Could UConn afford to do that back in the early 90s?
Was the political climate in the state "right" for UConn to consider the move? FWIW UConn hired Lew Perkins as its AD in 1990. One of Perkins's first projects was to gather data for the possibility of switching to the DI-A football subdivision. Interestingly enough Perkins feared that if UConn didn't switch football subdivisions, then the school risked falling further behind schools that sponsored both sports at the DI and DI-A (football) levels. Also, it appears at the time UConn had a budget deficit and there was a big concern among the faculty that switching football subdivisions would have loosened the academic standards.
Instead of switching football subdivisions, UConn decided to tear down its 16K on campus football stadium so it could build a multi-million dollar practice facility for its "nationally recognized" basketball teams and the rest is history.
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Posted: 02/25/2019 at 4:49PM