herodotus wrote:SJHooper wrote:UConn is going to be a 30 for 30 documentary in another 10 years. They are a trailblazer for their level of stupidity and there is no precedent. They will set a new one. UConn will serve as a cautionary tale for greedy wannabe major football schools who are having an identity crisis. Chase the dollars and it can ultimately derail your entire athletic program. There is poetic justice in that. UConn is the first school with a major blue blood national basketball brand that decided it wanted to explode it with TNT in an attempt to become a big time football school. Changing your identity passing off as something you aren't typically doesn't end well...Rachel Dolezal anyone?
I don't think UConn has any delusions about becoming a football power. I think every move they've made was with the idea of getting a P5 invite to protect their basketball programs. Remember, Villanova was worried enough to actually seriously look into doing the same thing, and probably would have had the stadium issues not been so daunting.
Exactly. The football initiative was actually begun in 1991 under then AD Lew Perkins who predicted back then that football would become the driver in college sports and that UConn would be left behind if they didn't upgrade their football program. The only national basketball success that UConn had up to that point was their magical run to the Elite 8 in 1990. Perkins was clearly trying to protect basketball, a sport with which Connecticut fans had long enjoyed a love affair despite their lack of national prominence.
The UConn offer from the Big East to upgrade football with guaranteed membership in Big East Football came in 1997. UConn accepted and began the steps that were required to achieve D1A status. That's a process which takes time with UConn finally joining the Big East in 2004. By 1997 when the key decisions were made, UConn had been to just one more Elite 8. They had not yet reached a Final 4 and they had yet to win their first NC. Although they were winners of multiple BE championships by this time, they really had not yet established themselves as a national power.
BTW, UConn wasn't the first to build up their football program while also having a highly valued basketball program. Louisville had been a national power in basketball since the 1950's and were the most successful basketball program in the country in the 1980's. Nonetheless they invested a fortune in their football program - especially in the 1990's while their basketball program was in decline. It took Rick Pitino to rehabilitate the basketball program and bring it back to where it once was. The difference is that Louisville was successful in gaining a P5 invitation when they were picked over UConn by the ACC. Memphis and Cincinnati have done the same thing while having basketball programs with great histories.
Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2017 7:59 pm
