Grading the performance of John Marinatto

[ShakyTheMohel]

Think of it this way...how could he have done worse? What did he do well? While it is fair to say he was dealt a tough hand...he couldn't possibly have done worse with that hand. The BE pissed off ESPN by playing hardball in negotiations and now SU, Pitt and WVU are out of the conference and San Diego State is in. Now the BE is in a position of weakness for the next TV deal. Oh...and because he can't uphold the leagues exit rules, WVU will leave early and teams will have to plays teams twice in the same season because there aren't enough schools in the league. Might as well add in that UL is a phone call away from leaving the BE also.

So what has he done to earn more than an F?

 

[FDNY99]

How did hiring Hathaway so he could chair the NCAA selection committee harm UConn?

There is no way the split between Hathaway and UConn ( Herbst) was amicable. He didn't seem to be looking around for a new job. He was totally focused on staying at UConn and keeping his spot that NCAA Comm as chair. The fact Calhoun wanted him gone is well known. You think he is going to push for a school that was his former employer...who gave him a settlement worth 1/6 of his contract as a "retirement" settlement of which
was reduced by the amount of his salery if he got another job in athletics...with a team coached by his biggest nemisis, pain in the a** coach? If we are on the bubble bo way we get in this yr...not like he is going bend over to help us get in. I thought the fact that John Marinatto even considered giving Hathaway a consultants job with the BE after what went down was pretty underhanded. Was it a shot at Herbst for having one foot out the door? Maybe who knows.
One thing I have been wondering about is this....if there was no BCS AQ like is being talked about in the future would we till be in this mess? I think that is the ONLY thing keeping BE football solid. I think Cuse, Pitt and WVU would have left either way...$$$ would have been the reason. Only difference is that BE football would be dead...the AQ carrot used to get a team like Boise wouldn't be there.

 

[UCFBfan]

If you put the blame on Marinatto it just shows how little comprehension you have about the situation at hand.

I don't think you can blame him for the weak level of competition he has added to the conference. He had no other choice but to add whatever he could. However, where he is to blame is in his inability to keep Syracuse, Pitt, and WVU. When they got TCU last year all they had to do was add a school with a realistic chance of adding something to the Big East. Why not add UCF when they added TCU? Instead, they tried to add Villanova.....really? All that did was tick off the programs leaving, making them realize even more that this conference cares about basketball, and basketball only. Unfortunately, this isn't the past and football rules the roost. So I place all the blame on him for not being able to satisfy the outgoing schools. It's not even like we're losing Cincy and Louisville. We're losing the heart and soul of this conference in Syracuse, Pitt, and even WVU. These are long-term members to this conference.

 

[uconNYC]

Some Marinatto mistakes include:

-Being totally blindsided with regards to the conference raids
-Not fostering rivalries in football and basketball (Thanksgiving games, GTown-SU 2x year, etc)
-Pushing for Villanova to move-up to FBS
-Not pushing for the BE to go to 12 schools earlier for football
-Failing to get better, more creative bowl deals
-Big East has always been a follower, not leader when it comes to things like ACC/B1G Challenge, neutral site games, etc.
-Not putting a jurisdiction clause in the BE bylaws
-Not pushing for Notre Dame to play more games against BE football schools
-Nothing creative on TV/Website/Social Media front
-Making constant boneheaded comments during the conference raid ("TCU is totally committed to the BE")

I understand his hands might be tied or some of these things are out of his control, but as the conference commissioner he certainly is empowered and has sway to get the ball rolling. As another poster mentioned, I bet a commissioner like Larry Scott would have addressed many of the mentioned issue far better.

 

[Palatine]

F

 

[zls44]

-Not fostering rivalries in football and basketball (Thanksgiving games, GTown-SU 2x year, etc)

This one always floored me. Why not have SU-GT twice a year? Why? You only need to worry about scheduling around the NBA/NHL for the GTown home game, but they're going to have the dates. Why would you not have that twice? How frigging braindead do you have to be to decide "ok, I have something easily marketable, with good history, great players and great ratings- LETS ONLY DO IT ONCE"? He's stupid. The management is completely stupid. They do not think.

They waste their time with sportsmanship ads that are embarrassing, while the ACC & Pac-12 use high-end production values to promote ACTUAL TEAMS, GAMES AND EVENTS. In Providence, they're busy counting money that the football schools have earned.

 

[junglehusky]

If there is one factor dominated events of the last year, IMHO it is that the presidents of the football schools weren't acting as a group but were acting in their own self interest. If the football schools had gotten together as a unified group maybe they could have squashed the Villanova debacle, or pushed for UCF/TCU/Boise, or negated Notre Dame's political influence in the league which was probably the leading factor in keeping the status quo (before Pitt left) and moving towards CUSA 2.0 (after the defections). If the fball presidents 1) were in close communication 2) on the same page as far as long term strategy 3) put some actual trust in each other, it could have set the stage for a fball/bball split that so many boneyarders have been clamoring for for years. That, more than what John Marinatto did or did not do, is what led to this failure of a league today.

