When the University of Connecticut left the Big East in 2013, driven by the scattering of the conference’s football schools in their pursuit of riches, it hoped to find a comfortable landing spot in the newly formed American Athletic Conference. But a floundering football program, difficult travel schedules and the disappearance of traditional rivalries for its flagship men’s and women’s basketball teams have UConn on the verge of returning to the Big East. While many details, including exit fees and what conference the football team would play in, are still being worked out, the move for the 2020-21 academic year could be agreed upon as soon as the coming week, according to a conference official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the move, which was first reported Saturday by the website Digital Sports Desk. The Big East university presidents are expected to convene on a conference call in the next few days to vote on inviting UConn to join the conference. UConn has a board of trustees meeting on Wednesday, when it could vote on accepting an invitation.

Source: New York Times June 22, 2019 22:18 UTC