Reports: UConn On Verge Of Returning To Big East

Whenever conference hoops tournaments roll around at the dawn of March Madness, many of us do a double-take upon seeing Connecticut's affiliation. Wait a minute, we ask, don't the Huskies belong to the Big East?

We tend to associate schools with leagues, and none was linked more than the Huskies with the one they helped put on the sports map. For most of us, it has never sunk in that they wound up with the American Athletic Conference (AAC), which was created as a rebranding of the old Big East, thus contributing to the confusion.

Since the Huskies split, a 2.0 version of the Big East was born, consisting of schools without D-I football programs. Now, according to reports, UConn is on the verge of switching back to its former conference.

The move, driven partly by economics, could restore some luster to a men's basketball program that has collected four NCAA titles since 1999, all but one as a Big East card-carrier.

An exit fee of $10 million required by the AAC will hurt, but UConn frowns upon an unfavorable television deal signed by its current league. The athletics department operated last year with a $41 million deficit, says the Hartford Courant, and more TV revenue combined with a likely upgrade of the basketball arena that will generate more bucks is alluring.

What should enhance hoops could hamper football. The Huskies might have to navigate as an independent if they cannot stay in the AAC, which seems improbable, or find a landing spot other than the football-averse Big East.

Huskies home football games averaged just 21,000 tickets distributed, nearly half of the peak in 2010, during a one-win season.

No change is imminent. AAC rules stipulate that a university must submit notice 27 months in advance. Unless a quicker exit is arranged, likely for a higher fee, the Huskies are stuck until the 2022 football season.

Not until after then, it seems, will we look at brackets for league tourneys in March and wonder why the heck UConn isn't on the one for the Big East.