With the Orange headed to Connecticut this weekend to take on the Huskies, it is important to remember a time in history when both Syracuse and UCONN were both in the Big East. Both schools’ administrations noticed the trouble the conference was having appeasing both the basketball only schools and the football playing members— Syracuse was especially seeing this having gone through the discussions multiple times through the years of the Big East.

At the end of the day, Syracuse ended up in the ACC while UCONN ended up in the AAC.

And while UCONN’s basketball program has managed to continuing competing at a national level, the football program has become even more lost in the national spotlight than it was while playing in the Big East. Not only have both program suffered a dip in recognition, the University has been trying to get into whatever conference will take it, most recently the Big 12.

This could easily have been Syracuse. Without a few decisions that were made over the early 2000s, it’s Syracuse could have been on the outside looking in in this game of musical chairs that feels like it is still going.

And while we could sit here and say that the Orange would be fine because Jim Boeheim would have still been at the helm, and basketball would have rolled. It is impossible to quantify how much being in the ACC has helped. In just two years, you’ve seen a budding rivalry with Duke, good games against UNC, and the formation of potentially the best basketball conference ever. The move to the ACC has also caused the SU basketball team to create likely its best schedule ever this coming season with UCONN, Georgetown, St. John’s and Wisconsin all in non-conference play!

As far as football goes, the ACC allows the Orange to play more regularly in better recruiting grounds and provides an opportunity to turn the program around faster than would be possible in the AAC.

Instead of being the ACC, which could have been undone for a number of ultimately dumb reasons, UCONN is floating in the ether. Desperately trying to get into the Big 12, which makes no sense geographically or athletically.

That could have been Syracuse. But it isn’t and whether that is because the athletic department positioned itself as “New York’s College Team” or because the non-revenue sports became more successful as the years went along. There a number of reasons, but regardless of what that final reason was, Syracuse ended up in the ACC, and UCONN ended up in the AAC. And Syracuse is the only one better off by that decision.