Post by elp525 on Sept 20, 2011 4:51:15 GMT -5
September 19, 2011
By Dave Hickman
The Charleston Gazette
MORGANTOWN - For the most part, the Big East's eight football coaches are attempting the treat the possible implosion of their conference just as anyone else without control might do so.
They look around at the landscape and wonder what's going to happen next, but in the end they realize it's not their job to worry about it. And they couldn't do much about it if they wanted to.
"I've taken the stance that I'm going to coach the football team and [Rutgers athletic director] Tim Pernetti and our administration are going to handle all the conference stuff and be the spokesmen for that,'' Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said Monday. "Not to sidestep your question, but I'm going to talk about the Ohio game.''
With Pitt and Syracuse already on the way out to the ACC and the rest of the league's football members in various states of indecision or uncertainty - or both - it is not being left up to the football coaches to render decisions about the future of their own programs.
And so they aren't even trying.
"I don't have an opinion,'' West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said Monday. That was the day after he'd responded to a similar question about conference realignment by saying he'd had "a couple of busy days myself'' coaching football. "We're in capable hands in [athletic director] Oliver Luck and Dr. [James] Clements [the WVU president]. I'm going to worry about X's and O's.''
Not all of the coaches are facing uncertainty, of course. Pitt's Todd Graham knows what the future holds for his program - playing in the ACC. That could happen as soon as next season or as late as three seasons from now - the Big East has a 27-month withdrawal rule, but depending upon how realignment shakes out that could be waived - but at least Graham knows it will happen.
What he doesn't know - nor does anyone else - is what might happen to his team's Backyard Brawl rivalry with West Virginia. It's easy to say that the two schools could continue to play as non-conference opponents if they don't wind up together, but that's not what happened before. When Penn State joined the Big Ten, it ended the schools' football rivalry.
"I have no idea,'' Graham said of the WVU-Pitt series. "It's one of the great rivalries in college football and you hope that it continues. But I have no idea what the future holds.''
Nor does Connecticut coach Paul Pasqualoni, although he has a unique vantage point and was one of the few league coaches willing to talk about the situation in more than cursory statements. Pasqualoni was the coach at Syracuse when the ACC raided the Big East in 2004. Syracuse was originally one of the ACC's targets, but the school decided to remain in the Big East.
The ACC then ended up taking Miami and Virginia Tech, then, a year later, added Boston College.
"I guess the powers that be are going to do what they feel is in the best interests of their university first. I guess that's the message,'' Pasqualoni said. "Obviously the powers that be at Syracuse felt as though it was in their best interest to leave the Big East and go to the ACC. The last time this happened the powers that be at Syracuse felt it was best to stay in the Big East.''
Now Pasqualoni is in an eerily similar situation. UConn is believed to be interested in joining the ACC and the ACC seems likely to be receptive.
"You obviously want UConn to be in the best position and in a BCS conference and be in a conference with teams we think we have a similarity with,'' Pasqualoni said. "[We want] a chance to have some rivalries, a chance to develop relationships within a conference geographically, if that's possible. There's a lot to think about.''
The Syracuse coach now, Doug Marrone, is trying to quell talk about the move to the ACC because it's not relevant to the here and now. So he said on Monday that he would discuss it once and then not again until after the season.
"It's not that I'm not excited. I'm excited for the university and our athletic program and our student-athletes. Joining the Atlantic Coast Conference puts us in a strong position for the future,'' Marrone said. "But I told my coaches and I told my players not to comment on it. We have a tough task ahead this season and that's what we need to concentrate on.
"Right now I hope to be the head coach carrying our team in to the future. And we have to win football games. That's what's important.''
Pasqualoni, though, was also willing to look at a potential reconfigured Big East. The most likely scenario, of course, is a merger or absorption of schools remaining in the Big 12 if that conference also implodes.
"What would be the landscape of the new Big East? Does that bring in Baylor and Missouri and could that be worked out with the remaining Big East teams?'' Pasqualoni said. "Or is there an opportunity to go to another conference? Those are things that are going to have to be discussed here very quickly and decisions are going to have to be made.
"If those remaining Big 12 teams and the remaining Big East teams and TCU get together, that's a heck of a conference. When you look at the ratings of those teams right now it's pretty impressive. You'd have a heck of a league, there's no question about it. It's just a matter of how much do these institutions have in common and how much are you going to travel and what kind of relationships and rivalries can you build based on geography? It's a hard question.''
One that most of the league's coaches aren't openly worrying about right now.
"For me, I'm a football coach. I've got my head buried in a bunker watching film of UTEP,'' South Florida's Skip Holtz said. "It's going to be interesting to see how it all unfolds. Right now I think everything is speculation, but it would not surprise me to see some more things fall or move here over the next couple of weeks.''
