I agree with you that the primary job of any college president is
to improve a school's academic profile. Right or wrong 1 of the tools that can be used to help a school improve its academic profile is to have a highly visible athletic program. The media exposure can help a school cast a wider net because potential students in other regions of the country may reconsider a school because an announcer covering a sporting event casually mentions something academically related about the school.
Now I am not suggesting that people have never heard of UConn because most people know about UConn's bball programs. However, you could have a HS school student, who is a college football fan and not a college bball fan, from ID that may not know anything about UConn's academics. If that ID HS student is watching a UConn football on TV and an announcer talks about 1 of UConn's major, which happens to be a major the ID HS is considering, then it could prompt the HS student to take a look at UConn.
The reason I said the Big XII is a sinking ship is for a number of different reasons.
1. No conference network.
2. Its pulse is depended upon the actions of Oklahoma and/or Texas.
3. The ACC, Big Ten, and Pac-12 will probably be looking to increase its value around the time the Big XII GOR expires. The Pac-12 is "landlocked" in terms of valuable choices. So if the Pac-12 wants to increase its value, then its only option is to add Oklahoma and/or Texas (plus whomever they want to bring with them) before the ACC, Big Ten, or even the SEC adds them.
4. The conference has no clear direction on how to best stabilize the conference and/or even grow the conference in terms of exposure.
I agree with you that the AAC would be a better conference if it decided to add a few/all of the Big XII leftovers. However, outside of maybe WVU I am not sure UConn fans would be more excited to see UConn play Baylor, TCU, Kansas, Kansas St, or Iowa St in football than how they currently feel about UConn playing West Division opponents in the AAC.
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In response to this post by UCHusky90)
Posted: 10/14/2016 at 2:18PM