HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut’s governor confirmed Monday that the University of Connecticut is interested in becoming part of the Atlantic Coast Conference should the league expand to 16 teams. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy told reporters he no longer expects the ACC to act quickly after adding Pittsburgh and Syracuse from the Big East this month.
“I think there was expectancy built up initially that this was quickly going to be resolved,” he said. “That’s clearly not the case. The ACC has the first decision to make, and that’s whether they’re going to stay at 14 teams or stay at 16. I know that there’s one team, one school that they would like to get into the ACC that would guarantee them going to 16 teams, and that’s been speculated to be Notre Dame.”
Malloy said if Notre Dame isn’t interested, the ACC must decide if there is any compelling reason to expand again.
“Beyond that, then you fall back to the Big East,” he said. “The Big East then has to rebuild itself . . . and has to worry about its ability to compete on the major sports of basketball and football in particular.”
UConn would make the ACC even better in basketball.
The Associated Press
