Tranghese still at it, blaming the Big East's woes on everyone but himself

[Rumrunner]

Tranghese said that he expects more school movement because “it’s almost like people can’t help themselves.” He added that if there is blame to go around, it should be directed to school presidents.
____

"I think it is temporary … I think there is going to be more movement. I just think that it's almost like people can't help themselves. Without mentioning specific conferences I just think there's going to be more movement. I think the conferences that have moved recently are probably going to move again.

http://dennis-dodd.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/6270202/35001548

First, the Big East's problems were created because the fb schools "didn't win enough".

Now it's the big bad Presidents' fault.

Nothing about whoring out VT and Miami to the ACC under his watch.

The irony is rich. He complains about 16 team conferences taking away the home and home in basketball. Ummm. He presided over the Big East's expansion to 16 teams.

This guy is like a blacksmith in 1920 telling everyone that motorized horses were a fad. He completely blew it by not seeing the big picture, even though it was practically shoved down his throat.

Now he's the consigliere to Marinatto.

His only saving grace is that he believes that conference realignment isn't done, even for all his failings, he is as close to the BE's center of information as anyone.


If he believes that, then so does the rest of the Providence mafia.

 

[Adios]

I wouldn't mind enjoying this conference we are in for the time being before we are picked up by another conference. The writing is on the wall that some other conference will take us. What a long way we have come from the Athletic League of New England State Colleges.

 

[Marty Jackson]

Tranghese said that he expects more school movement because “it’s almost like people can’t help themselves.” He added that if there is blame to go around, it should be directed to school presidents.
____

"I think it is temporary … I think there is going to be more movement. I just think that it's almost like people can't help themselves. Without mentioning specific conferences I just think there's going to be more movement. I think the conferences that have moved recently are probably going to move again.

http://dennis-dodd.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/6270202/35001548

First, the Big East's problems were created because the fb schools "didn't win enough".

Now it's the big bad Presidents' fault.

Nothing about whoring out VT and Miami to the ACC under his watch.

The irony is rich. He complains about 16 team conferences taking away the home and home in basketball. Ummm. He presided over the Big East's expansion to 16 teams.

This guy is like a blacksmith in 1920 telling everyone that motorized horses were a fad. He completely blew it by not seeing the big picture, even though it was practically shoved down his throat.

Now he's the consigliere to Marinatto.

His only saving grace is that he believes that conference realignment isn't done, even for all his failings, he is as close to the BE's center of information as anyone.


If he believes that, then so does the rest of the Providence mafia.

I think Tranghese is correct in that the Presidents need to be held accountable. Marinatto gets blasted everyday, but somehow the presidents seem to get a free ride.

 

[UConnJim]

The Big East has had one visionary comish, Dave Gavitt, who created the BE basketball conference. It was a stroke of genius. He stepped down in 1990. Unfortunately, Penn State joined the Big 10 in 1990, so you can point a finger at Gavitt for not seeing that football was the future, but you have to give him credit for putting together the BE in the first place.

Tranghese was comish for the next 19 years, when the importance of college football became obvious. In 1991, the SEC went to 12 schools And the Big 12 formed in 1994. If Tranghese had been a visionary, he would have recommended a split of the BE to the conference presidents in the early 90s and formed 2 conferences with the addition of schools like VT, Louisville,and Cincinnati. If a football conference had formed, it would probably gone after ACC schools later or merged with the ACC. Unfortunately, UConn wasn't in the BE football conference at the time and probably wouldn't be playing FBS football today.

Bottom line, the BE's fate in football was sealed when Penn St, the Northeastern football power went to the Big 10.

 

[Pudge]

Tranghese said that he expects more school movement because “it’s almost like people can’t help themselves.” He added that if there is blame to go around, it should be directed to school presidents.
____

"I think it is temporary … I think there is going to be more movement. I just think that it's almost like people can't help themselves. Without mentioning specific conferences I just think there's going to be more movement. I think the conferences that have moved recently are probably going to move again.

http://dennis-dodd.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/6270202/35001548

First, the Big East's problems were created because the fb schools "didn't win enough".

Now it's the big bad Presidents' fault.

Nothing about whoring out VT and Miami to the ACC under his watch.

The irony is rich. He complains about 16 team conferences taking away the home and home in basketball. Ummm. He presided over the Big East's expansion to 16 teams.

