It’s a 6-man group of college presidents — 3 from football schools and 3 from basketball schools. The co-chairs are Georgetown President John J. DeGioia and Pitt President Mark Nordenberg. The other 4 presidents are from USF, Rutgers, Marquette and Notre Dame.
[Time for a tangent. Notre-frickin’-Dame was put on the search committee? Are you kidding me? How can either side be supportive of that? On the basketball side, you put a president from a school where football rules — albeit remaining independent of the Big East — and they are a big budget athletic department. They may have interests that are aligned with the basketball schools, but it is not the same thing. Most of the basketball only schools have modest athletic department budgets and so costs are a major concern for them.
As for the football schools, you are talking a school that is so clearly a flight/flirt risk from the conference when it suits them. Every school has their own interests, but Notre Dame’s is very obvious and very much opposite of the football schools. The football schools have an ongoing issue of needing at least a 9th member. To help with stability, scheduling and costs. Notre Dame is the big remaining prize among independents and non-BCS conference schools. Now I don’t believe ND would join the BE in full, but to give ND the position to help directly influence the hiring of the commissioner makes it more likely they would look to make the hire someone who wouldn’t push them or force the issue.]
Outgoing Commissioner Mike Tranghese of course is saying that the search will be fine and that there is full cooperation.
“The good thing is I don’t sense any turf (wars) in this thing. They want a good person who can handle this whole thing with an appreciation for what we are and how we’ve gotten here,†Tranghese said.
Tranghese is clearly a proponent of seeing an administrator with Big East roots succeed him. A leading candidate could be the Big East’s senior associate commissioner, ex-Providence College athletic director John Marinatto, or perhaps a key athletic director like UConn’s Jeff Hathaway or Louisville’s Tom Jurich. Asked if it might be better for a person to be hired from outside the league, Tranghese said, “That person is going to have to convince our presidents of that.â€
That Tranghese would like to hire from within the conference ranks is not a shock. That’s how he got the job. There are plenty of Providence College tied candidates in the BE office. I would also expect that the basketball schools are interested in keeping it from within the Big East offices.
I like the idea of Jurich or Hathaway, or to look outside the conference at people in the other BCS Conference offices. Obviously, the basketball schools would be wary of someone from say the SEC or Big 12 as football is such an important component. I really like Jurich, because he has shown to be a strong leader for Louisville and aggressive in making things happen. He’s not afraid to shake things up.
Nordenberg isn’t giving anything away right now.
He called it a “critical hire†because of all the hard work Tranghese had done to position the Big East among the B.C.S. conferences after the defections to the A.C.C. Nordenberg played down the notion of whether the candidate would be a football or basketball guy; the league has eight football-playing members and 16 in basketball.
“In terms of the general functioning of the conference today, I don’t really sense that tension as a constant part of life,†Nordenberg said. “Clearly both sports are very important to us. It would be hard to imagine that we would recommend someone not committed to both and a capable leader in terms of pushing both sports forward.â€
Football is generally given priority in college sports because it generates more television and ticket revenue.
Nordenberg didn’t give a whole lot of hints as to what type of candidate the Big East would be looking for.
I expect that there won’t be anything close to a decision until at least April.
Scott McKillop writes an article for Sporting News Today. I seem to be posting a link for this site every day…
The football conference is obviously small but who wants to play our top 3 or 4 teams? nobody, that’s who. If Rutgers and Louisville recover from an off year, then this conference could be deadly. Syracuse might not do much but if you add Pitt to the mix, then you have 5 to even 7 teams that could sit between 10-25 in the rankings, before they start tearing each other apart.
Villanova needs to step up and be the next UCONN. Being that close to Jersey is an advantage in football as well. That’s 9 teams but it might be hard to find a 10th out of the remaining ones. ND would be the best option but their “tradition” is way cooler than all the other schools put together. Anyone have any good Fighting Irish jokes?
In my opinion, the football conference sounds like it’s a year or two away from fantastic success. The fact that Tranghese is leaving right now scares me a little but I think we need to have a bit of faith in the committee. As for the basketball side, please don’t change a thing. Mondays are so much better knowing that there’s a crucial BE game on. Basically most of the BE games are crucial so there you go. The football schools need to see eye to eye with the basketball schools. Time can fix many problems and add opportunities.
