The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Escape plan
UConn officially leaving AAC in 2020 for $17 million
UConn’s move from the American Athletic Conference to the Big East will be official July 1, 2020.
The school announced Friday it has completed the details of its exit from the AAC, a month after signaling its intention to join the Big East. The AAC bylaws required a 27month notice before departing, but UConn negotiated the early exit.
The cost — $17 million. The AAC’s exit fee is $10 million, so UConn paid an additional $7 million for the right to depart early. The cost will be spread out through the end of the 2026 fiscal year.
UConn is also paying a $3.5 million entrance fee into the Big East.
The school also announced the football program will operate as an independent beginning in 2020. The Big East does not support football — or ice hockey, but UConn is a member of Hockey East — so the Huskies will be without a conference home.
But the move will provide a familiar and comfortable home for the school’s marquee basketball programs, which thrived as members of the old Big East. UConn was a charter member of the conference born in 1979.
Along with Georgetown, Syracuse, Boston College, Providence, St. John’s and Seton Hall, UConn was part of a league that prominently featured basketball. Pittsburgh and Villanova later joined and the conference became a national power, populating the Final
Four in the 1980s and winning two national titles.
The UConn men’s program, under Jim Calhoun, became a national power in the 1990s. The women’s program under Geno Auriemma won the first of its 11 NCAA titles in 1995.
But the conference collapsed under the weight of footballdriven conference realignment. Despite adding footballcentric schools such as Miami and Virginia Tech, the Big East began to struggle as schools departed — Boston College, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, Miami for the Atlantic Coast Conference, West Virginia for the Big 12.
The conference’s Catholic schools split to form their own league, buying the Big East name as they formed an conference without football. UConn was left in the rebranded American in 2013, but the departures continued as Rutgers landed in the Big Ten and Louisville was chosen over UConn for a spot in the ACC.
Sitting on the outside of the Power Five revenue stream, UConn’s existence in the American never seemed sustainable. As its football program struggled on the field and interest waned, some fans called for a return to the Big East and recommitment to the school’s basketball programs.
It happened in June, when the Big East extended an invitation and UConn accepted after the Board of Trustees unanimously approved the move.
The conference formally welcomed UConn at a June 27 press conference at Madison Square Garden.
“The Big East is where UConn belongs,” men’s basketball coach Danny Hurley said. “The league is a great fit for us. The history we have together, UConn has been such a huge part of the history of the conference. It’s just a perfect fit.”
In a statement, UConn athletic director David Benedict said “some of the finest moments in UConn athletics history came during our time as a member of the American Athletic Conference ... we look forward to writing a memorable final chapter in 201920.”