As you may or may not have heard, the Tennessee Volunteers have dropped the UCONN women from their basketball schedule. I know this comes as a shock to everyone here in Huskyland as well as in Knoxville.

Two years ago, Pat Summitt had this to say about the rivalry:

“This is not always been, in my opinion, a rivalry that’s healthy and enjoyable,” she said. “And it’s not about the wins and losses. In the big picture, it’s been good for, in my opinion, both programs and the game. That’s why I’ve decided to continue it from our side.”

Back in January, Summitt added this:

“Whether you are playing at Tennessee or here in Hartford, it is an environment that is the biggest stage in women?s basketball in the regular season,” Summitt said. “It is exciting, and when you play against an opponent like Connecticut, you learn a lot because they are obviously very talented, very well coached.

The Tennessee sports information director said that they can’t comment on the situation until late July per the SEC. Tennessee women’s athletic director Joan Cronin released this statement:

“Tennessee has elected not to renew its series with the University of Connecticut. The Lady Vol basketball team will continue to enjoy its rivalry games with teams from the Big East, the ACC, the Big 12, the Pac-10 and other conferences. Year in and year out, we pride ourselves on the strength of schedule we play and our RPI.”

Former UCONN women’s great and current ESPN analyst Rebecca Lobo weighed in as well.

“No matter who they schedule to fill that spot, it’s not going to matter,”

“I’m tremendously disappointed, as somebody who was part of the start of it, as a fan, as someone who’s had a chance to cover it. It’s bad for the game that it’s not being played anymore. It’s the one game casual sports fans were attracted to. It’s a shame all the way around. I don’t know what the reasons are, but whatever they are, they’re not good ones.”

“I can’t imagine it’s for financial reasons. If it’s for personal reasons on either side, that’s just bad, and it’s bad for the game.”

Geno Auriemma hasn’t commented publicly on the situation nor has Pat Summitt. I’d have to guess that Geno isn’t probably thrilled with this. ESPN isn’t happy either. They just got back the rights to the game from CBS for this season.

“We’re disappointed,” ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz said. “It’s been an annual highlight, a great thing for the sport.”

Jeff Jacobs has an excellent column about this over at the Hartford Courant.

[Information from the Hartford Courant, New Haven Register, and Knoxville News was used in this post. No animals were harmed either.]