At least UConn isn't as low on the pole as Rice. Rice used to be in a Power Conference in the old Southwest Conference. Now it is stuck in Conference USA 2.0 with only dreams of ever being invited to the American Conference.
It was kind of sad watching UConn women's basketball play a conference championship game against USF. It would have been more interesting seeing UConn vs. Maryland or UConn vs. Notre Dame for a conference championship.
I can see that, based on the second paragraph, you don't think UConn is playing in an appropriate league, so I know where you stand on the issue. Don't take the rest of this post as an insult, because I can see you don't hold us in the same regard as Rice, but if we are going to make the comparison, let me just state the following, (and as a UConn infomercial and not as a condemnation of your post):
Sure, we both used to be in power conferences, but the similarities end there. Rice is a nice little school playing in a league that is probably just right for them.
We are the land-grant, public university of the wealthiest state in the country. We are a top 20-public university that is quickly becoming the flagship institution for stem cell research in the entire country, with a remaining academic profile akin to most other schools which are commonly bandied about as being top quality institutions of higher learning. We are not quite on the level of Rice regarding academics, but our profile is not insignificant. We have a state that supports the university's infrastructure to the tune of over $3.8B pledged in the past twenty years for campus improvements, and have, entirely through private donations, completed state-of-the-art football and basketball practice and team facilities lauded as being amongst the finest in the country within the past ten years. We are a proven athletic powerhouse. We have a far larger fan base in a geographical area where college sports isn't already oversaturated. We are the largest and most athletically and academically relevant public school in New England, a region that, with 15 million people, would be the fifth largest state in the union. We have won nineteen national championships in three different sports (four if you consider men's and women's basketball to be different sports), and have a total of twenty varsity teams. We are the only school to have participated in a BCS Bowl, and men's and women's basketball final fours in the same school year- the same school year we sent our baseball team to the Super Regionals. We are the only game in town and also move the needle in the biggest town in the country, which just happens to be 140 miles from our doorstep and only 35 miles from our state's border.
Rice is cute and all, but this tumble is far more tragic.