What conference is uconn football in ? STORRS, Conn. — The talk of college football right now is conference realignment, as numerous Pac-12 schools, the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and the University of Utah announced their departure from the conference to the Big 12 this past week. One school that was also swept up in this discussion was UConn.
The Huskies have already been a part of the conference movement when it moved to the AAC conference in 2013 from the Big East in the hope to boost its football program. They eventually moved back to the Big East in 2020 for the future of their prominent basketball program, and the football program is now a non-conference team.
On Tuesday, UConn Head Coach Jim Mora reacted to the rumors swirling over social media of a potential move to the Big 12 and endorsed the football program’s hopeful leap to a Power Five conference in the future.
“I want us to be in a power five conference because I think it helps our athletic department. I think it helps every student-athlete. It certainly helps the football program and I think that we’re building something that is earning the right to be in a Power Five.” said Mora. “This football team will compete with Power Five football teams. We have the facilities. We have the people.
We do more with less than any athletic department in the country. This program was a proud, strong program years ago. We’re getting back to that. And I hate to use the word ‘deserve’ because to me, the word ‘deserve’ is an entitled word. But I think we are earning the right to be in a Power Five, and we’ll compete against anybody.”
Mora is also no stranger to the inner workings of the Pac-12 as he was a former head coach at UCLA and has long-standing ties to the conference. UCLA is now Big 10 bound. He said what’s happened to a once prominent conference in the college football landscape is unfortunate.
“My dad coached in the Pac-8. I played in the Pac-10 and coached in the Pac-12. I’ve always had an affinity for the Pac-12. I’m sad to see what’s happened with the Pac-12,” said Mora.
But Mora has a team to worry about this year and can’t focus on the Huskie’s far future when there are many things this season that are still up in the air. Most notably, their starting quarterback position. He’ll have to choose from Ta’Quan Roberson, Zion Turner, Tucker McDonald, and Joseph Fagnano.
Conference realignment is changing by the minute. Here’s where UConn fits in
Another conference realignment domino was reportedly set to topple Friday with Arizona, according to numerous media outlets, inching closer to leaving the disintegrating Pac-12 for membership in the Big 12.
That news, the latest in a frenetic change-by-the-hour cycle, left UConn hanging more precariously in its hopes to join a lucrative power conference.
Adding Arizona would push the Big 12, which previously plucked Colorado from the Pac-12, up to a membership of 14 institutions. The conference could opt to reach 16, with two other Pac-12 schools, Arizona State and Utah, reportedly applying for formal Big 12 membership Friday. That would complete the “Four Corner Schools” acquisitions and leave UConn out of Big 12 expansion.
There are many scenarios potentially in play for UConn, ranging from simply remaining in the basketball-centric Big East for the foreseeable future, to membership in the Big 12 if other planned marriages never actually materialize, to becoming a central figure in more radical change that is already taking over the national landscape and will continue into the coming months and years.
UConn’s odds of repositioning itself ebb and flow with the fallout from actions and reactions of others, with possibilities in Storrs impacted by decisions on campuses and in boardrooms thousands of miles away. Connecticut’s flagship university is not alone in uncertainty.
Is the term “Power Five” now extinct? If not, it is headed that way. The SEC and Big Ten have all the muscle and stabilization and they’re only getting stronger in membership and money. The Big 12, which lost signature schools Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC, has reinvented itself with a growing list of members.
But Pac-12 upheaval and, more so, a murky ACC future could open separate sets of conversations that figure to involve UConn, in some capacity.
The Pac-12 is actually on the verge of elimination, an astounding development even in an era that has taught us to expect anything. The conference lost UCLA and Southern Cal to the Big Ten and was in complete survival mode as of Friday, down to nine teams — before an Arizona departure, without Arizona State and Utah packing their bags.
If those schools leave, and if Oregon and Washington leave for the Big Ten, a situation ESPN is reporting as inevitable, the Pac-12 is essentially reduced to a memory. What would remain is California, Stanford, Washington State and Oregon State. The Pac-12 hasn’t even finalized and/or announced its media deal, which is or was reportedly driven by Apple TV.
Meanwhile, the ACC is perhaps emerging from the background with slow momentum toward its own version of a meltdown, signaling other possibilities on the horizon for UConn.
The ACC is a 15-school conference and a divided group, with the so-called “Magnificent Seven” schools reportedly dissatisfied with equal revenue distribution. Florida State, Clemson, Miami, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Virginia and Virginia Tech have reportedly explored the possibility of leaving the ACC and/or getting out of a contract that grants media rights to the conference through 2036.
Say they all leave or force upheaval? Is there not room for UConn, as part of whatever breakdown and rebuild, to join an athletic neighborhood with Boston College, Duke, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Wake Forest? (Notre Dame is a member of the ACC for all sports except football.)
UConn has crossed paths, and shared courts and playing fields, with so many of those institutions, from old Big East rivalries with Syracuse and Boston College to classic NCAA Tournament matchups with Duke and beyond. Geographically, UConn fits right in with those schools. UConn could be viewed as a logical partner in areas of competition and facilities and potential, too. The Huskies would expect to build its football program into a product on par with many of those schools. Maybe UConn fits as a member of that group or other, even as part of an arrangement of unequal distribution — but annual payouts that far exceed the $4 million or so coming in from the Big East.
It’s all speculation, and everything is fluid. UConn is said to have felt great about its Big 12 prospects early this week. Now that week is ending and the possibility seems less likely, even with longstanding support of commissioner Brett Yormark.
In UConn, Yormark sees a wider Big 12 national footprint, an entry point to the Northeast marketplace and another powerhouse program in men’s basketball, the sport he is doubling down on in a world that revolves around football.
But the Big 12 board and university presidents have been skeptical, and UConn football’s recent track record is a major sticking point. The Huskies cascaded to the bottom of FBS football, in both winning percentage and perception, largely under Randy Edsall and during a time of general athletic transition over a period of six years.
UConn gameday timeline
- 2:30 p.m. The parking lots open for season ticket holders
- 3:30 p.m. The parking lots open for single-game ticket holders
- 4:30 p.m. The ticket office opens
- 4:45 p.m. The “Husky Walk” will be at held, where fans can greet the team, band and cheerleaders
- 5:30 p.m. The pregame concert will feature Neon Union. It will be at the Powerstation Events Sound Stage at Gate C
- 6 p.m. The gates open and fan fest begins
- 7:10 p.m. The pregame show will be held
- 7:30 p.m. Kickoff
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