Post by elp525 on Aug 4, 2010 2:53:56 GMT -5
August 3, 2010
By Dave Hickman
The Charleston Gazette
NEWPORT, R.I. - John Marinatto insists that the Big East is stronger now that it has ever been. The Big East commissioner said exactly that during the league's annual football media day Tuesday.
And, well, he's probably right. The basketball side of the conference is arguably the best in collegiate sports. Women's basketball and Olympic sports are thriving. And as the statistics to which Marinatto often points bear out, the football side of the Big East is as competitive as it has ever been.
Here's the thing, though. The Titanic was perhaps the strongest ship ever built to that point and was on its maiden voyage in 1912. Enter the iceberg.
Even the strong don't always survive. And let's face it, when Marinatto talks about the strength of the Big East, it is all relative, right? This isn't a league that is SEC strong or Big Ten strong. It's Big East strong, which means no one has kicked sand in its face.
Lately.
Of course, Marinatto is no dummy. He knows all that. He isn't standing up in the front of the room feeling bulletproof and inviting all comers. What he's doing is putting up a strong front and working as best he can to make it so. Call it positive reinforcement - if you think good thoughts, strong thoughts, good things will happen.
So don't bother asking him about doomsday scenarios regarding potential conference expansion (other conferences, that is) and how it might all affect his league.
"I've been consistent about not speculating publicly or responding to the speculation of others about the future,'' Marinatto said Tuesday. "Instead, I've continued to tell the story and reinforce the fact that the Big East Conference is stronger today than at any point in our history.''
It's a party line that Marinatto wants from everyone involved in the league. In fact, in the hours prior to Tuesday's football media functions, the second-year commissioner essentially issued a gag order to his coaches, who then passed it along to the players.
You don't know what's happening, so don't even talk about it. Focus on your football teams.
Marinatto, instead, fielded the conference questions. Like the one about the latest in a seemingly endless and tiresome rumor mill that has Memphis poised to join the league.
Ain't happening. At least not right now.
"But that's become a part of what we have to deal with on a regular basis ever since last December,'' Marinatto said, referring to rumors in the wake of the Big Ten's expansion manifesto, which was issued then. "We have decided that instead of commenting on speculation or doing our own speculations publicly, we're going to focus our energies on trying to do whatever we need to do to better ourselves. The best way to keep our conference intact and to grow is to obviously do what we need to do to improve ourselves.''
It seems like an almost impossible task, but the Big East has gone through impossible before, right? So far, the results have been mixed.
First was redoing the league's bowl lineup, which Marinatto terms the strongest in the history of the league. Well, that's at a minimum debatable and at worst a cop-out in terms of relativity. Even if one agrees it is the best the league has ever put together, it still pales in comparison to the bowl lineups of the other five BCS conferences. And it's not even close.
The next step is just as daunting - a new television contract. Again, not only does the Big East lag far behind every other BCS conference in television revenue, it is stuck with its current arrangement for three (basketball) and four (football) more years. Marinatto maintains the Big East is not looking to renegotiate, even in the wake of the ACC more than doubling its TV revenue thanks to a bidding war between ESPN and Fox. "We have a contractual situation and we intend to honor that,'' he said.
Of course, we can debate the relative merits of the Big East all day and not come to a consensus, right? One side cries for adding teams to the football side and the other insists that adding just for the sake of adding is counterproductive. There is the debate about the direction the next television deal should take, including the potential of an in-house network.
The issues - as well as the opinions about them - go on forever.
But Marinatto is steadfast in his belief that none of it should be aired publicly, at least not by him or anyone else within the conference. He wants to work behind the scenes with his people and with advisor Paul Tagliabue, and if you want to speculate, go right ahead. He's not saying anything.
And if that means it seems to fans that the league is stuck in neutral, well, so be it.
"What good does it do?'' Marinatto said of airing plans or hopes or goals. "What people ask [other] people to do is speculate about things that they really don't have first-hand knowledge of. I don't know who that serves. I guess maybe talk radio? You can speculate and hypothesize. But when you're sitting in a position of authority and speculate, I don't think it serves anybody well. What you do is create unfair expectations or an environment that's based on rumor and innuendo. If you don't know, you really shouldn't speak.''
Thus the gag order on the football coaches on Tuesday. Marinatto wanted to do the talking and put the best face he could on the league. That's the goal and it won't change.
"I think we're one of the best stories in intercollegiate athletics,'' Marinatto said. "So many people, back in 2004-05 [after the ACC plucked Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College], were talking about the demise of the Big East. And in the face of all that, we've done incredibly well.
"I keep telling people that as a result [of beating the odds after the ACC raid], our people take great pride in what we've created. And that's formed a bond with our people - that in the face of adversity and negativity they were able to perform they way they've performed. And because of that - that intangible - our people want that to succeed.''