This guy is like a blacksmith in 1920 telling everyone that motorized horses were a fad. He completely blew it by not seeing the big picture, even though it was practically shoved down his throat.

Now he's the consigliere to Marinatto.

His only saving grace is that he believes that conference realignment isn't done, even for all his failings, he is as close to the BE's center of information as anyone.


If he believes that, then so does the rest of the Providence mafia.

I hate to be the Contra to every Rumrunner thread.

But, in your direct hatred of Tranghese, you miss the bigger point he is making. Tranghese (as many of us have concluded) had the difficult role of trying to hered the President cats. He could only get so much going before the real power (behind the curtain) TOLD him what to do. Yes, Dave Gavitt was a different talent. A Visionary. But, that was relatively easy on the rise. Tranghese had a bad position.

BOTTOM LINE: personally, I don't think a BE commisioner could have changed the course of events at all. This path (ugly & I hate it) was pushed on him by third parties. And ... it definitely wouldn't have changed if the BE schools got more wins. Nope: what we need is 60,000 stadiums & buzz of bigger fanbases.

What I did NOT like about that interview: He pushed away the idea that TV was a driving force. I absolutely think that TV has been deviously intertwined with a lot of these moves.

And, finally, this is a little Cartel of greedy schools. IF ... we had the ability to grow freely, I think UConn can be a 60,000 fan Program & be powerful. A lot of other schools don't want us in. (and we are in a conference of schools all trying to chin their way above the waterline).

 

[Rumrunner]

When you're the leader of your conference for 19 years and you fail to see that football would hold such an important place, you can have the persona of Mother Theresa but you have failed as a leader.

Presidents came and went through his 19 year tenure. Obviously he did not possess the requisite leadership skills to herd the presidential cats. That is on him.

Also how richly ironic is his whining about movement of teams, when his last gig was getting paid big bucks to get Memphis to the Big East.

"Memphis AD R.C. Johnson said Tranghese has one purpose: to get the Tigers into a BCS conference.
"His role is to help us and advise us," Johnson told the newspaper. "He asked me: 'What's my charge?' I said, 'There are six BCS conferences. Just get us in one.'"

So besides trying to revise history, he's also a hypocrit.

But his little pet, Mr. Marinatto still will protect his beloved Providence, so no worries for us, none at all.

 

[Jericho]

BOTTOM LINE: personally, I don't think a BE commisioner could have changed the course of events at all. This path (ugly & I hate it) was pushed on him by third parties. And ... it definitely wouldn't have changed if the BE schools got more wins. Nope: what we need is 60,000 stadiums & buzz of bigger fanbases.

This is the point I'd make too. What exactly was the Big East, and therefore Tranghese, supposed to have done? Once Penn State was off the table, I think the ship sailed. The Big East has always been ripe pickings for the other conferences (mainly the ACC due to size and location) due to the uneasy alliance of football and non-football schools. Given that bizarre conglomeration (something no other major conference has to deal with) and no anchor team like Penn State, the conference always was going to be second tier in football.

You can't really blame the "Presidents". A President's job is to look out for the school. And that what every team that left has done. Looked out for the school. Are the Presidents supposed to not do what's best simply to appease Tranghese? Are they supposed to be loyal to the Big East for some unknown reason? It's living leaving a job you like full or people you like for one for more money because your family needs to pay the bills. Sure, you feel bad leaving the other guy behind, but family comes first.

 

[Carl Spackler]

The Big East has had one visionary comish, Dave Gavitt, who created the BE basketball conference. It was a stroke of genius. He stepped down in 1990. Unfortunately, Penn State joined the Big 10 in 1990, so you can point a finger at Gavitt for not seeing that football was the future, but you have to give him credit for putting together the BE in the first place.

Tranghese was comish for the next 19 years, when the importance of college football became obvious. In 1991, the SEC went to 12 schools And the Big 12 formed in 1994. If Tranghese had been a visionary, he would have recommended a split of the BE to the conference presidents in the early 90s and formed 2 conferences with the addition of schools like VT, Louisville,and Cincinnati. If a football conference had formed, it would probably gone after ACC schools later or merged with the ACC. Unfortunately, UConn wasn't in the BE football conference at the time and probably wouldn't be playing FBS football today.

Bottom line, the BE's fate in football was sealed when Penn St, the Northeastern football power went to the Big 10.

Good god, here we go again.

I wish Mike Tranghese would go away. The guy has been a disaster to intercollegiate athletics east of the mississippi since 1991.

