Saying it was simply time to do something else, Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese will announce his retirement later today, ending a reign of 19 years in which Tranghese guided development of the Big East basketball conference into a 16-team super league and oversaw the creation of the Big East football conference into a competitive 8-team league, which took a full body blow five years ago when three of its members — Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech — jumped to the Atlantic Coast Conference, but has still managed to survive, if not thrive.
The official announcement that Tranghese will retire next June will come later today, but Tranghese said that he felt the timing was right for him to spend one more year to make things were in order before he stepped down at the end of the 2008-2009 athletic season.
“It was just the right time for me,” said Tranghese, who has been with the Big East since it was created in 1979 as a seven-team basketball league. “The league has never been stronger in basketball. Everyone seems happy.”
The Big East TV deal is in place through 2013. The 16 teams have a written agreement not to split that lasts two more years, and no one is talking about extending it.
This news is a lot to actually digest and consider. Odds have just risen substantially, that by 2010 something will happen with the football side and membership.
And as far as recruiting against the big schools – Mich and OSU – I don’t really see how it would negatively impact Pitt from how they are already. Pitt is already in direct competition with those schools and generally loses to them on the big recruits. Pitt’s chances may increase if it could knock off OSU or Mich every couple years rather than playing the likes of UConn and Cincy. The high profile schedule would be better for Pitt.
Imagine what kind of “favors” they do for the athletes?
10 – 12 years back, there’s no way we could move into the Big 10. Pitt sports was a big joke. But now with our facilities (including the pending upgrades for baseball and track slated for the Hill) and improvements in the major 3 sports, a president who claims to know of the importance (though I wonder, given the allegiance to the Big East), and bringing back Pederson, I think Pitt is very well positioned to move, compete and thrive in the Big 10. As mentioned, we fear losing on the recruiting front to those big boys … well, gee, looking at all the best players go off to Michigan and OSU the last few years, how is remaining in the Big Crap conference helping us?
And I think it’s hogwash that Pitt hoops would falter or that the Big Ten is greatly inferior in hoops. In recent years some of the top teams in the final rankings have come from the Big Ten. Our stellar hoops conference didn’t produce a champion since the expansion. “But we’d lose our NYC recruiting base!” I contest that’s already long gone, after Rohrssen left.
I’m a victim of coming of age during (the sad few) Pitt’s ‘glory years’ in football. and I got spoiled, I admit. I got used to Pitt playing big games against big teams almost every week, even beyond the usual eastern foes (including Oklahoma, BYU at their prime, Texas, OSU, etc). The bile in my mouth just seeing New Hampshire and Citadel and Furman and Buffalo on the schedules now is contemptible. I detest that we just seem to submit to the inevitable that we deserve to remain second-rate in football.
Hey folks, I definitely respect some of the plusses of the Big East, though the main one always sited (“it’s the easiest conference to get to the BCS in!”) seems like faint praise at best. I think it’s contributed to our mediocrity. Don’t we think we’re better than this?
Bombard Pederson with this kind of message (especially those of you who might donate some actual significant money — my few hundred bucks mean nothing)
Please comment on Ohio State’s and Michigan’ non-conference schedule these past several years.
In addition, playing teams like Wisconsin, PSU, Purdue, MSU, and MICH (for OSU) and OSU (for MICH) are much more exciting to me than playing Uconn who five years ago was at the 1-AA level, Cincy, Rutgers, and all of the other programs with no history. Pitt has history, as does WVU and ‘Cuse. The traditional teams in college football are set and it is difficult to break that barrier into the upper tier team. While L’ville and Rutgers have been solid as of late, they still don’t carry the stigma of other programs. The Big East has a bunch of new comers to an old man’s game. While I agree that the landscape of college football could change, I agree with geeman that seeing Pitt play no-names makes me vomit in my mouth.
While OSU and Mich have played their share of cupcakes, at least they follow those games with a schedule filled with traditional powers. Other than WVU, there is no game on the schedule every year for Pitt which I get excited about. And, thanks to the wonderful scheduling of the Big East, it is recently scheduled for a time that conflicts with Thanksgiving.
At OSU, you always have Michigan, but the games against the other Big Ten powers is much more exciting than playing the Huskies or Bearcats.
One thing that could change this would be Syracuse getting their act together, traditionally solid team which has not played well in years. As far as the BE adding another team, I taste vomit when I hear “Nova should up themselves to 1-A” or “UCF” or “Memphis.” Who are these teams?
I know there is a slight bias towards Pitt being a traditional team, however I think it is warranted. Tell me another school in the Big East (other than Cuse, possibly) that has names like Marino, Dorsett, Ditka, Green, and more recently – Fitzgerald as alumni? I don’t think you will find one. Pitt has the history to be a part of the Big Ten, renew a rivalry with PSU, change back to the script, and keep WVU as a non-conference rivalry game. Wishful thinking I know, but Pitt deserves better.
We all know Syracuse pimped itself to the ACC, and if they would expand again, Cuse would jump right in. RU too, perhaps (or perhaps to the Big Ten).
I think it’s every smart school for itself very soon, and Pitt better be one of the smart ones.