 

[Carl Spackler]

John Marinatto, IMO, is entirely responsible for the continued existence of the big east conference over now 21 years, as a football playing conference.

I believe that it's taken until 2011, twenty years since the football league was founded, for the entire conference to realize the importance of football, in the intercollegiate landscape, and with that understanding finally, throughout the conference, we are in great shape going into the future.

 

[pepband99]

John Marinatto, IMO, is entirely responsible for the continued existence of the big east conference over now 21 years, as a football playing conference.

This might be the single dumbest thing I've ever read on this board. Or maybe any board. Holy crap are you off of the deep end.

 

[Carl Spackler]

This might be the single dumbest thing I've ever read on this board. Or maybe any board. Holy crap are you off of the deep end.

I'm not going to publish the things I can publish on this website to support the things I"m saying.

You don't want to believe me that Marinatto was instrumental and did all of the work to keep the league together in 2003? Fine. You don't want to believe that Tranghese wanted football out of the Big East in 1994? You don't want to believe that Tranghese wanted all football out of the Big East and down south in teh ACC in the 1997? Fine. You don't want to believe that Marinatto was a big part, of fighting all of that off since 1991? Fine. You can't deny that Marinatto is the guy that is responsible for the big east continuing as a football conference in 2012.

The finger pointing about the state of the current big east, if you don't like it, should be squarely on the people that Marinatto has worked for, for the past 21 years people.

I swear, there's a lot to be said, about the saying that you can lead a camel to water, to but you can't make them drink, espeically when it comes to knowledge, and the power of propoganda to sway public opinion on some kind of subject matter.

 

[freescooter]

Much of this goes to an old argument that I have on and off with bizlaw about the role of a commissioner. Biz argues that the commissioner is required ot act for the whole and that he is only able to follow the direction of his board. I take a much more activist view that says a good commissioner is more than a glorified errand boy for the Conference board. His job is to push for positions and to work the board to sell those positions. Identify a plan of action and sell that plan to the decision-makers. An old firend who was chairman of a City Council once told me that a good city manager ran the council even if they didn't realize it. And when they did, mostly they were usually happy to let him do it. A bad one let the council make all the decisions. To me that applies to a conference commissioner, too. His job is to develop a vision for the conference and to sell that vision to the presidents and ads who make up his leadership groups. After all., he's really the only one who has the best interests of the conference as a full time job. On this scale, Marrinatto was a total disaster. No vision and no ability to sell even a modest proposal to his board. And he had no respect from them either. Can you imagine Gavitt getting word that two of his prime players were leaving for the ACC while he was attending an event in an ACC stadium??? And being notified by ESPN? And one of them was the President of the Big East at the time??? My view is he should have been fired on the spot byu the remaining schools. He absolutley should go on July 1, 2013.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Yes, it took The Big East losing all but one of its original FB playing schools to finally realize the value/importance of football to the conference. This is not what we signed up for.

 

[Carl Spackler]

How long has Marinatto been commissioner? Anybody know? Think about it. Tranghese people, Swofford, those are the guys you need to look at for the state of big east football. Marinatto's only fault, is that he actually trusted the university presidents and AD's that he was working with during his short time as the Commish.

 

[Fishy]

This might be the single dumbest thing I've ever read on this board. Or maybe any board. Holy crap are you off of the deep end.

And this is the second dumbest thing - honestly, this goofy bastard needs to stop posting....

"I believe that it's taken until 2011, twenty years since the football league was founded, for the entire conference to realize the importance of football, in the intercollegiate landscape, and with that understanding finally, throughout the conference, we are in great shape going into the future."

 

[Carl Spackler]

And this is the second dumbest thing - honestly, this goofy bastard needs to stop posting....

"I believe that it's taken until 2011, twenty years since the football league was founded, for the entire conference to realize the importance of football, in the intercollegiate landscape, and with that understanding finally, throughout the conference, we are in great shape going into the future."

Be nice to see you write something supportive of UConn, and the Big East, and then be able to back it up with facts. But then again, you're a syracuse guy, aren't you?

 

[Fishy]

Be nice to see you post something coherent.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Be nice to see you post something coherent.

Funny, now you just look foolish. But go ahead, keep calling me bonkers, if it makes you feel nice.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Be nice to see you post something coherent.

J,
I'm going to miss playing Syracuse,... alot!

 

[FAIRTIDES]

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigeast/post/_/id/30118/vote-grade-john-marinatto

On the ESPN blog, they are asking you to grade John Marinatto's performance as commisioner of the Big East conference during this expansion era.

I am surprised that only 67% of people gave him an F. And who are the 1% of people who gave him an A? Let's see...that is about 50 people ....I am guessing that the Big East has about 50 employees in Providence and they all discussed it during their 3 hour lunch at the All-You-Can-Eat Buffett and they all voted on their computers when they got back in the office today! That is the only explanation!