In 1994, the league was ready to split. Virginia Tech and Temple wanted into the league for all sports, but were rejected. The football schools already in the league for all sports, wanted out. The basketball schools didn't give a about any of it and were tired of it all, and wanted a split and Tranghese was their ring leader.

Gavitt wanted Notre Dame for basketball from the beginning. The landscape from 1990-1994 had gone from I believe 28 independant 1-A programs that had existed as independants for decades, to two independants going forward - Notre Dame and Navy. Notre Dame was having a lot of trouble scheduling all sports. Navy didn't, because Navy is Navy.

Tranghese told Virgina Tech and Temple that the basketball/all sports league was staying at 12, and that they weren't in, and I kid you not, 1 week later, was on the phone with AD Rosenthal at ND and working on getting them into the league for everythign BUT football to get the league to 13 in everything but football.

Notre Dame owes their independant television contract to Oklahoma Board of Regents v. NCAA in the supreme court in 1984. They owe their football independance entirely to Mike Tranghese.

No one else in teh country, in position of equal power in intercollegiate athletics, would have cut the deal that Notre Dame got from Tranghese. And Notre Dame is still the major obstacle to settling the college landscape today because of it.

If Tranghese had been a visionary, my ass. If Tranghese knew his ass from his elbow when it came to the driving economic forces in intercollegiate athletics, the Big East would be the most dominant conference in teh entire country, for two decades running.

Who knows where our football program would be, probably still playing Villanova regularly in whatever league Villanova plays football now, so you've got to take it all with a grain of salt.

We owe everything we are as an athletic department and it's effect on teh greater university to the Big East.

Good and bad, without the Big East, we are not where we are in 2012.

I still wish Tranghese would retire to a fishing boat in Florida and never talk in the media again.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I hate to be the Contra to every Rumrunner thread.

But, in your direct hatred of Tranghese, you miss the bigger point he is making. Tranghese (as many of us have concluded) had the difficult role of trying to hered the President cats. He could only get so much going before the real power (behind the curtain) TOLD him what to do. Yes, Dave Gavitt was a different talent. A Visionary. But, that was relatively easy on the rise. Tranghese had a bad position.

BOTTOM LINE: personally, I don't think a BE commisioner could have changed the course of events at all. This path (ugly & I hate it) was pushed on him by third parties. And ... it definitely wouldn't have changed if the BE schools got more wins. Nope: what we need is 60,000 stadiums & buzz of bigger fanbases.

What I did NOT like about that interview: He pushed away the idea that TV was a driving force. I absolutely think that TV has been deviously intertwined with a lot of these moves.

And, finally, this is a little Cartel of greedy schools. IF ... we had the ability to grow freely, I think UConn can be a 60,000 fan Program & be powerful. A lot of other schools don't want us in. (and we are in a conference of schools all trying to chin their way above the waterline).

I do disagree. THere's a dynamic that occurse in teh boardroom. The commissioner needs to act on the behalf of the membership, but also wields a ton of influence on the membership.

Look at what Neinas just did to the Big 12. He stepped into that conference commissioner job in October and rammed West Virginia down Texas/Oklahamo's' throat. Period. Who cares about the aftermath, and then he's gone.

I don't approve of operating like that in the least, but to suggest that the commissioner can't get a job done is wrong.

Tranghese could have drastically - DRASTICALLY - changed the course of events in intercollegiate athletics.

The Big EAst commissioners job, is potentially the only job in the country that could have then, and can still now, pave the way to a true national championship game, and it all involves the relationship with Notre Dame, adn the home that the Big East was, and still is, now - with the conference USA membership.....

the home for all those independants in the country that had existed for decades up until the 1990s.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I know Marinatto gets a bad rap in the media. But I think the guy is doing a hell of a job. He's the first big east commissioner, the only big east commissioner, to ever demonstrate a true committment to understanding that football is the sport that drives the economics and revenue streams in intercollegiate athletics, and not basketball.

In 1979, the world was different. Basketball was a major force economically on the east coast. In 1984, the flood gates were opened by the Supreme Court, and by 1990 and the end of the existing contracts for football broadcasting, basketball's short reign was over.

The big east leadership (and that includes both the majority of college president's and AD's, as well as Tranghese) - either failed to recognize it, or ignored it.

I don't know which scenario is worse.

But we do owe our presence at the highest levels that a university can reach, because of it all. So for that, I am thankful.

