UConn To Rejoin Big East Conference

UConn hires URI's Dan Hurley as new head coach

After a somewhat short-lived vacation playing as an American Athletic Conference member, sources believe UConn‘s sports teams plans to rejoin the Big East before the year finishes out. Although the votes confirming the move from UConn’s trustee board remain momentarily not cast, a meeting and later official announcement appears likely during the upcoming week.

Amid the speculation, UConn expectedly gave little insight to the situation as they released a statement saying, “Our responsibility to always be mindful of what is in the best interest of our student athletes, our fans and our future. With that being said, we have been and remain proud members of the American Athletic Conference.”

If these rumors surrounding UConn come into fruition, they’ll face off against more prominent teams such as Seton Hall, Marquette, Providence, Xavier and others. The conference’s most recently successful team, Villanova, who won men’s basketball championships in 2016 and 2018, rounds out the new fraternity of potential opponents that generally play to far higher levels than the less impressive AAC teams.

UConn basically founded the Big East as an initial member during the conference’s creation in 1979. UConn initially left the conference, following other departing teams such as Pittsburg, Syracuse, St. John’s, Georgetown and others, hoping the move would work to generate more money for their basketball programs. However, after some experiment years building up little momentum apart the smaller and less prominent AAC, UConn appears to be coming home.