The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
UConn not likely to be involved in any conference realignment
Did you hear the news? Texas and Oklahoma are actively looking to leave the Big 12 and join the SEC, according to a Houston Chronicle report. It wasn’t exactly steadfastly denied by officials from either school, so something appears to be up.
Did you hear the other news? After losing its two marquee programs, the Big 12 will raid the ACC, leaving a void in that league that will obviously be filled by UConn.
OK, that’s just rampant speculation on social media, message boards, even from some media types.
Bottom line, that’s not happening right now. UConn officials scoff at the notion. The school couldn’t be happier to be back in the Big East, and one way it’s showed its gratitude is by agreeing to pay a whopping $30 million exit fee if it were to leave any time within its first six years in the league.
“We didn’t join the Big East to leave,” UConn athletic director David Benedict said back in May, 2020, a little over a month before UConn officially re-joined the league. “They didn’t bring us in to leave, and we didn’t join to leave.”
That fee gradually decreases after six years, but will still be substantial for a while.
Plus, if things were to follow a similar model as UConn’s departure from the American Athletic Conference, the school would have to pay an ACC entry fee. The entry fee to join the Big East was $3.5 million.
And don’t forget, UConn
is still paying the AAC about $1 million a year over the next six years for its own $17 million exit fee, which was largely covered by turning over the school’s share of media rights to the AAC.
Oh, and of course, UConn currently has a $43.5 million athletics budget deficit that has caused the school to drop several sports, among other measures.
But wouldn’t all those deficits be made up for by the financial windfall of joining the AAC? Well, sure. But not for a long time.
Yes, the ACC shares $32.3 million per member school via its media-rights deal. The Big East only shares about $4 million per school. But typically, when a school joins a new conference, it doesn’t become fully-vested for such payments for several years, as Rutgers found out when it joined the Big 10 and Louisville the ACC about seven years ago.
Schools aren’t immediately fully-vested in NCAA units and other payments earned by their new conference, either. UConn won’t be fully-vested in the Big East for another five years.
Now, obviously, a move to the ACC (or another Power-5 league) could ultimately be a great financial boon to UConn. But that is way, way down the line. Too far to even fathom, at this point. UConn is happy to be back in the Big East, where it “belongs,” and certainly doesn’t want to give any indication that it is planning a departure. Because it isn’t.
And let’s face it, maybe the ACC doesn’t even want UConn. The football program isn’t exactly overly attractive.
Regardless, after nearly a decade of dormancy, conference realignment appears to be on the horizon once again. If Texas and Oklahoma do eventually leave, the dominoes will fall. The AAC could perish, with schools like Houston, UCF, Cincinnati and Memphis prime targets for the Big 12. Or it could expand, picking apart the Big 12’s carcass. Plenty of moves could be made by other leagues, as well.
Perhaps, instead of losing UConn, the Big East gains a program from the Big 12, although it’s hard to see other top programs going independent with their football programs.
Or maybe this is all a play for Texas and Oklahoma to garner a better TV contract for the Big 12 and, like about six years earlier, nothing happens at all with the conference.
Right now, it’s all speculation. But don’t speculate that UConn is packing for a Big East departure. That won’t be happening anytime soon — if ever.