 

[Nostical]

You can blame the Presidents all you want but a true visionary leader would have been able to convince them to take a different path. Sometimes a smart outsider with a fresh perspective works best. He isn't tied to old loyalties (like JM is to Gavitt/Tranghese) and can think outside the proverbial box. I believe if an innovator like Larry Scott (from tennis no less) would have been hired instead of JM, he would have taken the Big East in a much different direction. And for the doubters, consider this. Does anyone believe the Pac12 would look like it does today had they hired Marinatto?

 

[freescooter]

You can blame the Presidents all you want but a true visionary leader would have been able to convince them to take a different path. Sometimes a smart outsider with a fresh perspective works best. He isn't tied to old loyalties (like JM is to Gavitt/Tranghese) and can think outside the proverbial box. I believe if an innovator like Larry Scott (from tennis no less) would have been hired instead of JM, he would have taken the Big East in a much different direction. And for the doubters, consider this. Does anyone believe the Pac12 would look like it does today had they hired Marinatto?

That is the best summary of how I look at it, as well. Neither Tranghese nor Marinatto were able to look at the Big East from a different perspective, one that recognized that being the best basketball conference was a little like being the best typewriter manufacutrer in the current environment, largely because they were all part of building the Big East as a basketball conference and had close ties to the basketball side of the house. Imagine the Big East with Neinas,who supposedly was considered for the job, or even Oliver Luck as Commissioner. It would have gone in a very different direction. You want to say that blame rests with the Presidents? I can agree.

 

[Carl Spackler]

See, I disagree. A conference commissioner is not a slave to the constituents of the conference. He can't be a dictator either, but he can't be a slave.

it's got to be a middle ground. But the notion that a conference commissioner cannot get something done if the membership is divided on somethign, is simply not true.

Tranghese kept the Big East together in 1994, by working out the addition of Notre Dame to the conference in basketball and olympics. It appeased the basketball/parochial side of the conference, and the scheduling agreements with ND football appeased the football side, and ND began Big East play in sports in 1995.

The football conference was agreed to be strenghened under Tranghese' watch, by offering the upgrades to 1-A football to UConn and Villanova in 1996, which was finally approved by the UConn BOT in 1997, and Villanova balked, and balked again in 2010.

Between 1995-2002, Tranghese was in repeated discussions with the ACC about moving football out of the Big East.

Unlike Tranghese in 1997 though, when Villanova didn't make the jump, and Tranghese did nothing further for years to strenghthen the big east football conference. In 2010, after taking over the commissioner job in fall 2009, Marinatto went after TCU for the league, and pushed again for Villanova to jump, who again dragged their feet and made a mess.

The writing was on the wall. I wrote it here. If Villanova didn't make the move in 2010, I wrote the league would be completely changed by 2012, or gone completely. Tipping point reached, to quote Malcolm Gladwell. I wanted out. I wanted a split. Everything that's happened since September 2011 though, has shown that the Big East finally gets that to survive, it's going to be about football, not basketball.

By 2002-2003, when Miami left, and then took VTech and BC in their wake, the football schools again wanted out. The AD's from every school that is currently leaving the Big East, or has left since 2002, wanted out. THe only reason it didn't split completely then, was that those AD's didn't have the presidential and university support they needed, becuase they couldn't show that that they would be able to retain the relationship with the BCS bowl contractual situation by splitting from teh big east conference in 2003.

As for UConn, Jeff Hathaway and Philip Austin were solid with the big east in the meetings in 2003. UConn has never done anything but be loyal to the Big East since it's inception in 1979, to our own detriment. It wasn't until fall of 2011, that any sign of non-solidarity with the Big East ever came out of UConn. Thank you president Herbst.

We owe everythign we are to the Big East, and we are loyal, but we need the big east to protect our interests, and they are, now. It's unfortunate that it's such a difficult job now, when it could have been so easy in the past.

But, going back to Tranghese, in 2003. We added the former independants that had moved to Conference USA. We added USF, who prior to 1997, had never played a college football game. We added Depaul and Marquette. Marquette last played a football game in 1960. Depaul last played a football game in 1939.

Good job Mike Tranghese. Way to understand the economics of intercollegiate athletics and how it affects your conference.

