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Big East stares at Big Decisions
[ Originally posted 07.24.03 ]
From wire and
staff reports
EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ
The pressure is on for the Big East Conference to deal with some
monumental questions.
The league's
leaders hope at least one of the answers will be an ambitious new member
that will follow the blueprint of a departing school's spectacular rise from
mundane existence to gridiron powerhouse.
Fresh off two defections that shattered the
conference, the Big East has little time to regroup if it wants to maintain
its status as a major player in college football.
At the conference's final football media day before powerhouses Miami and
Virginia Tech bolt, commissioner Mike Tranghese said the remaining 12
schools need to decide soon whether they want to stay together or split into
two conferences one that plays football and one that doesn't.
"That's the first question that has to be answered," Tranghese said
Wednesday. "We can't proceed until we have that answer."
Negotiations for the next Bowl Championship Series contract begin in
September 2004, and the Big East needs to know what schools it has if it
wants to maintain its automatic bid in the BCS when the new deal begins in
the 2006 regular season.
The Big East needs to add at least two teams in order to maintain its
conference status and the quality of those schools could determine its place
in the BCS.
"I can't conceive of any type of football system without Northeast
representation," Boston College coach Tom O'Brien said. "It would be wrong
not to have the Northeast in the major college football scene."
Tranghese, who has been with the Big East since its inception in 1979, said
the decision to stay together or split up will come in the next few months.
If the two factions split, Tranghese said he won't go with either side
because he needs to run the league objectively for the next two seasons.
When Miami and Virginia Tech leave after this season for the Atlantic Coast
Conference and Temple gets kicked out after 2004, the Big East will have six
football schools remaining: Boston College, Connecticut, Pittsburgh,
Rutgers, Syracuse, and West Virginia.
The conference will likely add two or three teams,
possibly including
one or more candidates from Conference USA.
Although no premier
programs are likely to be available, Tranghese's hoping one of the schools that's added
blossoms into a national
force the way Virginia Tech did after joining the league in 1991.
"Whatever we do we still have six strong teams," Tranghese said.
"There's no Miami out there to invite. We have to identify people who have
the potential to get there."
Georgetown, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall,
and Villanova could split off
into a non-football conference, targeting schools like Xavier, Dayton,
Marquette and DePaul.
Notre Dame is the wild card. The Irish play all sports but football in the
Big East, and Tranghese has had regular conversations with them about
joining the conference in football a very unlikely possibility.
"There would have to be some set of unforeseen circumstances that I can
imagine of to force them into that," he said. "They cherish their
independence."
Tranghese said that before the conference begins courting other teams, he
will give his counterpart
a courtesy call something he said the ACC never
did.
That move led Tranghese to criticize the ACC and its commissioner, John
Swofford, during the expansion process.
Swofford said Tuesday that Tranghese had apologized. But on Wednesday,
Tranghese said the only thing he was sorry for was talking to a reporter
about his views on expansion before telling Swofford.
"I have nothing to apologize for," Tranghese said.
"My conference has nothing to apologize for."
The coaches and players gathered at media day downplayed the impact the
departures of Miami and Virginia Tech will have.
"We can only worry about what we can control on the field," Syracuse
linebacker Rich Scanlon said.
The departures come at the height of the conference's success. The Big East
has had a school play for a national title three of the last four years and
a team finish in the top two the last four years.
But Miami and Virginia Tech account for all that success.
"It's up to the other teams that are left to step up," Pittsburgh coach
Walt Harris said. "Hopefully, we're all up to the task."
Miami was picked first by a media poll, receiving 21 of 24 first-place votes
and 188 points. Pittsburgh was second with 159 points and one first-place
vote and Virginia Tech was third with 156 points and two first-place votes.
West Virginia was fourth with 102 points, followed by Boston College (100),
Syracuse (87), Temple (42) and Rutgers (32).
"If we do what we're supposed to do, nobody can handle us," Miami tight
end Kellen Winslow Jr. said.
Copyright 2003
The Associated Press. Bonesville.net contributed to this report. All rights
reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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