At least until that iceberg shows up.
By Dave Hickman
The Charleston Gazette
NEWPORT, R.I. - John Marinatto insists that the Big East is stronger now that it has ever been. The Big East commissioner said exactly that during the league's annual football media day Tuesday.
And, well, he's probably right. The basketball side of the conference is arguably the best in collegiate sports. Women's basketball and Olympic sports are thriving. And as the statistics to which Marinatto often points bear out, the football side of the Big East is as competitive as it has ever been.
Here's the thing, though. The Titanic was perhaps the strongest ship ever built to that point and was on its maiden voyage in 1912. Enter the iceberg.
Even the strong don't always survive. And let's face it, when Marinatto talks about the strength of the Big East, it is all relative, right? This isn't a league that is SEC strong or Big Ten strong. It's Big East strong, which means no one has kicked sand in its face.
Lately.
Of course, Marinatto is no dummy. He knows all that. He isn't standing up in the front of the room feeling bulletproof and inviting all comers. What he's doing is putting up a strong front and working as best he can to make it so. Call it positive reinforcement - if you think good thoughts, strong thoughts, good things will happen.
So don't bother asking him about doomsday scenarios regarding potential conference expansion (other conferences, that is) and how it might all affect his league.
"I've been consistent about not speculating publicly or responding to the speculation of others about the future,'' Marinatto said Tuesday. "Instead, I've continued to tell the story and reinforce the fact that the Big East Conference is stronger today than at any point in our history.''
It's a party line that Marinatto wants from everyone involved in the league. In fact, in the hours prior to Tuesday's football media functions, the second-year commissioner essentially issued a gag order to his coaches, who then passed it along to the players.
You don't know what's happening, so don't even talk about it. Focus on your football teams.
Marinatto, instead, fielded the conference questions. Like the one about the latest in a seemingly endless and tiresome rumor mill that has Memphis poised to join the league.
Ain't happening. At least not right now.
"But that's become a part of what we have to deal with on a regular basis ever since last December,'' Marinatto said, referring to rumors in the wake of the Big Ten's expansion manifesto, which was issued then. "We have decided that instead of commenting on speculation or doing our own speculations publicly, we're going to focus our energies on trying to do whatever we need to do to better ourselves. The best way to keep our conference intact and to grow is to obviously do what we need to do to improve ourselves.''
It seems like an almost impossible task, but the Big East has gone through impossible before, right? So far, the results have been mixed.
First was redoing the league's bowl lineup, which Marinatto terms the strongest in the history of the league. Well, that's at a minimum debatable and at worst a cop-out in terms of relativity. Even if one agrees it is the best the league has ever put together, it still pales in comparison to the bowl lineups of the other five BCS conferences. And it's not even close.
The next step is just as daunting - a new television contract. Again, not only does the Big East lag far behind every other BCS conference in television revenue, it is stuck with its current arrangement for three (basketball) and four (football) more years. Marinatto maintains the Big East is not looking to renegotiate, even in the wake of the ACC more than doubling its TV revenue thanks to a bidding war between ESPN and Fox. "We have a contractual situation and we intend to honor that,'' he said.
Of course, we can debate the relative merits of the Big East all day and not come to a consensus, right? One side cries for adding teams to the football side and the other insists that adding just for the sake of adding is counterproductive. There is the debate about the direction the next television deal should take, including the potential of an in-house network.
The issues - as well as the opinions about them - go on forever.
But Marinatto is steadfast in his belief that none of it should be aired publicly, at least not by him or anyone else within the conference. He wants to work behind the scenes with his people and with advisor Paul Tagliabue, and if you want to speculate, go right ahead. He's not saying anything.
And if that means it seems to fans that the league is stuck in neutral, well, so be it.
"What good does it do?'' Marinatto said of airing plans or hopes or goals. "What people ask [other] people to do is speculate about things that they really don't have first-hand knowledge of. I don't know who that serves. I guess maybe talk radio? You can speculate and hypothesize. But when you're sitting in a position of authority and speculate, I don't think it serves anybody well. What you do is create unfair expectations or an environment that's based on rumor and innuendo. If you don't know, you really shouldn't speak.''
Thus the gag order on the football coaches on Tuesday. Marinatto wanted to do the talking and put the best face he could on the league. That's the goal and it won't change.
"I think we're one of the best stories in intercollegiate athletics,'' Marinatto said. "So many people, back in 2004-05 [after the ACC plucked Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College], were talking about the demise of the Big East. And in the face of all that, we've done incredibly well.
"I keep telling people that as a result [of beating the odds after the ACC raid], our people take great pride in what we've created. And that's formed a bond with our people - that in the face of adversity and negativity they were able to perform they way they've performed. And because of that - that intangible - our people want that to succeed.''
At least until that iceberg shows up.