I wish the guy would never speak in the media again. Joey Harrington 250ft tall and oregon football being advertised on the building across the street from the main entrance to Madison Sqaure Garden in 2002. Miami a national champion in football after having taken down Nebraska. New York times interviews Tranghese about the state of college football in the country, and how it relates to the Big East conference, which had put a team in the national championship game for FOUR CONSECUTIVE YEARS>>>>>and he responds by saying that he's more concerned about whether or not St. John's should be putting the kids names on the backs of their basketball jerseys.

I cannot be in the same room with Mike Tranghese. I'll take him out at the knees.

 

[Carl Spackler]

BTW - as I noted before. Tranghese was working the phones to add Notre Dame in 1994 in everything BUT football, ONE WEEK, after tellign the leadership and Temple and Virginia Tech, that the league would be staying at 12 teams, and that they would only be able to continue as football only members.

Tranghese loyalty and work was ALWAYS for the parochial/catholic basketball schools. Their interests always came first. The actions he took as a commissioner of the big east, has had major negative effect on the state of intercollegiate athletics on the east coast and extending all the way to the Mississippi, and the consequences of his actions, have made it so that the big east has now had direct influence over the state of unrest in college athletics spanning from coast to coast.

Marinatto, has plenty of faults, but since his first day on the job, he's been workign to clean up the mess that was left by Tranghese, and the truth of the matter is, that Marinatto all along, has been the voice behind Tranghese convincing him to maintain a football side of the conference.

Tranghese, very well might have wanted and still wants a northeast based football conference, but his actions over two decades, clearly show that he didn't want it to be the Big East.

 

[Carl Spackler]

For the record.

Tranghese' efforts to strengthen the big east conference.

Preside of the formation of a football conference in 1991 including a mix of existing members formerly independant in 1-A football, and independants for 1-A football only, and the additiona of Miami in all sports.

(That occured 6 years after Joe Paterno, and John Toner, among several others, tried to make it happen, the football/all sports league/ with Penn State and were blocked in a vote) Gavitt was commissioner then.......

Add Notre Dame for everythign EXCEPT football in 1994.

Offer upgrades to existing basketball members UCONN and Villanova to 1-A football in 1996.

Preside over a football conference that would put a team in the newly formed BCS national championship game for four out of the first five years of the existence of teh BCS national championship game.

Preside over the same conference that would see those teams that accomplished that level of success, leave for the ACC in 2003.

Preside over a conference that would then add former football independants Louisiville and Cincinnatti from conference USA, two basketball school.

Provide entrance to USF, a team that had never had a football program prior to 1996.

Expand by adding Depaul and Marquette, two basketball programs that hadn't played football since 1960 and 1939 respectively.

Step down from teh job after 2008, saying that the intercollegiate athletics world was a disgust to him.

I've said it before, I'll say it again. You don't have to like football, to recognize it's importance. But the actions of the Big EAst conference under Tranghese's watch, demonstrate what I call and almost pathologic dislike for the sport. And it nearly destroyed the conference, more than once.


THat's the mess, that John Marinatto is left to try to clean up, in an environment of intercollegiate athletics, whose revenue streams are 100% driven by television revenue around football since the mid 1980s.

That's all I'm going to write on Tranghese and the history of the Big East for today.

We have a bright future going forward. Very bright. When you understand our past, and what's possible in the future, it's very bright.

 

[upstater]

I think Tranghese is correct in that the Presidents need to be held accountable. Marinatto gets blasted everyday, but somehow the presidents seem to get a free ride.

The presidents are looking at the bottom line. If you're Syracuse's president, you should be fired if you turned down all the extra $$$ from the ACC.

So how do you blame the presidents?

 

[Marty Jackson]

The presidents are looking at the bottom line. If you're Syracuse's president, you should be fired if you turned down all the extra $$$ from the ACC.

So how do you blame the presidents?

You're right... Syracuse improves their financial position so that makes everything fine..
But, just for a split second, try to think about the mission of these universities. It would seem to me that these are educational, non-profit organizations whose mission is to expand the intellectual base of their student population. These college presidents should be driving this mission.
College presidents have turned college athletics into a money grab where ethics and values are tossed aside because, as you say, the bottom line is the end prize. So now we have colleges blocking other colleges from gaining access to these funds (can you say collusion?), while other colleges completely walk away from signed contracts and say 'bill-me'... Worse yet, we've actually seen where one institution actually allowed money to trump the safety and well being of children... The bottom line was viewed as being more important than the safety of our kids.
While I can't specifically fault Syracuse or WVU for improving their position, I can fault the college presidents as a whole for not standing up and saying that there is a better, more rational way to allow for fair and equitable process to share in the profits of big-time college athletics. Instead, they are acting like pigs in front of a feeding trough and they literally can't help themselves.
I get that Presidents are responsible for the bottom line but when did that trump everything else? And because the Presidents have made the focus all about the mighty dollar, I feel that I can point my finger at them and hold them accountable for much of the ills that exist today.

