SDHusky, as the original poster and and a dues paying member of the Syracuse Basketball fanbase who was raised in Connecticut and watched the Connecticut program in it's infancy with Dee Rowe etc... I beg you answer this one question for me since I am really interested in your perspective,
Why do you think UConn was left off of the ACC invite and whe does it seem that none of the remaining major conferences are interested in adding the Huskies?
Your honest answer would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Iwill take a crack at this one since I haven't been involved in the back-and-forth and think I can answer without emotion.
My personal, and truly honest opinion, is that it has had to do with ease of business, timing, and shifting political powers with the ACC.
Ease of Business
It has been widely reported that the ACC's expansion in 2011 was supposed to be: 1) Syracuse; 2) UConn. But, BC was a member of the three panel expansion committee and put up a fight. It is unclear whether we could have pulled enough votes from the ACC as a whole, but it is clear we couldn't get past BC in the expansion committee so Pitt (a strong candidate anyway) was put up as a compromise.
Timing
By the time Maryland had announced its membership in the Big10 UConn had losts its football head coach that lead them to the Fiesta and was on its ways to the second straight 5-7 season, and the basketball team had just lost its hall of fame head coach, had a rookie replacement, and a was on probation. Meanwhile, Louisville was on its way to the Sugar Bowl and had a national contender basketball team. Had the decision been two years earlier you are looking at a BCS football team clearly at least laying a solid foundation with an apparent long-term coach, and a basketball team contending for national title #3 with a hall of fame coach while Louisville football was mired in mediocrity.
Shifting Political Powers
Given UConn's history of success, larger media market, academics, proximatey to New York, and recent historic ties to numerous ACC teams it is unlikely the timing would have mattered without shifting political power. This is not a knock on any particular add, but there is a contingent of schools outside of Tobacco that believe that the ACC expansion has watered down their football product and was, despite evidence to the contrary, was the reason for a lack of bowl success. Given the uncertainty around the ACC / Big12 at the time Maryland announced it was leaving this was a perfect time for those schools to establish their power within the conference. Conveniently, there was a "southern" school (and I do think culture matters) available, having an amazing year, that provided an acceptable alternative. But, the vote was not unanimous as has been reported.
Regarding other conferences:
Big 12:
Right now there is just no fit. UConn would likely accept an offer since travel in the B12 is effectively just as bad of travel as in the AAC, but there is no chance any of the plains state schools was to travel up here, especially since we play outdoors.
Big 10:
Right now, we are too small, too young in football, and not AAU. I will not bore with the details, but UConn is agressively working its academic profile in the Big model. We are adding about 7-10K undegrads (largely in STEM), have invested now close to $4B in the University (biotech, tech, engineering), and have a focussed professor recruiting effort ongoing (about 250 who will bringing many research dollars with them). We are also joining Hockey East this year and are planning a new on-campus arena. These moves are all good in-and-of themselves, but many 'seem' to be positioning for AAU, then maybe Big if the Rutgers experiment needs some help in a number of years. But again, too young right now.
