Irrefutable, Undeniable ...

Plenty to agree with there...

You snooze, you lose.

Yes, all those teams have grown and are stronger than they were. But the future is uncertain. With a TV contract we might come into a period of relative stability, perhaps 5-10 years. But each school's president is going to take action for the long-term. If that means there's a chance at another affiliation that in their judgement is in the best interest of the university (not the football team or the athletic program) then that's a decision for them to make. Hey, I'm excited to play Navy and Boise. Maybe some of the others. But let's play whoever they line up and if realignment happens, so be it.

Sadly, the shallow end of academia in the SEC is appreciably deeper than the new big east.

Memphis, UofL, Boise State, UCF,USF, Cincinatti, SDSU and Houston are all ranked lower according to US News than any team in the SEC. That's 8 out of 11 teams in the BE that aren't strong academically. It is a sad day indeed when the departure of WVU hurt the Big East's academics.

Excellent post.

Last week someone on the board mentioned how Syracuse alumni have really perked up since joining the ACC, anyone who cares to do a little research on the interweb will find that each school the Big East is adding is seeing similar results with their alumni and fanbase. There is plenty to look forward to and I am personally glad the Big East is no longer stagnent.

"because we had no shot in the pecking order over SU/Pitt" I disagree with that part. If it wasn't for DeFelipo and BC, we would probably be in with Cuse. But you are correct in that football won't be horrible in the future big east

I know it's hard to accept but UConn is still a relative upstart. We don't have the athletic legacy of SU, Pitt, or WVU. Our story really is more similar to our new conference mates. We've built something truly special though over the last 2 or 3 decades and have a bright future ahead of us regardless of our conference affiliation. All we can do is try to keep winning and hope that we can keep moving ourselves into better position. The new Big East will be a better football conference on the whole than what we had before and conference realignment is hardly over. We'll be fine in the long run as long as the fans continue to support the Huskies.

Historical football legacy with SU and Pitt, and ongoing football success for WVU, but are you really sure their overall athletic legacies are all that impressive? How many NCAA national championships have the referenced schools actually won? More than UConn? SU has a bunch of lax championships, Pitt a football championship when Tony Dorsett played, WVU was pretty good when Jerry West was 22 yet what national championships has it won of any note?

I agree with almost all of this. I don't think we were lower in the pecking order than Syracuse or Pitt. I think we weren't a realistic target for any other conference up until 2011, because we have been entirely loyal to the Big East all along, and have been very clear about our loyalties as long as Dave Gavitt was alive, and after. I don't think it's any coincidence, that Cuse and Pitt waited until after Gavitt passed to cut the cord. As or the beg harder crap, I completely agree. Nonsense. It's always been either move forward with the big east, or cut out a path on our own.

We have great potential at UConn. We have staying power. We have market presence in the most densely populated region in the country. We have leaderhsp that's committed to growing our financial resources and stability, through means OTHER than media broadcasting, but are also paying close attention to the media world.

The Big East conference is to thank for our presence at the 1-A level of football competition. The Big East has provided a thriving growth potential for numerous football programs over the past 21 years. We have Jim Calhoun, and Big East basketball to thank for the public interest and support of the UConn athletic brand among the 3.5 million residents in the small state of CT, and the 10s o millions in the tri-state area, and we have a greater market share in the Boston/northern new england region, than our former cnference rivals as well.

The physical transformation of the university that has occured over the past 25 years is directly related to our association with the Big East conference and our basketball program since 1979.

Just got to win games. That's all. Commitment to excellence. That's UConn.

Yes, I admit I wish we were going elsewhere. And I'm still gonna go to all the games and have a great time. Bit isn't it a fact that the actual strength of the teams coming in will exceed the that of the teams leaving. And the overall level of play we'll see at The Rent will be at an all-time high? More good teams visiting than ever?

This "cultural misfit" stuff drives me crazy. When BC went one could delude themselves with it but now where are we? We are in a conference that stretches from coast to coast and to the Gulf of Mexico. It is made up of 2 flagship state U's, lots of religious schools ( Catholic and Methodist), a couple of city commuter schools, a few glorified commumity colleges, etc. Can we give the term a little rest?

I think that the cultural differences between the regions of this vast country are undeniable. I think that it's important to have a firm understanding and grasp of how you either are going to assimilate into a different culture, and be absorbed if you're going to go across boundaries, or if you're going to recognize the differences, and generate a mutual respect when boundaries are crossed.

I think that the way that the big east has handled our spread across the country, is very much respectful of the interests and workings of different cultures and their business across the country from east to west and north to south, and that our member institutions, which now include the freaking Naval Academy, are going to continue to maintain that kind of interaction across cultural boundaries from sea to sea.

I think that the way the ACC has operated in the past, and is operation right now, as well as the way the big 12 has operated since it's creation in the 1996, clearly represents a cultural assimilation process of absorbing the cultures coming in subservient to the dominant local culture.

So - I do agree, that "cultural misfit" is probably a term that should go away, but the term...."cultural assimilation", most definitely applies.