 

[Carl Spackler]

College presidents haven't turned college athletics into an unethical money grab enterprise.

The supreme court of the united states of america turned college athletics into a money grab bidding zone for universities to sell their athletic to the highest broadcasting bidder in 1984. You may not think it's ethical, but it's free market enterprise, and college football broadcasting prior to 1984 was found by the court to be in violation of Sherman anti-trust.

NOW - that fact, combined with the fact that there is no structured post season in college football based on actual competition on the field of play - which if there was a structured playoff based on conference alignments to determine a champion - would be the grounding force for movement and shifting......but without that format, and the invitation/contract bowl system we've got......it's these two things together that have led to where we're at.

Blaming college presidents for acting "unethically" and without "values", in acting in the best financial interests of their institutions in this environment we've had for 25 years, is exactly what Mike Tranghese has done in the media publically for years, and it's that kind of myopic and ignorant, small brained, approach and understanding of the intercollegiate athletic world that has led the Big East to where it is now.

The big east is different now though, in 2012 and moving forward. Much different, and different becasue we're finally on the right track.

 

[upstater]

You're right... Syracuse improves their financial position so that makes everything fine..
But, just for a split second, try to think about the mission of these universities. It would seem to me that these are educational, non-profit organizations whose mission is to expand the intellectual base of their student population. These college presidents should be driving this mission.
College presidents have turned college athletics into a money grab where ethics and values are tossed aside because, as you say, the bottom line is the end prize. So now we have colleges blocking other colleges from gaining access to these funds (can you say collusion?), while other colleges completely walk away from signed contracts and say 'bill-me'... Worse yet, we've actually seen where one institution actually allowed money to trump the safety and well being of children... The bottom line was viewed as being more important than the safety of our kids.
While I can't specifically fault Syracuse or WVU for improving their position, I can fault the college presidents as a whole for not standing up and saying that there is a better, more rational way to allow for fair and equitable process to share in the profits of big-time college athletics. Instead, they are acting like pigs in front of a feeding trough and they literally can't help themselves.
I get that Presidents are responsible for the bottom line but when did that trump everything else? And because the Presidents have made the focus all about the mighty dollar, I feel that I can point my finger at them and hold them accountable for much of the ills that exist today.

???? Educational mission of the institution is better served by the athletics side continuing to suck money from the academic side??? The vast majority of these schools subsidize athletics with direct institutional support and student fees. This in a time of the biggest budget cutbacks (on the academic side) in the history of higher education in the USA. I'd say they are fulfilling their mission best on this manner.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Just for the record, I think that the way that adminstrators at places like Pitt, WVU, Syracuse, BC in the past....have behaved COMPLETELY unethically when it comes to the shifting and movement of their institutions around athletics and broadcasting revenue.

THis is different than saying that college presidents are to blame for it all. There's a right way and a wrong way, ethically, to go about your business.

UConn, in my opinion, in all of this, has done it the right way, and will continue to do it the right way, and I'm proud of that.

We're not innocent in all of this mess, because we were part of it all from the very beginning. We were one of the very first large state institutions to dump our own athletic history and tradition in the gutter and bolted a conference for broadcasting dollars.

We did it for basketball in 1979. In that short period of intercollegiate athletics history, when basketball money did actually dominate the eastern seaboard from the late 1970's to the late 1980s.

Football has always been the driving economic force though, and after the restrictions on scholarships in the 70s drove it down, and opened up the opportunity for basketball on the east coast to really get a foothold.....but then opening up the floodgates for broadcasting money in mid 1980s opened the football revenue streams and economic impact on athletics like never before.

We're at the table with the big boys now though, because of it all, and we're not going away, and I believe we've paid karma back exponentially, by losing every single natural rivalry we would have had in 1-A football along the way in the past 30 years aside from the University of New Jersey. I do actually hope we'll gain one back in Temple.

The slate is clean for us now though.

Time to do what Penn State did in 1990, and build a whole new set of rivalries in a whole new football conference.

