UConn Returning to the Big East Could Have a Trickle Down Effect to Appalachian State and ETSU

Mountaineers to the American? FBS football in Johnson City? Consider the scenarios!

Tri-Cities based sports talk show host Marky Billson

The all-but-guaranteed return of the Connecticut Huskies to the Big East Conference will be a boon for the Huskies’ basketball programs and a return to tradition.

It will restore some old rivalries, a welcome switch in college athletics with the trend of dissolving rivalries due to conference realignment.

In an era when so many college rivalries are dissolving, the probability of UConn playing Georgetown again, like in this 1989 shot of Alonzo Mourning (L) and Cliff Robinson (R), is delicious!

But it will also open up a spot in the American Athletic Conference for another member.

Could that be Appalachian State?

The Mountaineers would improve the conference’s football status; after all this was a nationally ranked program just last year. They’d theoretically add the 23rd largest television market to the conference, as Boone is gerrymandered in to the Charlotte television market, and a rivalry with East Carolina would figure to be born.

Appalachian considers some of the greater Tri-Cities to be part of its market. During the years when ETSU didn’t have football it was not uncommon for businesses as…