Sights and sounds from the UConn-Big East wedding at The Garden

NEW YORK — As surreal as it still seems for many UConn fans, Thursday at Madison Square Garden just felt right. UConn’s mascot stood in the lobby of MSG, as it has done on so many mid-March occasions, videos of Big East Tournament heroics — from Ray Allen to Kemba Walker — played on a pair of monitors, associate commissioner John Paquette introduced the Huskies like he has done countless times before.

It became real when UConn was officially introduced as a member of the conference Thursday afternoon: UConn is headed back to the Big East.

Over the past few days, the UConn administration has been frustratingly quiet about the impending move. The university wanted to respect the Big East’s process, and that involved keeping quiet until the press conference. Finally, Ackerman, athletic director David Benedict, President Susan Herbst, and basketball coaches Dan Hurley and Geno Auriemma were able to open up. Here’s how it all came together and what the next year-plus will look like, on the court and off.

How we got here

The “UConn to the Big East” rumors have come and gone throughout the Huskies’ entire tenure in the American Athletic Conference. Benedict acknowledged that UConn has had interest for quite some time, but the talks did not heat up until shortly after the 2018-19 basketball season ended. Hurley confirmed that contrary to speculation, he had not been in the loop for long. The administration kept him updated on the progress, but this was not something he expected when he took the job last spring.

Benedict didn’t say as much, but the AAC’s new TV deal appears to have played a major factor in this. The university was publicly angry with the terms of the deal, which endangered its longstanding relationship with SNY in favor of streaming on ESPN+. In the Big East, UConn’s home and conference basketball games will first belong to FOX, which can then license any to other networks, including SNY. Benedict says discussions between the networks would take place down the road.

As the press conference demonstrated, this move is primarily about basketball, even though the Huskies will bring a total of 20 sports to the Big East. The Big East has been markedly better than the AAC in men’s and women’s basketball over the time that both leagues have existed and, just as importantly, the schools in the Big East carry much more weight among fans and recruits.

“This puts us in the position to have a different kind of conversation with prospective student athletes that’s much more relevant to them,” Benedict said.

Ultimately, it came down to UConn taking control of its own legacy — a narrative that reporters have been quick to latch onto in recent days. The university could have continued to sit around, waiting for that Power 5 invite, but as the men’s basketball program withered and the football program became a laughing stock, it became clear that it wasn’t happening any time soon.

“All of us coaches at Connecticut, since 2013, have always been in limbo,” Auriemma said. “Where are we going? ‘Well it depends on the football thing.’ What happens next? ‘Well we’re gonna get invited to the ACC so we have to hang in there and make this work.’ Then it didn’t. ‘That’s OK, we’re gonna go to the Big 12.’ Then we didn’t. Now, I hear people talking ‘we’re gonna go to the Big Ten. No we’re going to the Southeastern Conference.’ And at some point you have to look at yourself and go ‘no we’re not.’”

Auriemma went on to say that if football was bringing in $40 million a year like it does at the Power 5 level, then the other athletic programs would have to suck it up and settle for whatever conference they were in. But that wasn’t happening, and there was no reasonable path to making it happen, so it became time to move on.

What’s next

Benedict says he plans to sit down with AAC commissioner Mike Aresco in the coming days to discuss how to make the transition as seamless as possible. That will primarily center on when UConn is going to leave the conference and how much it will pay for an exit fee. Under conference bylaws, teams wishing to withdraw from the league must give 27 months notice and pay a $10 million fee. Reports have suggested the timeline will be negotiated down so that UConn can begin play in the Big East at the start of the 2020-21 school year. In return, that would likely mean a higher exit fee.

According to the contract that UConn signed with the Big East this week, the Huskies must join by July 1, 2022. Ackerman said on Thursday that the earliest they will be able to join is July 1, 2020. Logically, UConn’s goal would be to make this move next July, and if that’s going to happen, the university needs to act soon. The Huskies have only four football games scheduled for 2020 and finding an additional eight will not get any easier as the summer wears on.

Asked about speculation that the AAC may let UConn remain in the conference as a football only member, Aresco threw cold water on that by saying “no chance.” He held a call with the presidents of the remaining AAC institutions on Friday to discuss a path forward for the league.

From a basketball standpoint, a 2020 entry would coincide perfectly with each program’s plans (granted, in women’s basketball, the team is always one of the best in the country anyway). Hurley seems to be building the men’s team toward one that will be nationally competitive in two years with Howard phenom and transfer RJ Cole set to join a top-20 recruiting class that is enrolling this season. As for the women, 2020 would also be when Tennessee transfer Evina Westbrook gains eligibility (unless she gets a waiver for this year) and No. 1 overall recruit Paige Bueckers enrolls. UConn should be ready to make a statement on the court in its first season with both programs.

The football question

This is the question most people have and it’s one that, unfortunately, still isn’t clear. Despite the media narrative, Benedict and Herbst continue to insist that football will be a priority for the school, wherever it winds up. With the AAC seemingly out of the picture, the most likely option would be to play as an independent. Scheduling will be difficult, but Benedict provided some hope there:

“I’ve had multiple inquiries from, I think, schools that not only our current student athletes and coaches, but our fans would all really, really enjoy seeing us play,” Benedict said. “I’m looking forward to getting that process started and tackling all of that very soon.”

He also reminded media that the Huskies just unveiled a state-of-the-art locker room at Rentschler Field, reinforcing the school’s investment.

UConn already has future games on the schedule with Purdue, Illinois, and Indiana, and just recently announced a series with Duke. The Huskies could be expected to add other independent schools like UMass and Army if they do not join a conference.

“We’re going to sponsor D-I football and we’re going to compete like heck and we’re going to try to get back to a place we’ve been before,” Benedict said.

As for television, a report surfaced on Thursday that SNY would have interest in carrying games. Given the Big East’s relationship with FOX, there’s speculation there as well.

Auriemma, always the advocate for the university’s other programs, not only doubled down on Benedict’s sentiment that the school wasn’t giving up on football but said doing so would be foolish.

“I know we can’t say football doesn’t matter because it does matter,” he said. “It matters to a lot of people in Connecticut. It matters to a lot of alums, a lot of fans. It matters.”

Fan reaction

Auriemma estimated that 90 percent of UConn fans support the move. There’s been no formal study, of course, but it does seem like it has overwhelming support. Thursday afternoon, fans flocked to Legends, the de facto UConn bar near Herald Square to celebrate. Benedict, Auriemma, Hurley, and (most importantly) Jonathan the live Husky mascot mingled and thanked fans for sticking with the program.

Benedict told reporters that since news leaked of UConn’s move last Friday, two thousand people have either renewed or purchased new season tickets.

Less than 24 hours after the Board of Trustees made it all official, the Husky Excellence Fund, which supports UConn athletics, reported 79 individual donations of $19.79, in honor of the year the Big East was founded. Meghan Bard of A Dime Back also reports that the Husky Ticket Project, a group that raises money to send kids to football games, raised an additional $450.

The biggest fan of UConn’s switch to the Big East, however, might be Hurley. The UConn coach played for Seton Hall and has fond memories of the Big East Tournament as a student-athlete. When he began his coaching career at New Jersey’s St. Benedict’s high school, he said he used to find a sub for his afternoon history class so that he could sneak out to quarterfinal Thursday at The Garden. He says the Big East is great as it is, and adding a UConn program on the upswing will only make it better.

Asked if UConn’s addition now makes it “the real Big East,” he smiled.

“It does now,” he said.