Big East Day Is Here!
The Story: UConn’s Board of Trustees is expected to accept an invitation from the Big East in all sports except football and men’s and women’s ice hockey at its monthly meeting this morning. There is a press conference scheduled in New York City to announce UConn as the 11th member of the Big East tomorrow.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: UConn has been tight-lipped about this move and will finally go on the record tomorrow. It’s one of the most consequential days in the history of UConn athletics and there is no question this should help men’s basketball get back to national prominence. It’s a good deal for many other sports, sans baseball, which probably is better off in the American. Then there is football. When the euphoria dies down, this issue isn’t going away.
WELCOME HOME: We won’t get into the silly semantics of how the AAC is actually the Big East. The Big East is the Catholic school, basketball-only conference that UConn thrived in for many years. UConn is going back to the Big East. The best part of this move is the ability to play teams in the Northeast such as Providence, Seton Hall, Georgetown, Villanova and St. John’s. The men’s basketball team will also go back to playing in the Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden, which remains one of the best parts of basketball in March. Those core five original members are joined by Marquette and DePaul from the last iteration of the old Big East.
NEW TEAMS? There are some new teams in the Big East. Butler, Creighton and Xavier were all added to the conference after the split. The league is expected to go to 20 league games and play home-and-home series with every team. There is no talk of adding a 12th team, though we would love to see Gonzaga come in, even if it is on the West Coast.
BOTTOM LINE: There is no more discussion. There is no more chance to think about what is happening. UConn is headed out of the AAC and into a familiar place, the Big East. It’s happening, for better or worse for the athletic program.
Life as an Indy in Football
The Story: The football team won’t be in the Big East and needs a home. The football program is in limbo, but we were encouraged by an Associated Press story on the Huskies going independent. That remains the most likely course of action.
SCHEDULING THE HARD PART: The immediate concern is UConn is leaving the AAC in 2020 in football. The only teams on the schedule are UMass, Maine, Indiana and Illinois. That means UConn has to find eight games to play. The sobering part? No one has open dates in 2020. Don’t fear just yet. Athletic director Dave Benedict spearheaded this move and we are assuming has an idea of what the football program needs. UConn isn’t going to fill out its schedule with too many non-FBS teams; rather, it could approach teams who are playing each other and ask them to instead play UConn that year.
GET USED TO THE BUY GAME: What’s a buy game? It’s when you take your program on the road to a big school that pays you sometimes in excess of $1 million to be cannon fodder. There is no return trip. It’s a one-off payday on the road. UConn has avoided these games at all costs in its history, but now it is inevitable. The Huskies’ date at Clemson in 2021 is a buy game. Clemson isn’t coming to Rentschler Field. UConn figures to be an attractive candidate for buy games due to its national brand recognition.
FUTURE LOCKED IN: The Huskies have some home-and-homes locked in through 2025 — Illinois, Indiana, Duke, Purdue, Boston College and N.C. State are slated to visit Rentschler Field at some point in the next six years. The Huskies had a scheduling philosophy over the years of playing home-and-homes and not taking two-for-one offers. That is out the window now. The Huskies at one time wouldn’t dream of moving a home game out of Rentschler to a neutral site (cough Notre Dame cough). Now, the Huskies will have to be more flexible if a historic program wants to play the Huskies at Metlife Stadium, Foxborough, Fenway Park or Yankee Stadium. These are things you have to do to keep the program afloat.
UCONN, WE HOPE, IS STILL COMMITTED TO FOOTBALL: The most bizarre part of the last four days was watching the program boast about new players, commitments, new uniforms and a $1 million makeover of the locker room and weight rooms as national writers wrote the program’s obituary. UConn received two commits since news broke for next year’s recruiting class with Collin McCarthy, a DL from Jackson Memorial High in Jackson Township, New Jersey, and Nick Harris, a DE/TE from Marriotts Ridge High in Maryland. UConn has six commits already for 2020, including four from Florida.
Morning Read
KEMBA TO THE CELTICS? The Boston Celtics are going to go after Charlotte Hornets star and UConn great Kemba Walker in free agency. Walker is in line for a max deal from the Hornets, Celtics or the Dallas Mavericks. (MassLive).
PENDERS NAMED NORTHEAST’S TOP COACH: Baseball coach Jim Penders was named Northeast Coach of the Year for the third time after racking up 39 wins this past season. (UConnHuskies.com)
SPRINGER RETURNS: Houston Astros center fielder George Springer returned to the lineup for the first time in a month last night as he recovered from a left hamstring injury. (Houston Chronicle)
