Conference Realignment: UConn's Pursuit of ACC Invite Could Doom Big East

We get it Connecticut -- you really want to go to the ACC -- but the more the school publicly states its interest in leaving the Big East, the more desperate and pathetic it comes off.

Connecticut Gov. Daniel Molloy told reporters earlier this week that the state school is interested in joining the ACC based on multiple conversations with the school's president.

That, plus multiple reports of UConn working behind the scenes to get into the ACC showed the school's hand to the world.

Everyone in college athletics now knows UConn wants out of the Big East, including its conference compatriots.

Can you imagine how awkward the conference's meeting this Sunday is going to be? Especially when schools talk of banding together knowing that at least one school in the room -- possibly two if you count TCU -- has no real intentions of staying in the conference.

To be fair to Connecticut, it makes sense that the school wants to join the ACC. The ACC offers considerable more stability than a conference that's hanging by its last thread like the Big East.

But the school has made considerable mistakes in its pursuit -- namely being so incredibly public about it all -- and now has set itself up for incredible embarrassment.

That's the issue with being so public about one's intentions, if they fail then you have a whole lot of egg to wipe off.

And believe me, UConn's intentions are going to fail.

The ACC has no interest in adding UConn right now unless it packages itself with Notre Dame. UConn simply doesn't bring enough to the table, i.e. more money, to make it worth it for the ACC to add another mouth or two to feed.

The conference worried about its stability and quickly grabbed the two best schools it could, Pittsburgh and Syracuse. If the ACC really wanted Connecticut it would have added the school right away -- it's not like the ACC somehow overlooked the school in its two raids of the Big East in the last decade.

UConn is unwanted and looks horrible in the public for its groveling attempts to get into the ACC. Similar to Oklahoma's very public rejection by the Pac-12 or West Virginia's by the ACC and SEC, the more you publicly talk about something and are rejected, the worse it looks.

And it's starting to look pretty bad for the Huskies at this point.

There's simply no explaining, no public relations spin anyone at UConn can do for this situation. UConn wants the ACC; the ACC doesn't want UConn.

That's the story and UConn can't spin away that rejection.

Not that it would change anyone's opinion, but the only way UConn can even begin to better the strained relationships with the rest of the Big East is to not only publicly affirm its commitment to the conference, but also make a viable, financial commitment.

Otherwise the instability it creates within the Big East could lead to TCU to defect to the Big 12 -- some say it might already be happening -- and the Big East will ultimately be doomed.

Whether it likes it or not, UConn is stuck in the Big East and needs to end its pathetic attempts at getting in the ACC.

Otherwise it could mean the end for the Big East and UConn could be stuck in a much worse position than it is in now.

Unless of course, UConn would prefer to be in the MAC.