They have the coach, they have the football tradition and they have the long term track record of success… that’s more than you can say for Rutgers, Uconn, Cincinnati or L’Ville.
I will admit I am biased in favor of Delaware as they are my 2d favorite college team, but the fit seems natural to me. Philly only brings so much to the college football table before one has to admit that PSU isn’t in Philadelphia. UD would attract some of Philly(/Wilmington), all of Del. and most of eastern peninsula Maryland – 2 solid media markets. Villanova football in its present form can not compete with UD in profile.
With this plan basketball would have to split – but at least then we wouldn’t have to endure the Diocese of South Bend having a hand in appointing a commish for our conference.
If you have thoughts on Delaware in the Big East I would love to hear feedback.
Now, if we were to recruit two college programs with ex-Pitt quarterbacks that lost out to Tyler Palko, then we got ourselves two good ones here(sorry, I had to go there). No arguing the success of both programs, as they have been good when we have been bad but I just don’t see either happening.
If we did go fishing for a school outside of conference, then an Ohio(sure, Akron for example) or another Florida school(ex:Central Florida) would be better. Funny thing you mentioned The Hilltoppers, ChrisA, because they wouldn’t be that bad of a fit either. With a population of less than 1 million people, does Delaware give you some t.v money is another question. Their fan base is solid but are they a serious untapped resource?
Of course I have never been to Akron and have only driven through Delaware so you both know the positives. Hook me up with some more info because this is an interesting conversation.
Maybe the combination of Navy, Maryland and Delaware joining the Big East would bring the kind of TV audiences you’re talking about. You will say I’m crazy for thinking that Maryland would come over to the Big East, but when is the last time the ACC did Maryland football any favors? (Basketball is a whole different issue, and it’s easy to say – bring in Navy and Del. for FB but that’s a BIG 2 steps back in bball if the conf is to split – that would be the real-life dilemma.)
As for the Hilltoppers… all these teams we’re talking about are risky. I can only see minimal upside in W. Kentucky. Do you think Louisville wants to play their main rival Kentucky and then play W. Kentucky too in the B.E. I don’t know if they would. We would also be talking about games like UConn/W.Kentucky and Rutgers/W. Kentucky. Something just doesn’t look right about that.
Sorry for the long-winded post.
Expansion is not the answer to everything but it’s a topic that will be brought out sooner than later. Yes, ChrisA, these teams are risky. I just don’t think we can add more basketball schools. We could end up losing rivalries. It’s a cool issue to discuss though, so let’s wait and see what happens.
… No, sir
The moment we have a “him/her” moment for debate — as a potential successor to Tranghese — I will gladly accept-allow full pardon & transfer to any program in objection.
Sh*t, who said anything about considering a female Commish? Really, are there any candidates??
You pen good comments, Panthoor, I enjoy them, sincerely. But — however ‘politically correct’ your wording might be — the fate of our athletic programs — namely, fb & mbb — shouldn’t be helmed (ever) by a woman. Sorry girls.
Regardless of what you meant in your comment, I just cannot ever see the fairer sex taking the lead role in this.
A football AD, Carparelli, or an outsider. That’s the only way to do it right.
dont rule out a women either, there are plenty of talented women out there. One school besides Central Fla, what about Marshall for football only? Intense rival already established w/ WVU, travel would be nothing, almost another home game for Pitt. Has a nice track record of sending kids to the pros. I still like the flexibility of having a shot at a Big ten, Big 12, ND/Miami. those would almost guarantee national tv exposure. Miami dosn’t care where they play, they draw even worse than Pitt. I remember some great games with Ohio State, Gladman’s fumble, the 52-10 whipping we put on them at old Pitt stadium (i think osu’s back was carlos snow and he had fumbleitis) I would like to think the 72-0 whippings we endured are in our past. Playing tOSU might be more important for recruiting right now than playing state penn.
Also Mauk is practicing with the Bearcats.
link to bleacherreport.com
dont rule out a women either, there are plenty of talented women out there.”
No Kurt. And no, again.
“Talent” has not yet put Pitt football where we’d like it to be.
& JFCAlM, Hillary Clinton has “talent,” but she’s not on the top of my list for President.
That horse.. ah, Big Brown, has “talent,” too, I hear.
