NY Times' Big East article

[SirSaxa]

There's an article in the NY Times today about the Big East and its future.
(The NY Times website requires FREE registration.)
The article is mostly oriented toward football, but also includes a bit about basketball including the following:

<<The defections have also had an effect on Big East basketball. Tranghese said any notion of the conference splitting because of its awkward size did not make sense.
.....

"We're in this together because our presidents said this is what we want to do," he said. "It's unwieldy. It's going to be difficult. But that doesn't matter. Our job, and my job in particular, is to make it work."

He added: "Why would presidents make a decision to stay together when the environment would have allowed them to separate? We're rebranding. We've invited new people, new schools. We've restructured ourselves and our office. Those are not signs of a conference planning on breaking up.">>


For complete article, go to:

www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/sports/ncaafootball/01bigeast.html

[YB]

This is why I like Tranghese. Nothing fake about him, he wants the BE- the WHOLE BE- to succeed and he works very hard at it.

If 2010 does not see a BE breakup, it'll be bc of him and bc SJU, GU and VU make keeping the Catholic schools much more worthwhile.

[FairfaxHoya]

Its been said before and it is still true. The way to prevent a breakup is for Georgetown, Villanova, and the other schools to get better and make the Big East football schoos not want to lose them. While football does command more money for most conferences, the new Big East football conference is simply never going to a money-maker like the Big Ten, SEC, or new ACC. Unless the BE football powers can get ND to join, there is simply no reason to strike out on their own and leave us behind. So long as we're not dragging down the basketball conference, we have a decent shot at keeping this together.

[RaleighHoya]

YB said:

This is why I like Tranghese. Nothing fake about him, he wants the BE- the WHOLE BE- to succeed and he works very hard at it.

If 2010 does not see a BE breakup, it'll be bc of him and bc SJU, GU and VU make keeping the Catholic schools much more worthwhile.

Wow, you may be the first person to say one good thing about that idiot. He has ruined the Big East if you ask me.

[DFW HOYA]

RaleighHoya said:

Wow, you may be the first person to say one good thing about that idiot. He has ruined the Big East if you ask me.

What did he do? It wasn't like he cast a vote for expansion. He works for the school presidents, that's all.

Put another way, if the Big East commissioner in 2003 had alumni ties to BC instead of PC, would there be a Big East left to discuss?

[Buckeye70]

Sir Saxa, thanks for the info. It is my firm hope that this big, bulky group can hang together over the years. It
clearly would set a precedent if it did.

Both Georgetown and Villanova have I-AA football and
might approach the possibility of adding two more teams
to the league's football mix, although I know many of
your folks have said you're enduring some financial
problems so it is improbable the Jesuits would think I-A
any time soon.

At Villanova, it's always an open issue, of course, with
both sides lining up allies and yet another great debate
likely to surface in the next couple of years, should it
be shown that having extremely competitive varsity
sports -- particularly men's hoops, a major cash cow for
'Nova -- would be imperiled by doing without I-A football.

It's an unpleasant quandary at best and I hope somehow the intercollegiate arms race instigated by
"jedge" Roy Kramer, John "Snake" Swofford and friends can be disassembled and we can gain some semblance
of sanity re: the college game.

Time, of course, will tell.

b70