UConn likely to depart from the AAC in 2020

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Joseph Barringhaus

The American Athletic Conference banner is dropped during the State of The American pep rally.

Multiple sources around the country have announced that UConn will depart from the American Athletic Conference in all sports, taking effect in 2020.

According to ESPN, the Huskies are expected to return to the Big East for basketball, the conference the school left in 2013. The Big East does not have a league for football, so the future of the UConn football program is in the air. As of now, sources believe the Husky football team would go independent after the 2019 season, like Notre Dame is now, until they can find a home in another conference.

The UConn women’s basketball team has been practically unchallenged since joining the conference, posting a perfect 102-0 regular season record, and 18-0 tournament record in its six years with the AAC. During the stretch, the team has won three national titles, and reached the Final Four in those six years.

As for men’s basketball, the return to the Big East will bring back memories of the times that made the program a national blue blood. In its first stint with the conference, from 1999-2013, the team won three national championships. The fourth title in the program’s history came in its first season in the AAC, 2014.

Nothing is 100 percent official at this point, as the UConn Board of Trustees has not yet voted on the move. The vote is expected to pass, according to ESPN and multiple sources. An official announcement could come as soon as next week.

No word has been announced about potential replacement schools for UConn in the American. According to ESPN, adding Air Force or Army as a football-only school is a possibility. That would be the same route the conference took with adding Navy as a football-only school. As for basketball, the conference wants another historically successful basketball school.

UConn’s pending departure was first reported by the Digital Sports Desk.