You can debate if they deserved to, in much the same way you can debate if BYU deserved their national championship. The fact remains, UConn, as bad as their football is, has had more football success than at least half the P5 schools (defining making the BCS game as "success") and definitely is among the elite in basketball.
In many ways, this is what BYU has worked on for at least 20 years (since the 1996 team was left out of the Bowl Alliance) and we should welcome every school that wants to seriously join the fight for more equity in sports.