By Dave Hickman
The Charleston Gazette
MORGANTOWN - For the most part, the Big East's eight football coaches are attempting the treat the possible implosion of their conference just as anyone else without control might do so.
They look around at the landscape and wonder what's going to happen next, but in the end they realize it's not their job to worry about it. And they couldn't do much about it if they wanted to.
"I've taken the stance that I'm going to coach the football team and [Rutgers athletic director] Tim Pernetti and our administration are going to handle all the conference stuff and be the spokesmen for that,'' Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said Monday. "Not to sidestep your question, but I'm going to talk about the Ohio game.''
With Pitt and Syracuse already on the way out to the ACC and the rest of the league's football members in various states of indecision or uncertainty - or both - it is not being left up to the football coaches to render decisions about the future of their own programs.
And so they aren't even trying.
"I don't have an opinion,'' West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said Monday. That was the day after he'd responded to a similar question about conference realignment by saying he'd had "a couple of busy days myself'' coaching football. "We're in capable hands in [athletic director] Oliver Luck and Dr. [James] Clements [the WVU president]. I'm going to worry about X's and O's.''
Not all of the coaches are facing uncertainty, of course. Pitt's Todd Graham knows what the future holds for his program - playing in the ACC. That could happen as soon as next season or as late as three seasons from now - the Big East has a 27-month withdrawal rule, but depending upon how realignment shakes out that could be waived - but at least Graham knows it will happen.
What he doesn't know - nor does anyone else - is what might happen to his team's Backyard Brawl rivalry with West Virginia. It's easy to say that the two schools could continue to play as non-conference opponents if they don't wind up together, but that's not what happened before. When Penn State joined the Big Ten, it ended the schools' football rivalry.
"I have no idea,'' Graham said of the WVU-Pitt series. "It's one of the great rivalries in college football and you hope that it continues. But I have no idea what the future holds.''
Nor does Connecticut coach Paul Pasqualoni, although he has a unique vantage point and was one of the few league coaches willing to talk about the situation in more than cursory statements. Pasqualoni was the coach at Syracuse when the ACC raided the Big East in 2004. Syracuse was originally one of the ACC's targets, but the school decided to remain in the Big East.
The ACC then ended up taking Miami and Virginia Tech, then, a year later, added Boston College.
"I guess the powers that be are going to do what they feel is in the best interests of their university first. I guess that's the message,'' Pasqualoni said. "Obviously the powers that be at Syracuse felt as though it was in their best interest to leave the Big East and go to the ACC. The last time this happened the powers that be at Syracuse felt it was best to stay in the Big East.''
Now Pasqualoni is in an eerily similar situation. UConn is believed to be interested in joining the ACC and the ACC seems likely to be receptive.
"You obviously want UConn to be in the best position and in a BCS conference and be in a conference with teams we think we have a similarity with,'' Pasqualoni said. "[We want] a chance to have some rivalries, a chance to develop relationships within a conference geographically, if that's possible. There's a lot to think about.''
The Syracuse coach now, Doug Marrone, is trying to quell talk about the move to the ACC because it's not relevant to the here and now. So he said on Monday that he would discuss it once and then not again until after the season.
"It's not that I'm not excited. I'm excited for the university and our athletic program and our student-athletes. Joining the Atlantic Coast Conference puts us in a strong position for the future,'' Marrone said. "But I told my coaches and I told my players not to comment on it. We have a tough task ahead this season and that's what we need to concentrate on.
"Right now I hope to be the head coach carrying our team in to the future. And we have to win football games. That's what's important.''
Pasqualoni, though, was also willing to look at a potential reconfigured Big East. The most likely scenario, of course, is a merger or absorption of schools remaining in the Big 12 if that conference also implodes.
"What would be the landscape of the new Big East? Does that bring in Baylor and Missouri and could that be worked out with the remaining Big East teams?'' Pasqualoni said. "Or is there an opportunity to go to another conference? Those are things that are going to have to be discussed here very quickly and decisions are going to have to be made.
"If those remaining Big 12 teams and the remaining Big East teams and TCU get together, that's a heck of a conference. When you look at the ratings of those teams right now it's pretty impressive. You'd have a heck of a league, there's no question about it. It's just a matter of how much do these institutions have in common and how much are you going to travel and what kind of relationships and rivalries can you build based on geography? It's a hard question.''
One that most of the league's coaches aren't openly worrying about right now.
"For me, I'm a football coach. I've got my head buried in a bunker watching film of UTEP,'' South Florida's Skip Holtz said. "It's going to be interesting to see how it all unfolds. Right now I think everything is speculation, but it would not surprise me to see some more things fall or move here over the next couple of weeks.''
