Kolek planning to go pro
URI football plays in the CAA. The original Yankee Conference was the flagship state schools of New England: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
You'd be hard pressed to find another AD in the country that has performed as much positive change as UConn's Dave Benedict has in the past 12 months. He moved the prime money making programs (men's/women's basketball) back to the Big East, reigniting old/regional rivalries and the ability to play in a basketball tournament in NYC (I also expect the women's tournament to move to CT). He successfully created an above average independent schedule for several future years, with only months to arrange, with more regional opponents (Syracuse, BC, UMass, Army, Buffalo, Temple), solid P5 opponents (Purdue, Duke, NC State, Indiana, Virginia, Maryland, UNC) as well as elite-level buy games against national championship-level programs (Ohio State, Clemson, Michigan, Tennessee). Finally, with yesterday's news, he is shaving off $10 million annually of an imbalanced athletics budget (which he inherited) that has an annual $40+ million deficit. Absolutely remarkable.