SportsPulse: USA TODAY Sports’ Paul Myerberg breaks down his college football offseason rankings USA TODAY
At the outset of this decade, there was a deep belief among administrators at the schools most vulnerable in the conference realignment craze that building a strong, steady college football program would be the way to salvation.
Those who got left behind the first time — the University of Connecticut chief among them — were hopeful that mid-major purgatory wouldn’t last forever. UConn couldn’t do anything about its media market, or being unable to add fertile recruiting territory to a power conference or getting boxed out of the ACC by Boston College.