Re: UConn Hires Consulting Firm
That could just be short term. Though UConn doesn't seem to care too much about on-campus atmosphere for its sports, so who knows.
With pretty valid reasons for both (40,000 would be a nightmare to clear out of Storrs on football game days, for one).
That article seems to have a strong bias in it. The whole notion of Hockey East extending an "open invitation" feels like a stretch to me. In the current state of UConn's Hockey Program I don't see much of a reason why Hockey East as a conference would want them in. Certainly after a lot of changes to the program, upgrades to the facilities, and showing potential of strong success they could be a program that Hockey East would be interested, but that is something that we'll not see in the next year to two. Hockey East has stated already that they are not in a rush to add a twelfth member just to ease scheduling.
I think the "open invitation" is really more like "If you were to call, we won't put you through to voice mail, but you'd better not waste our time." The fact that HEA is in no rush is actually a boon for a potential UConn entry; it gives us time to do a thorough job in putting together our plan. If the league were truly in a rush, they'd have already moved.
The big question I guess is will HE want to give them a shot? I mean based on comments made this year it appeared BC AD did not want UCONN in the ACC since they can't get over the separation in 2004 and why should we think that they would feel any different about UCONN going to HE? Does HE require unanimous consent to admit a new member? I hope UCONN goes for it and gets in. Than we would finally have every state in New England with at least one team in the conference.
The situations are far from analogous. The basic motivations I see in BC's desire to keep UConn out of the ACC are as follows: (1) the 2003 lawsuit and ensuing comments*, and (2) ensuring BC remains the top, or possibly only, major college football team in New England.
My understanding of the "Syrapitt" expansion was that (a) the ACC wanted to move quickly, (b) BC's influence over the process was increased because DeFilippo was on the three-man 'recommendation' committee (influence they would have not had had UConn been brought up to a full vote of the league presidents), (c) UConn was brought up as a potential candidate at some point in the process (I have no doubt that one of the unnamed ten teams that had applied for membership was UConn), and BC said, in essence, "We will keep this from happening if UConn is even considered." UConn wasn't considered, and Syracuse and Pitt were the two teams that got through to the actual vote of the members (not that we would have been a slam dunk entry; I'm certain Miami would join as a "no" based on the 2003 lawsuit, and it would not have been hard to convince FSU and Clemson to vote no on football grounds, which makes for <75%).
In hockey, only the first of the two considerations would affect BC's decision (since they're not even the only major college hockey team in their own city), and because Hockey East has no particular rush to get a 12th member, there's less likelihood of a situation arising where BC can have more than one vote's worth of influence over the proceedings. At this point, the only way BC can realistically keep UConn from entering is if the membership vote needs to be unanimous (and the other members would know that before they even tried to bring UConn up, meaning UConn would NEVER be a candidate as long as BC was a member).
*Which haven't stopped the two schools from playing contests in minor sports, mind, just football and hoops.
