Post by elp525 on Apr 23, 2010 4:57:42 GMT -5
April 22, 2010
Marinotto taking proactive stance to secure league's future
By Mitch Vingle
Sports Editor
IT APPEARS the Big East Conference is at another one of those crossroads.
So the head of the league decided it was time to visit one. He went to Eighth Avenue in New York, between 40th and 41st streets.
John Marinatto was looking for direction. He was looking for help and counsel for his league in these shaky times, made unsteady by the Big Ten's study of expansion. At least three - and probably four - Big East teams are potential targets of the study.
So, after a chance meeting with former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue at a basketball game, Marinatto decided to put a capital letter at the beginning of the word proactive. He signed on the ex-commissioner to try and help save the Big East.
"We met last week at the New York Times Building for four hours,'' Marinatto said in a phone interview on Thursday. "We got into specifics. It's the first step.
"When I get back [from Bowl Championship Series meetings], we'll sit down again and address how to proceed.''
Marinatto is fighting charges his office is simply sitting by while allowing the Big Ten to shape his league's fate.
It's a difficult situation because, quite frankly, much of the Big East's fate does indeed rest with Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany and those within his wealthy league. Schools like Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Connecticut - those discussed as targets - would undoubtedly flee for the money in the current setup.
So Marinatto spoke to Tagliabue. ("It's like going to class," Marinatto said. "But not Sports 101. More like Sports 1,200.") He employed him. He's also picked the brain of, surprisingly enough, Delaney.
"He keeps saying to think strategically,'' Marinatto said.
The relatively new Big East commissioner is doing just that.
"I started talking to Paul and his career and his approaches to issues," Marinatto said. "It struck me he's the strategic thinker.''
Tagliabue said, however, he too had help during his days with the NFL.
"He told me he had five consultants and that I needed five consultants," Marinatto said. "He said we need experts in fields like technology advancements, numbers [money] and legal aid.''
So today, when Marinatto returns from Scottsdale, Ariz., the quest to prepare and, possibly, reinvent the league again will begin in earnest.
The assignment, of course, is of utmost importance to those who follow West Virginia University, a member of the Big East yet not a Big Ten target. The fear in the Mountain State is a huge raid of the Big East could cripple or doom the league and set WVU sports back years.
Some even claim it's too late for action. The proverbial horse has left the barn.
Marinatto disagrees.
"I don't even know what that means," said the commissioner. "We went through [an Atlantic Coast Conference raid] in 2005. Then we expanded to create what we have, our 16-school setup.
"Everyone said that wouldn't work. But we kept working and moving forward. Now we have the best basketball conference in the country and better football than we had before [the raid].''
Also, Marinatto said it's unfair criticism to say his league didn't try to strengthen itself post-ACC raid to fend off another attack.
"We've done everything we could over the past five years,'' Marinatto said.
Yet the Big Ten is circling his conference like a vulture waiting for fresh meat. The only question is, how hungry is the Big Ten?
"I don't think they know," Marinatto said. "I think that's why Jim is saying this is a very long and elongated process.
"The first night he called me on this, he said it's a study. He said, 'John, we don't know yet. We've already done this three times over the past 20 years. This will be the fourth time.'''
Marinatto said Penn State football coach Joe Paterno simply suggested the Big Ten move to 12 teams, rather than 11, in order to stage a football league championship.
"But it's not appropriate for me to speculate," Marinatto said.
It would probably be fruitless to do so anyway. There are many, many directions in which the Big Ten could move.
"Jim is so smart,'' Marinatto said. "They'll consider everything. They've been at 11 schools since 1990 and it's a league steeped in tradition. They feel like we do, that their tradition is very special.
"They don't want to dilute the product. [Delany] said they want to be very thoughtful and thorough.''
It seems, though, the process would be simple. The Big Ten hired Chicago-based investment firm William Blair & Company to analyze five schools: Missouri, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Rutgers.
With data now in hand, it appears a call could be made. But Marinatto suggested there's more to consider than dollars and cents.
For instance, there's the take many of us now have, that college athletics are getting out of hand. There are the specters of greed and power hovering over this scenario. Words like mergers and acquisitions come to mind instead of pageantry and tradition. Within media reports on the possible expansion, one trips across words like "war titans'' and "cartels.''
"If I were Jim Delany,'' Marinatto said, "and he's very smart, I've got to be thinking, 'What's this mean for the national landscape of college football?'
"I'd be thinking about what this would mean politically, with congressmen looking at the BCS. And what about the public perception? Does it look like we're in this just for money? We're supposed to be public institutions.
"I'm sure will put all of these questions on the table and analyze them.''
In the meantime, Marinatto, Tagliabue and company will explore their options. One report said the Big East could go after Maryland and former league member Boston College, both in the ACC. It claimed Central Florida could be a possible addition.
"A lot [of reporters] want me to speculate by name," Marinatto said. "I won't. That's inappropriate. But I would be open to anything."
The view from here? The commissioner doesn't have a choice.
His conference is at a crossroads.