Was/is Marinatto caught in a tidal wave with no chance to offer a defense, or did he have time to build a sea wall? When these threads occur, I typically agree with posters who note the unfairness of beating up on a person's performance without having the relevant facts. However, I believe the facts have become irrelevant as a defense for Marinatto .

Inertia has the league and Marinatto by the ass and doesn't seem to want to let go. If there is to be a new Big East, I'm afraid there has to be a new everything that's associated with the Big East. New HQ location, new advertising with a new message; a whole new IMAGE. Unfortunately, that has to include a new league boss; someone with a high profile or who has the "chops" necessary to build a high profile. The person should be super confident, and, more importantly, exude the type of confidence and bearing that makes insiders want to follow and outsiders believe. Somebody that can sit in a room full of TV executives as an equal.

Look, regardless of what anyone feels about fairness, even those who are pro-Marinatto have to agree that he just received three loud, clear votes of "no-confidence" from three schools. Forget the reasons for leaving. They are really not important. The important thing is that none of the schools could be convinced that the Big East can provide something at least equal to the destination leagues. That inability to sway or convince media, fans and members has to be fixed or the new league will end up in the same boat as the original.

 

[TexanMark]

The league was fatally wounded in 2003 with the raid. The remaining five all had one foot out the door if the ACC/B10 came calling. The BE will morph again but do you really believe UConn and Rutgers won't bolt if either get a call up to the big leagues?

 

[uconnric]

I don't think Marinatto could've done much to prevent what's gone on. Tranghese was blindsided in 2003 and Marinatto in 2011. You could say that he should've seen it coming in 2011, but there wasn't much he could've done about it. The raid probably would have come sooner but Syracuse football was putrid for a few years which probably delayed things.

Our friend Gene Di (Is that his father's picture (Lou) in the Coaches Hall of Fame at Rentschler?) destroyed what Dave Gavitt built, almost all by himself. And it really hasn't worked out as he had planned. Nor will it.

 

[SAMCRO]

Marinnato's only fault, is that he actually trusted the university presidents and AD's that he was working with during his short time as the Commish.

This was not his only fault, but it definitely was a big one. The behavior of some Presidents and AD's has been deplorable. This being said, if these Presidents and AD's had a shred of respect for, or faith in, Marinatto, would they have done him like that? Not saying they'd still be in the BE, but they would have at least picked up the phone to tell him it was about to go down.

And even now, JM's "hero", Jurich, is working hard on getting UL out of the BE as well (as he should be).

JM inherited a tough situation, no doubt about it, but it is one in which he kind of helped create. The BE's time for action was in the late 90's/ early 00's. They missed the window to act, and have been playing from way behind ever since.

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

I think people are blaming Marinnato way, way too much for things far beyond his control. For people on these message boards, he's a scapegoat.

Which is funny, that they blame him for things like Syracuse and Pitt bolting, while simultaneously praying for the invitation from the ACC. They absolve themselves of responsibility, saying, well, Marinnato ruined the Big East, so now we HAVE to leave.

Please.

The truth is, the culture of the Big East has always been basketball first. Heck, we come from a University where that's fundamentally true. If UConn had a big-time football program, we'd already be in the ACC or B1G. But we don't.

Can we become big-time? Sure, but it's going to take time. But if you wanna put it all on a single guy because he can't save a conference full of Universities like us who would gladly jump ship for more money and more prestige, then I don't know what to tell ya. I don't think it's even possible.

Some say, well, he should've taken the TV deal. Funny, probably 80% of the people on this board were agreeing to wait it out and score an even bigger deal. And you really think that was going to keep Pitt and Syracuse in the Big East? If the TV deal got signed tomorrow, would UConn stay after an ACC invite?

The truth is, the Big East just wasn't built for the future of college football, and was always going to be a few steps behind. I wish it was different. But I don't think it's Marinnato's fault. He's just the fall guy.

After all, he has to deal with people like us, whose only loyalty to the Big East is fake indignation until we get the invitation to leave, too.

 

[J187Money]

Think of it this way...how could he have done worse? What did he do well? While it is fair to say he was dealt a tough hand...he couldn't possibly have done worse with that hand. The BE pissed off ESPN by playing hardball in negotiations and now SU, Pitt and WVU are out of the conference and San Diego State is in. Now the BE is in a position of weakness for the next TV deal. Oh...and because he can't uphold the leagues exit rules, WVU will leave early and teams will have to plays teams twice in the same season because there aren't enough schools in the league. Might as well add in that UL is a phone call away from leaving the BE also.

So what has he done to earn more than an F?

Weren't there a bunch of people here arguing that we should have held out for a kings ransom?

 

[huskyrob1]

i give him a M for marinate

I'll give him an NGASABEFUIWTL which stands for "Not Giving A About Big East Football Until It Was Too Late".