As for college presidents, we've ot a good one in Herbst. We're past half way to the first goal of reaching $600 million. So - alumni, if you care enough to read and get worked up about the state affairs on theis website, and you got the emails this week, scrape together some bucks and send them in - to the uconn foundation. Not to the athletic development fund.

It's money that talks, and when your university endowment is well, well endowed, that's what UConn needs right now more than anything, and the alumni, the 100,000+ out there in the northeast, are the ones that can make it happen, and makeit happen very quickly.

And the athetic programs need to get out and recruit, recruit, recruit.

 

[Marty Jackson]

College presidents haven't turned college athletics into an unethical money grab enterprise.

The supreme court of the united states of america turned college athletics into a money grab bidding zone for universities to sell their athletic to the highest broadcasting bidder in 1984. You may not think it's ethical, but it's free market enterprise, and college football broadcasting prior to 1984 was found by the court to be in violation of Sherman anti-trust.

NOW - that fact, combined with the fact that there is no structured post season in college football based on actual competition on the field of play - which if there was a structured playoff based on conference alignments to determine a champion - would be the grounding force for movement and shifting......but without that format, and the invitation/contract bowl system we've got......it's these two things together that have led to where we're at.

Blaming college presidents for acting "unethically" and without "values", in acting in the best financial interests of their institutions in this environment we've had for 25 years, is exactly what Mike Tranghese has done in the media publically for years, and it's that kind of myopic and ignorant, small brained, approach and understanding of the intercollegiate athletic world that has led the Big East to where it is now.

The big east is different now though, in 2012 and moving forward. Much different, and different becasue we're finally on the right track.

How can you say the BE is different now... Instead of two distinct agendas, bb only schools and fb schools, we now have added fb only schools. Throw in ND and we have 4 conflicting agendas. The BE is doing what it can to survive because if it doesn't, the BB only schools be nothing more than the A-10.
The BE is still very focused on BB.

 

[coachcap]

Carl, in your analysis of what Mike T. did & didn't do over his tenure, you missed one very important omission. He extended an invitation to Miami for all sports, but neglected to also invite their territorial rival Florida State & thus, allowing the ACC to scoopup the Seminoles. Thus, the seeds were planted for future realignment, as the Hurricanes were out on an island geographically, with no local rival in the vicinity in conference.

 

[businesslawyer]

Miami wanted to play with northern schools because their student body required that they recruit the northeast. FSU had neither the interest nor need to play a bunch of northeastern schools in smaller, empty stadiums. They would have waited for the ACC or SEC to call, and had they joined the Big East they would have left when the ACC wanted them.

 

[freescooter]

The difference might, and I stress might, be that now, for the first time, the football members will be the majority and thus in control. Whether that holds up is an interesting question but for the first time, again, there will be many members focused on what is best for the football side. many more members actually, when you count football onlies too, and it might, again stress might, just work out that they develop a common agenda and push it forward. I think that everyone looked into the abyss this time, and Georgetown, Marquette and even NotreDame saw what could have happened if the Big East fell totally apart. And they didn't like it. for Georgetown and Marquette it meant joining the A-10 or somethign not much better respected. For the Irish it meant forced conference membership,bec ause no other major conference would give them the Big East deal and they ain't joining the Horizon. For PC, St Johns, Seton Hall Depaul it meant much less income, and much less prestige. They would be fortunate to end up in the A-10.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Florida State? yup one of those former independants that was looking for a home and found it in the ACC in 1992. I really don't know how close, if at all, they were ever to the Big East. I don't know everything.

As for Miami, I agree with BL, mostly - not at all about recruiting, but about fans and viewership. Recruiting BL? really? was that a typo. We're talkign about the U. South florida. They could recruit within a three hour radius of campus only, and consistently have one of the most talented teams in teh country.

Miami wanted to join the Big East - for two reasons, they felt that the strength of the basketball league, and the rest of the sports would be better for the overall health of their athletic department (and it did allow Miami to grow their athletic department) and more importantly, Miami had, and still does have, a large percentage of alumni and donors that live in the northeast, NYC area.

Always follow the money. Virginia Tech and Temple were begging to get into the league for all sports for years. Much like East Carolina does now.

The Big east, has clearly, in the past demonstrated an understanding of what market share and broadcasting revenue is all about, they've just had basketball over football priority wise b/w 1991-2009.