We'll see if it can move forward from one.
Marinotto taking proactive stance to secure league's future
By Mitch Vingle
Sports Editor
IT APPEARS the Big East Conference is at another one of those crossroads.
So the head of the league decided it was time to visit one. He went to Eighth Avenue in New York, between 40th and 41st streets.
John Marinatto was looking for direction. He was looking for help and counsel for his league in these shaky times, made unsteady by the Big Ten's study of expansion. At least three - and probably four - Big East teams are potential targets of the study.
So, after a chance meeting with former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue at a basketball game, Marinatto decided to put a capital letter at the beginning of the word proactive. He signed on the ex-commissioner to try and help save the Big East.
"We met last week at the New York Times Building for four hours,'' Marinatto said in a phone interview on Thursday. "We got into specifics. It's the first step.
"When I get back [from Bowl Championship Series meetings], we'll sit down again and address how to proceed.''
Marinatto is fighting charges his office is simply sitting by while allowing the Big Ten to shape his league's fate.
It's a difficult situation because, quite frankly, much of the Big East's fate does indeed rest with Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany and those within his wealthy league. Schools like Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Connecticut - those discussed as targets - would undoubtedly flee for the money in the current setup.
So Marinatto spoke to Tagliabue. ("It's like going to class," Marinatto said. "But not Sports 101. More like Sports 1,200.") He employed him. He's also picked the brain of, surprisingly enough, Delaney.
"He keeps saying to think strategically,'' Marinatto said.
The relatively new Big East commissioner is doing just that.
"I started talking to Paul and his career and his approaches to issues," Marinatto said. "It struck me he's the strategic thinker.''
Tagliabue said, however, he too had help during his days with the NFL.
"He told me he had five consultants and that I needed five consultants," Marinatto said. "He said we need experts in fields like technology advancements, numbers [money] and legal aid.''
So today, when Marinatto returns from Scottsdale, Ariz., the quest to prepare and, possibly, reinvent the league again will begin in earnest.
The assignment, of course, is of utmost importance to those who follow West Virginia University, a member of the Big East yet not a Big Ten target. The fear in the Mountain State is a huge raid of the Big East could cripple or doom the league and set WVU sports back years.
Some even claim it's too late for action. The proverbial horse has left the barn.
Marinatto disagrees.
"I don't even know what that means," said the commissioner. "We went through [an Atlantic Coast Conference raid] in 2005. Then we expanded to create what we have, our 16-school setup.
"Everyone said that wouldn't work. But we kept working and moving forward. Now we have the best basketball conference in the country and better football than we had before [the raid].''
Also, Marinatto said it's unfair criticism to say his league didn't try to strengthen itself post-ACC raid to fend off another attack.
"We've done everything we could over the past five years,'' Marinatto said.
Yet the Big Ten is circling his conference like a vulture waiting for fresh meat. The only question is, how hungry is the Big Ten?
"I don't think they know," Marinatto said. "I think that's why Jim is saying this is a very long and elongated process.
"The first night he called me on this, he said it's a study. He said, 'John, we don't know yet. We've already done this three times over the past 20 years. This will be the fourth time.'''
Marinatto said Penn State football coach Joe Paterno simply suggested the Big Ten move to 12 teams, rather than 11, in order to stage a football league championship.
"But it's not appropriate for me to speculate," Marinatto said.
It would probably be fruitless to do so anyway. There are many, many directions in which the Big Ten could move.
"Jim is so smart,'' Marinatto said. "They'll consider everything. They've been at 11 schools since 1990 and it's a league steeped in tradition. They feel like we do, that their tradition is very special.
"They don't want to dilute the product. [Delany] said they want to be very thoughtful and thorough.''
It seems, though, the process would be simple. The Big Ten hired Chicago-based investment firm William Blair & Company to analyze five schools: Missouri, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Rutgers.
With data now in hand, it appears a call could be made. But Marinatto suggested there's more to consider than dollars and cents.
For instance, there's the take many of us now have, that college athletics are getting out of hand. There are the specters of greed and power hovering over this scenario. Words like mergers and acquisitions come to mind instead of pageantry and tradition. Within media reports on the possible expansion, one trips across words like "war titans'' and "cartels.''
"If I were Jim Delany,'' Marinatto said, "and he's very smart, I've got to be thinking, 'What's this mean for the national landscape of college football?'
"I'd be thinking about what this would mean politically, with congressmen looking at the BCS. And what about the public perception? Does it look like we're in this just for money? We're supposed to be public institutions.
"I'm sure will put all of these questions on the table and analyze them.''
In the meantime, Marinatto, Tagliabue and company will explore their options. One report said the Big East could go after Maryland and former league member Boston College, both in the ACC. It claimed Central Florida could be a possible addition.
"A lot [of reporters] want me to speculate by name," Marinatto said. "I won't. That's inappropriate. But I would be open to anything."
The view from here? The commissioner doesn't have a choice.
His conference is at a crossroads.
We'll see if it can move forward from one.
