 7 and would opt to take the millions instead of retaining the Big East brand. I don't think anyone would have thought that possible, never mind likely.
America 12. Great. Sounds like a sailboat.
Here, IMHO, is how women's basketball looks to me right now. There are 4 or 5 top teams at the top and another half-dozen (yes, including NC) scrambling to move up. There is a tad more parity, but still nothing like what's seen in the men's game. Of the top 4 or 5, there is UConn, with a great and deserved reputation but playing in a weakened league. There s Baylor, which will lose Griner but which I believe will field Top 10 or better teams for the next decade. There is Stanford, which operates in its own sphere. Out West where I live, Stanford is compared favorably to Harvard. Whether or not that's accurate, if a player can get into Stanford, she probably will go there. That gives Stanford a huge leg up. There is Duke, which many think of in the same sort of way. And then there's Notre Dame and whether we like it or not, they will continue to field very good teams coached by a top-notch talent. After them come the Kentuckys and Cals of the world.
You know how competitive recruiting is. You don't think those others aren't using UConn's league situation against it? All I'm suggesting is that some of that may be working. All I'm suggesting is this is an interesting time for UConn to had to settle for a one-player class coming in and, as good as that one player seems to be, the team is incredibly vulnerable next year because of the numbers. All it'll take is for Banks to not come back quickly from her surgery and for one other player -- pick one, any one -- to go down for even a couple of weeks with an illness or injury. If that happens at the wrong time in the season, it will not be pretty. I'm not wishing that to happen and I am certainly not predicting it. What I am saying is that if you or anyone else wants to take a realistic look at the team's immediate future, you have to allow for the possibility that these things might happen. And when you start thinking about that, you wonder what might have caused that situation, which leads me, at least, to a consideration of the comparative recruiting situation.
As for North Carolina being the new power, what I said, and have said in the past, is that I believe a trend is developing away from UConn and that North Carolina's phenomenal success is the last couple of years is an example of it.
Actually, in one sense, you are perhaps more pessimistic than I am. You suggest that UConn's chances of getting into a major conference such as the
ACC are about the same as or better than its chances of going independent. Since, as I said above, I believe that UConn definitely will not go independent, and that eventually it will join a major conference, I actually believe UConn's outlook is easily as good as you do.
Despite what you accured me of, are we doomed? No, as I suggested in my post. No team with UConn's proud history and Geno's skill is doomed. But while we wait for the league situation to reslve itself, while UConn is in weakened league and scrambles to find its way into a better league, other teams will have a competitive advantage in recruiting. Short - to middle-term, that could seriously hurt the team's chances over the next 5-10 years. Which is all I ever said in the first place.
I don't think the comparison is about how much money the programs make, but the comparison of ND football to other football programs and UConn women's basketball to other women's basketball teams.
And Uconn won't be an independent team. At worse, they will be part of a crappy conference, which will fill 12-16 games. And Uconn will have NO trouble filling the best OOC schedule to help bring their overall SOS towards the top of WCBB. Only the most negative posters would think that this conference situation will end up with UConn not having an affiliation. You sure do fit the bill.
You mention the tendency of some boneyarders to dismiss every negative analysis. That would be most of your posts. I took a walk down memory lane and you are one of the most miserable posters on this board. Everything that can go wrong with UConn, you seem to believe it will happen.
According to you, UConn will be in a conference with no name (America 12 is the probable name), that North Carolina is the new power in recruiting (after one class), Uconn got it's clock cleaned in 2013 class (but had the best class in 2012), that damage has been already done to UConn women due to the conference situation, and that the new reality could make UConn as irrelevant as La Tech.
"I absolutely love the tendency of some BYers, this one among them, to dismiss every negative analysis, whether well reasoned or idiotic as "we're doomed.""
Well, your negative analysis falls into the "idiotic" category. Most likely will have a top 10 team? How big of you to think that. TOP TEN?? UConn is just as likely, even more likely, to join a major conference over the next year or two than to be independent. And UConn will continue to be a top 3 program for at least the next 3 years, and depending on the 2014 class (which already has the #7 recruit and likely #10) They will be in the top 3 for several years more.
According to you, we are doomed. Not even close.
I think we made a splash in 1995, but we didn't take over the throne until 1999. The vols won three consecutive Championships in 1996, 1997 and 1998 (the Holdsclaw run). I don't believe it will die down. Everyone is panicking because we only have one recruit for 2013, but nobody panicked when we only had Kelly Farris as the lone recruit . We will bounce back. I'm sure of it 
