Brian Hamilton and Dana O'Neil answer your offseason college basketball questions and build the perfect NCAA Tournament site map.
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The Athletic.
From the mailbag, question and responses on UConn:
If UConn were to leave the Big East, who should the Big East try to bring in for a new school? – Zach G.
Wouldn’t Coach Hurley and Coach Auriemma want UConn to stay in the Big East? If they want to stay, how much influence would they have on the university’s decision? – Jack D.
Dana: Let me preface this by saying I find the whole idea of UConn leaving the Big East maddeningly, infuriatingly stupid. When the school last tried to go all in on football, riding the huge tidal wave of that one Fiesta Bowl experience, it nearly cost the Huskies their identity. The school was lucky to get back into the Big East. What’s the saying? First time, shame on you?
I would love to think that Dan Hurley, hot off a national title, and Geno Auriemma, who is personally responsible for most of the trophies in the UConn cases, would have a say. But coaches’ opinions are rarely sought when it comes to conference realignment. I would think it would behoove university administrators to listen to their coaches in the trenches, and think real hard about doubling down on a sport in which they have a financially-draining relationship with the state for use of a stadium, and no discernible track record in winning. Alas.
As for Big East expansion, Val Ackerman is on record about being very cautious about movement, and rightly so. While everyone else chases their tails and reinvents their identities on the fly, the Big East’s success is based on selectivity and knowing what it is. The league does not need to expand just to expand; it needs to expand only if it’s going to help the conference. Loyola Chicago’s stutter move to the Atlantic 10, I’d imagine, gives everyone pause. The jump up in competition isn’t easy. Dayton and Saint Louis are viable options, for example, but which can be immediately Big East ready? I’d argue Dayton more, but how does Xavier feel about that? Gonzaga remains a really tricky, if not geographically impossible, pipe dream.
Short answer: Just because UConn might make a rash decision, that doesn’t mean the Big East ought to follow.
Brian, feel free to argue against.
Brian: There is no argument against. UConn belongs in the Big East, full stop. Money has a way of getting presidents and administrators to twist logic beyond all recognition, so I also have zero confidence UConn stays where it belongs. Just hope I’m wrong.
If UConn bolts, I don’t know that there’s a brilliant fit out there. The league would prioritize programs that make the NCAA Tournament regularly, because it doesn’t want to bring in fewer tournament units — and thereby less money — and split the pot with the same number of members or more. Dayton says it operates like a power conference program, but it also hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2017 (Pour another one out for the 2019-2020 Flyers). Harder to manage out of the Atlantic 10, of course … but that’s still a glaring absence.
The gangster move is Syracuse. Whether UConn leaves or not. Probably not likely to convince a place with a former television executive as athletic director to deprioritize football, and the grant-of-rights legal entanglements likely make this a non-starter. But this is conference realignment. Never think something can’t be done. A revitalized Syracuse men’s hoops program, playing where it belongs, could lift a lot of boats — much like it has for UConn.
