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April 22, 2010

It never ends well with pasty white people, tailgating, dancing and a video camera. The good folks at Black Heart, Gold Pants have the Nit fans, um, unironically rocking out to what I think is Miley Cyrus or some other bubblegum pop. The true embarrassment: the flags in the background. A confederate flag? Really?

Our friends at Marquette are celebrating being named the top Catholic party school by Playboy. Suck on that Notre Dame, Boston College and even Duquesne.

And closer to us, the Big East is taking action with unpaid consultant Paul Tagliabue? What?

The official party line is that Tagliabue will help assess the league’s strengths and weaknesses and help in negotiating future TV and other media rights deals.

TNIAMM has a list of possible ideas Tags may float. To which I’ll add the idea of moving WVU to Maryland for a larger TV market.

In a way he is perfect for working with the Big East. A Georgetown grad from the NFL trying to help in a college football issue. How can this not fail?

But there could be some other action. There has been speculation that the Big East is going after Maryland, and there has even been talk that it could send out an olive branch to see if Boston College would come back. Throw in Central Florida as a partner in that state with South Florida, add that to a core Northeast group centered around Rutgers, Pitt, Syracuse, Connecticut, and West Virginia, and you might have something.

Any inclusion of Atlantic Coast Conference schools probably would happen only if a league such as the Southeastern Conference dipped in. If the ACC lost schools such as Clemson, Georgia Tech, Florida State, or Miami, Maryland and BC might be more inclined to look for safe haven in the Northeast.

Yesterday, SEC commissioner Mike Slive said his league would be proactive.

Critics suggest that the Big East is too big as a basketball league at 16 teams. What about 20?

“Who is to say we couldn’t go to 20 teams in basketball, but not have one 20-team league, but a league with pods of four or five teams?’’ said Marinatto. “You have to think strategic alliances — what strategic alliances could we create?

“We need a new way of thinking. Strategic thinking. We need to be proactive rather than reactive, and develop our assets. Paul’s theory is, ‘Think long-term, think over the horizon.’ ‘Out-of-the-box thinking,’ Jim is always saying to me, ‘You have to think differently.’

“So hopefully Paul is going to help us think differently.’’

Right. Because after the Big East and ACC would theoretically get raided, teams from the ACC would line-up for an unstable hybrid conference that has gotten less money in TV contracts. The Big East football teams would have no interest in going to the ACC.

/weeps into keyboard.





I sure hopes Paul can shake things up. Finally Marinatto does something…
link to bleacherreport.com

Comment by TonyinHouston 04.22.10 @ 2:05 pm

Does anyone think of Tagliabue as an “out-of-the-box” thinker? What did he do during his time as commissioner that made you think he was ahead of the curve, or over the horizon as was quoted?

Comment by ME2001 04.23.10 @ 12:01 am

Among other things, Tagliabue was commisioner when the NFL decided to go international, made more than a handful of rule changes to further promote the game, oversaw a few expansion and franchise moving efforts, and was involved with many adminsitrative decisions including “the Rooney Rule.” He took a successful organization and advanced it much further than it even had been.

You may not agree with all that happened under his watch .. I didn’t … but I believe the characterization of him as not being an out-of-the-box thinkeris incorrect, and without question, the NFL brand improved greatly under him.

Comment by wbb 04.23.10 @ 8:19 am

I don’t know if this is such a good idea…A member of the Gtown Board of Directors has been brought in to advise the conference and its Providence tied Commish on a way forward…Wonder how different that dirction could be for football? If Tabliabue is only there to help with TV negotiations, then they have the right man. If he is there to shape a way forward for the entire conference, I’m not sure his views will not be affected by whats best for Gtown.

Comment by HbgFrank 04.23.10 @ 10:26 am

Wow, I always new that Nitters are a bunch of racists, but flying a confederate flag at a tailgate party is a new low for them. I guess we just found out what the PSU whiteout really means!

Comment by Jeff 04.23.10 @ 12:37 pm

wbb,

I stand corrected. While I don’t think all of these are good ideas, they are good examples.

Thanks.

Comment by ME2001 04.23.10 @ 4:03 pm

Maybe Tags will encourage Georgetown and Villanova to make the jump to Division 1-A (or whatever it’s called these days)?

Comment by Patrick 04.23.10 @ 11:21 pm

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