Full disclosure: There are many loyalists of other state colleges and universities who gag routinely as they perceive legislators, lawmakers and politicos fawn over UConn, at the expense of their institutions.

Totally understood. And with merit. Still, I’ve got to say that if I’m UConn president Radenka Maric or athletic director David Benedict right now, I might approach Gov. Ned Lamont with an absorbing, “SAY WHAAAT?”

It’s almost bemusing, if it weren’t so pathetic. The XL Center has been in need of repair for years - the years when UConn basketball filled the place and its fans occupied downtown eateries, businesses and parking garages - that only now when the pipe dream of the NHL has surfaced, well, suddenly fixing the XL is more pressing than a head trauma.

Lamont, whose suddenly increased interest in the old barn corresponds to NHL rumors, said Monday that he has a group of investors interested in bringing the Arizona Coyotes to Hartford, but declined to discuss the dramatis personae. Then he acknowledged the XL Center “would need to undergo multi-million dollar renovations to attract a team.”

Noooo. Really?

It’s been like this for 20 years, your governorship. And now after cursory attention and bandages/chewing gum/duct tape repairs, the “promise” of hockey is the catalyst for the epiphany?

What, UConn hasn’t won enough, drawn enough and done enough in the last 20 years?

"The infrastructure to the XL is still pretty solid. They did some work on it as you remember, sadly about 30 years ago,” Lamont told Hearst Connecticut Media. “And it’s right downtown, we have a lot of development opportunities around there that people are interested in."

Did those opportunities just arise, or have they existed for years? (This is known as a rhetorical question.)

Or perhaps the truth here lies in the words of UConn fan Chris Licata, who tweeted Tuesday, “When you own the arena and you more or less own the tenant, the needs of the tenant aren’t going to matter because you have them over a barrel. Once a private tenant moves in, you’ll need to open your wallet because they have other options.”

I’ve written this so many times that it’s now part of a permanent cut and paste on the old ChromeBook. The same folks whose hockey-colored glasses advocate for a new building all but assassinated the original XL Center plan some years ago that called for a $250 million makeover.

Three years ago, Mike Freimuth, who runs the Capital Region Development Authority, the quasi-public state agency that oversees the arena, presented a $100 million “lower bowl strategy” version designed to “shrink” the arena to around 11,000 seats for certain events, while also preserving the upper bowl capacity to reach 16,000 by using a special walling system.

It was a good faith effort to assuage some financial burden. It should have been the launch point for productive discussion that would give downtown Hartford a shiny, new grande dame and a building that befits “the college basketball capital of the world.” Instead? There went the metaphorical can again, majestically careening toward Birmingham.

But now with the thought of the beloved Whalers returning, Lamont suddenly champions the idea. Note to the governor for 117th time: Fix the damn building regardless. Know why? Because UConn is the state’s de facto professional sports brand. Sixteen national championships in 28 years. Routinely brings people to downtown Hartford, 45,000 strong for the last championship parade in April.

Why must we continue to debate the bona fides of the most successful overall college basketball program in the country playing in the capital city? And spare me the patronizing “burden on taxpayers” ballad. Given the joy UConn has brought said taxpayers in the last 30 years, how many of them would actually care if this was entirely state funded?

Freimuth said there are 80,000 UConn alumni within 30 minutes of XL, three UConn campuses in Hartford (Law, Business and Regional) and several downtown corporate sponsors supporting UConn. I get that a vocal minority of aggrieved taxpayers will shout damnation at the world over an entirely state-funded plan. But everybody else? The 80,000 alumni within shouting distance? The 45,000 at the parade? The 15,500 who will show up at every game next year to watch the defending national men’s champs and 11-time women’s champs with a healthy Paige Bueckers?

Know what they’ll say?

Build the damn thing, Whalers or not.

Because I have my doubts as to whether the Bruins, Rangers and Islanders will like the idea of another NHL team close to their markets, even if Hartford gets the ownership team and a building.

This must be about UConn, whose participation in playing games over the years at the XL Center has come mostly through unwritten rules. It keeps the downtown business owners happy and is politically astute. Good relations between UConn and lawmakers means favorable appropriations. This has largely been win-win.

Gov. Lamont, front and center waving the pom poms during the NCAA tournament, ought to remember what sport he was watching at the time. And who was playing. It was basketball. UConn basketball. Not the National Hockey League.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro