Herbst hires Traghese & UConn-Big 12 CR rumors

[J187Money]

I can't say whether he was good or not. I can only speak to whether he served his "bosses" well - and given the way it was set up, he did. If we wanted to be in a conference where football was king, we should have been lobbying to get out of the BE the moment we were accepted as part of our upgrade to FBS.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Follow your board. Hope Uconn gets in the big12 but come 2017 Uconn will be Ku and Iowa State in that conference when it comes to football. Tcu and wvu were both light years ahead of Uconn is currently in football when they joined and Wvu is still a meh team and it took tcu 3 seasons to get it going. Kstate would beat Uconn this year soundly. Playing this schedule week in and week out is brutal. I laugh that you think differently. Ksu has the 2nd most big12 wins since the conference switched to 10 teams. In summary, don't lump Ksu in their with Iowa state and Kansas. You will be a lot closer to them than you will be to Ksu. Hope you guys get the invite.

Not saying I disagree completely that off the bat we'd need some time to become competitive with the middle pack week in week out, but to say WVU is/was light years ahead of UConn when they joined is false.

In our last season as Big East members together we beat WVU and won the conference.

We've been on their level before and we'll get there again, especially in a P5 league.

 

[Hoophound]

Well, that and WVU hasn't been good in years. This isn't the WVU that was winning Big East titles.

 

[FDNY99]

Well, that and WVU hasn't been good in years. This isn't the WVU that was winning Big East titles.

Honestly they haven't been the same since Rich Rod left for Michigan...

 

[Dooley]

Follow your board. Hope Uconn gets in the big12 but come 2017 Uconn will be Ku and Iowa State in that conference when it comes to football. Tcu and wvu were both light years ahead of Uconn is currently in football when they joined and Wvu is still a meh team and it took tcu 3 seasons to get it going. Kstate would beat Uconn this year soundly. Playing this schedule week in and week out is brutal. I laugh that you think differently. Ksu has the 2nd most big12 wins since the conference switched to 10 teams. In summary, don't lump Ksu in their with Iowa state and Kansas. You will be a lot closer to them than you will be to Ksu. Hope you guys get the invite.

Not exactly the warmest approach with your post but you're not wrong either. Believe me, us UConn fans know our shortcomings with our football program and our offensive style would absolutely have to change. We play football in a safe, limit mistakes, bend-but-don't-break manner and that style will get crushed by most of the explosive B12 offenses. Our offensive approach has always been a ground and pound and while playing contrarian football can be successful, we also will need to recruit fast skilled playmakers to score MUCH more points.

But please make no mistake - UConn has the resources, passionate fanbase and drive to compete in every sport that we play. Including football. We will be competitive in the B12 once we are acclimated.

 

[Kstatefan]

Not exactly the warmest approach with your post but you're not wrong either. Believe me, us UConn fans know our shortcomings with our football program and our offensive style would absolutely have to change. We play football in a safe, limit mistakes, bend-but-don't-break manner and that style will get crushed by most of the explosive B12 offenses. Our offensive approach has always been a ground and pound and while playing contrarian football can be successful, we also will need to recruit fast skilled playmakers to score MUCH more points.

But please make no mistake - UConn has the resources, passionate fanbase and drive to compete in every sport that we play. Including football. We will be competitive in the B12 once we are acclimated.

You are right I could have worded that better. Basketball in particular you guys will bring the heat and I personally hope if it isn't Ksu that breaks KUs title streak it is a program like Uconn. I think Uconn footballs offense won't be a problem. Pounding the ball against these spread teams whose defenses are built to stop the spread is a good idea. It is a big reason why Ksu has seen the success it has in recent years. Personally, I want the fanbase, the market and academics uconn has to offer. I have a friend from the military that works for a network that has been saying uconn and cincy for 2 years now. I hope he is correct.

 

[UConnNick]

Asking Tranghese for advice on conference realignment is like asking the captain of the Titanic to plot a safe course through iceberg infested waters. He was the problem, not a solution. If he hadn't been totally asleep at the wheel in the first place, a lot of what has happened could have been avoided.

 

[NYUConn]

Asking Tranghese for advice on conference realignment is like asking the captain of the Titanic to plot a safe course through iceberg infested waters. He was the problem, not a solution. If he hadn't been totally asleep at the wheel in the first place, a lot of what has happened could have been avoided.

Tranghese was not in charge when the Big East imploded, that was John Marinatto.

Maybe check out the 100 plus posts prior to this?

 

[Carl Spackler]

Mike Tranghese - as the CEO of the Big East - led an organization that for its entire history under his guidance did the bare minimum to maintain a football conference, while doing everything possible to build a basketball conference and if not forced to build a football conference by external pressures from the intercollegiate world, would not have created a football conference at all.

Place blame / responsibility for that wherever you want. Won't change the fact, that this is what happened from 1991-2009, and he was the commissioner.

Its interesting how a guy like Jim Delaney can manage to get schools like Rutgers to be accepted by the leadership of schools like Northwestern and Michigan and Tranghese is supposed to be a merely a puppet that can only do what his constituents want.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Reality is that if the Big East was managed in any other way than CEO Tranghese managed it, UCONN is still scheduling URI, UMASS, Maine, Richmond and Villanova regularly as conference opponents.

We got the golden ticket from the Big East, and there is no looking back now.

 

[JSM1970]

He set the league on the path to implosion when he didn't go all spots and split off the basketball only schools. When everyone was talking about football-centric super conferences in the 90s he cobbled together some conference that had zero chance for long term viability.

Kind of like saying the 2008 financial meltdown was Bush's fault even though it was 100% based on Clinton, Chris Dodd and Barney Frank policies from the late 1990s.

Tranghese was not in charge when the Big East imploded, that was John Marinatto.

Maybe check out the 100 plus posts prior to this?

 

[NYUConn]

Mike Tranghese - as the CEO of the Big East - led an organization that for its entire history under his guidance did the bare minimum to maintain a football conference, while doing everything possible to build a basketball conference and if not forced to build a football conference by external pressures from thebintercollegiate world, would not have created a football conference at all.

Place blame / responsibility for that wherever you want. Won't change the fact, that this is what happened from 1991-2009, and he was the commissioner.

Its interesting how a guy like Jim Delaney can manage to get schools like Rutgers to be accepted by the leadership of schools like Northwestern and Michigan and Tranghese is supposed to be a merely a puppet that can only do what hus constituents want.

Sigh. This entire thread is like being trapped in the film Groundhog Day.

Your post is so wildly inaccurate it's amazing.

Last time:

* Mike Tranghese, as Commissioner, oversaw the creation of Big East football. So for you to say, he did everything he could not to build a football conference is hilarious.

* The commissioner of the Big East, whether it was Gavitt, Tranghese or Marinatto, serves the interests of it's membership's president. This membership included 7 non-football Catholic Schools who voted against doing anything to expand football. To say he should of done X,Y and Z, ignores this reality.

* Mike Tranghese in 2004 saved the Big East's BCS auto-bid by inviting Louisville, USF and Cincy, while also creating the greatest BBall conference at the same time by adding Marquette and DePaul on top of it.

* When he left as commissioner in 2009, the conference was on solid footing and was winning BCS games. John Marinatto, at the direction of specific member schools, rejected ESPN's TV deal, which lead to the implosion.

Also, really? You want to compare the B1G to the Big East? The B1G is a collection of mostly public big state schools that all play the same sports and have a shared history. The Big East was a mish-mash of large public universities, mid-size private schools and small Catholic schools. It was like hearding cats.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Sigh. This entire thread is like being trapped in the film Groundhog Day.

Your post is so wildly inaccurate it's amazing.

Last time:

* Mike Tranghese, as Commissioner, oversaw the creation of Big East football. So for you to say, he did everything he could not to build a football conference is hilarious.

* The commissioner of the Big East, whether it was Gavitt, Tranghese or Marinatto, serves the interests of it's membership's president. This membership included 7 non-football Catholic Schools who voted against doing anything to expand football. To say he should of done X,Y and Z, ignores this reality.

* Mike Tranghese in 2004 saved the Big East's BCS auto-bid by inviting Louisville, USF and Cincy, while also creating the greatest BBall conference at the same time by adding Marquette and DePaul on top of it.

* When he left as commissioner in 2009, the conference was on solid footing and was winning BCS games. John Marinatto, at the direction of specific member schools, rejected ESPN's TV deal, which lead to the implosion.

Also, really? You want to compare the B1G to the Big East? The B1G is a collection of mostly public big state schools that all play the same sports and have a shared history. The Big East was a mish-mash of large public universities, mid-size private schools and small Catholic schools. It was like hearding cats.

LOL. I'm Michael Corleone godfather 3 getting drawn into this again. Here it goes again - KISS prinicipled ok?

Mike Tranghese as CEO did the bare minimum to establish a football conference, as it was necessary to do it to keep the Big East basketball conference intact and viable, and during the entire course of the conference history - continued to do the bare minimum to maintain a football conference (no more, no less) as it was necessary to continue the growth of the Big East basketball conference. You want to blame that on the board members of the organization. That's fine. I see it as poor management from a CEO. We'll disagree.

As for the timeline and facts - whatever, you demonstrate a very short-sighted knowledge of UCONN's former conference affiliations and the dynamics from 1979-2011.

Doesn't mean he can't be helpful now, for the University of Connecticut.

 

[JSM1970]

Again, he's the CEO, he has to create a strategic plan and get approval from his Board (College Presidents).

BCU said it would stay in an all sports conference, because it saw the whole football-centric super conference future.

Tranghese must have rejected this or was ineffective garnering support for it. My sense is he didn't present it because had he and they rejected it he would have likely resigned, which he didn't do at the time.

I think he is the reason the BE imploded and was vulnerable to future raids. You can think otherwise, it's just our opinions.

Sigh. This entire thread is like being trapped in the film Groundhog Day.

Your post is so wildly inaccurate it's amazing.

Last time:

* Mike Tranghese, as Commissioner, oversaw the creation of Big East football. So for you to say, he did everything he could not to build a football conference is hilarious.

* The commissioner of the Big East, whether it was Gavitt, Tranghese or Marinatto, serves the interests of it's membership's president. This membership included 7 non-football Catholic Schools who voted against doing anything to expand football. To say he should of done X,Y and Z, ignores this reality.

* Mike Tranghese in 2004 saved the Big East's BCS auto-bid by inviting Louisville, USF and Cincy, while also creating the greatest BBall conference at the same time by adding Marquette and DePaul on top of it.

* When he left as commissioner in 2009, the conference was on solid footing and was winning BCS games. John Marinatto, at the direction of specific member schools, rejected ESPN's TV deal, which lead to the implosion.

Also, really? You want to compare the B1G to the Big East? The B1G is a collection of mostly public big state schools that all play the same sports and have a shared history. The Big East was a mish-mash of large public universities, mid-size private schools and small Catholic schools. It was like hearding cats.

 

[NYUConn]

LOL. I'm Michael Corleone godfather 3 getting drawn into this again. Here it goes again - KISS prinicipled ok?

Mike Tranghese as CEO did the bare minimum to establish a football conference, as it was necessary to do it to keep the Big East basketball conference intact and viable, and during the entire course of the conference history - continued to do the bare minimum to maintain a football conference (no more, no less) as it was necessary to continue the growth of the Big East basketball conference. You want to blame that on the board members of the organization. That's fine. I see it as poor management from a CEO. We'll disagree.

As for the timeline and facts - whatever, you demonstrate a very short-sighted knowledge of UCONN's former conference affiliations and the dynamics from 1979-2011.

Doesn't mean he can't be helpful now, for the University of Connecticut.

I 100% agree he can be helpful and I understand the university's history.

Though I am going to adamantly disagree with you and the rest of the crowd that somehow Tranghese is responsible for the implosion of the Big East or that he could have done more for the football conference when his powers as commissioner were totally limited by his membership.

What you and others here are arguing Tranghese do was essentially split the conference up into two different groups. That was never legally a possibility based on his role as commissioner.

If the two groups wanted to split and Tranghese could have then been hired by the other, that is fine. But that was never a possibility in his role as Big East commissioner.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Tranghese said critics who want to place the blame on former commissioner John Marinatto and/or current commissioner Mike Aresco are misguided.

"If they want to blame someone, blame me," Tranghese said. "The thing the Big East didn't have was a football leader -- a Florida, Alabama or USC -- a team that contended for the national championship every year or carried the league. It wasn't strong enough football-wise."

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/s...oner-says-big-east-defections-were-inevitable

Read that quote again. The Big East had the UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI from 1991-2001. We had Virginia Tech. 2001 National championship winning MIAMI. 1999 BCS national championship game - VIRGINIA TECH

He's right in his quote - that he should be blamed. The conference did not have a football MINDED leader.

I got to sign out here now - this is just not what I want to talk about anymore - I just hate misinformation and propaganda. Tranghese is an old guy now, and probably has learned a lot from his mistakes. One can hope.

Either way - there is no reason to think he can't be helpful to UCONN in achieving the schools goals. UCONN should be using any tool they can find useful.

 

[noeynox]

Again, he's the CEO, he has to create a strategic plan and get approval from his Board (College Presidents).

BCU said it would stay in an all sports conference, because it saw the whole football-centric super conference future.

Tranghese must have rejected this or was ineffective garnering support for it. My sense is he didn't present it because had he and they rejected it he would have likely resigned, which he didn't do at the time.

I think he is the reason the BE imploded and was vulnerable to future raids. You can think otherwise, it's just our opinions.

That's nice that BC said they would stay in an all sports conference, but what the hell was Tranghese going to do with the Bball only schools?

Tranghese seemed like a decent commissioner, but the big east was unlike any other major conference with bball only and FB schools wanting different things for different reasons. The thing was going to implode sooner of later. The reasons schools didn't bolt earlier was probably because no one was expanding.

 

[upstater]

Follow your board. Hope Uconn gets in the big12 but come 2017 Uconn will be Ku and Iowa State in that conference when it comes to football. Tcu and wvu were both light years ahead of Uconn is currently in football when they joined and Wvu is still a meh team and it took tcu 3 seasons to get it going. Kstate would beat Uconn this year soundly. Playing this schedule week in and week out is brutal. I laugh that you think differently. Ksu has the 2nd most big12 wins since the conference switched to 10 teams. In summary, don't lump Ksu in their with Iowa state and Kansas. You will be a lot closer to them than you will be to Ksu. Hope you guys get the invite.

UConn is not very good at football.
But what about Baylor? They lost to UConn twice shortly before they joined and they are competing at the very top of your conference year in and year out (UConn played Robert Griffin twice). Not saying UConn is Baylor but surely the road isn't monumental. I also think West Virginia is underperforming with their current coach. When WV was winning 5 or 6 years ago, they were beating Oklahoma and Clemson soundly on New Year's Day. So it wasn't simply a matter of an easier BE, but they also had better teams, as can be seen by all the NFL talent on those teams. The well has run dry under the current coach.

 

[JSM1970]

I'm saying he would have made that recommendation if he was operating in the best interest of the member schools knowing the current structure was unsustainable. Why is that not part of a commissioner's job description?

He could have done it in a way that would have strengthened both leagues.

I'm all for him helping now, he obviously learned a lot through his experiences and also probably has a vested interest in seeing UConn end up in a good spot.

I 100% agree he can be helpful and I understand the university's history.

Though I am going to adamantly disagree with you and the rest of the crowd that somehow Tranghese is responsible for the implosion of the Big East or that he could have done more for the football conference when his powers as commissioner were totally limited by his membership.

What you and others here are arguing Tranghese do was essentially split the conference up into two different groups. That was never legally a possibility based on his role as commissioner.

If the two groups wanted to split and Tranghese could have then been hired by the other, that is fine. But that was never a possibility in his role as Big East commissioner.

 

[NYUConn]

Tranghese said critics who want to place the blame on former commissioner John Marinatto and/or current commissioner Mike Aresco are misguided.

"If they want to blame someone, blame me," Tranghese said. "The thing the Big East didn't have was a football leader -- a Florida, Alabama or USC -- a team that contended for the national championship every year or carried the league. It wasn't strong enough football-wise."

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/s...oner-says-big-east-defections-were-inevitable

Read that quote again. The Big East had the UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI from 1991-2001. We had Virginia Tech. 2001 National championship winning MIAMI. 1999 BCS national championship game - VIRGINIA TECH

He's right in his quote - that he should be blamed. The conference did not have a football MINDED leader.

I got to sign out here now - this is just not what I want to talk about anymore - I just hate misinformation and propaganda. Tranghese is an old guy now, and probably has learned a lot from his mistakes. One can hope.

Either way - there is no reason to think he can't be helpful to UCONN in achieving the schools goals. UCONN should be using any tool they can find useful.

This speaks more to the character of Tranghese than anything. He's not going to pass the buck to someone else.

But again, he is the leader of the schools that vote to put him in charge. He couldn't be a football minded leader when half of his membership doesn't play football.

What you are doing is basically the equivalent of walking up to the CEO of Microsoft and saying "SELL MORE ZUNES!" when the company's board of directors has made the decision that they just aren't that interested in pursuing a strong foothold into the mobile MP3 music player market.

 

[JSM1970]

His job is to maximize the company's (league) value. Sometimes that requires a restructuring.

He was either very ineffective as a leader in gaining consensus or had a very poor vision and strategic plan and when everyone saw the Blue Ocean he was stuck in a Red Ocean mindset.

And if he presented this future to the schools and they rejected it then he should have resigned because he's an ineffective leader.

This speaks more to the character of Tranghese than anything. He's not going to pass the buck to someone else.

But again, he is the leader of the schools that vote to put him in charge. He couldn't be a football minded leader when half of his membership doesn't play football.

What you are doing is basically the equivalent of walking up to the CEO of Microsoft and saying "SELL MORE ZUNES!" when the company's board of directors has made the decision that they just aren't that interested in pursuing a strong foothold into the mobile MP3 music player market.

 

[NYUConn]

His job is to maximize the company's (league) value. Sometimes that requires a restructuring.

He was either very ineffective as a leader in gaining consensus or had a very poor vision and strategic plan and when everyone saw the Blue Ocean he was stuck in a Red Ocean mindset.

And if he presented this future to the schools and they rejected it then he should have resigned because he's an ineffective leader.

LMAO "Restructuring."

He couldn't just dump the Catholic 7, he didn't have the authority as commissioner.

Again, what you're advocating for was an earlier break between the C7 and Football schools - which is fine, but not something Tranghese could have engineered himself.

 

[JSM1970]

He didn't have to act unilaterally, he presents a plan and the presidents adopt it and then he implements it.

He failed 1 or 2 ways 1) didn't see the future football-centric super conferences or stupidly thought he'd be immune from it, or 2) saw it and failed to gain consensus to implement it.

You pick which one. I lean toward #1.

LMAO "Restructuring."

He couldn't just dump the Catholic 7, he didn't have the authority as commissioner.

Again, what you're advocating for was an earlier break between the C7 and Football schools - which is fine, but not something Tranghese could have engineered himself.

 

[NYUConn]

He didn't have to act unilaterally, he presents a plan and the presidents adopt it and then he implements it.

He failed 1 or 2 ways 1) didn't see the future football-centric super conferences or stupidly thought he'd be immune from it, or 2) saw it and failed to gain consensus to implement it.

You pick which one. I lean toward #1.

Tranghese to the Catholic 7: "We are going to focus on football now. If you don't play football you can get out. You got it?"

Catholic 7: "Moving for a vote to remove Mike Tranghese as Commissioner of the Big East conference. All in favor?"

 

[JSM1970]

More like "I propose splitting into 2 leagues and continuing to maintain a strong alignment. If we do not act upon this it will be done for us and we'll have much less control and leverage."

That's what a CEO does/is responsible for.

Tranghese to the Catholic 7: "We are going to focus on football now. If you don't play football you can get out. You got it?"

Catholic 7: "Moving for a vote to remove Mike Tranghese as Commissioner of the Big East conference. All in favor?"