Marinatto (former AD), Tranhese and Gavitt (former basketball coach and AD) all have strong ties to Providence and they could not have been any more apathetic towards football. In their minds, the Big East existed to cater to Providence and make them feel like special little snow flakes in a big time basketball conference, despite the fact that they have been irrelevant as a basketball program since Rick Pitino left to coach the Knicks in 1987. They have also gone to great lengths to protect like minded athletic departments on the eastern seaboard like Seton Hall, St. John's and Georgetown and this is what has lead to the conference's downfall. The 8 basketball schools are acting as a financial anvil who provide little value to the football schools. Providence's Iron Fist Rule over the conference, the basketball schools receiving more than their share of TV money and an all around apathetic attitude towards football forced Miami, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Syracuse, West Virginia and Pitt to look for refuge in other conferences. The Big East was holding them back in so many ways, and they had to jump at the opportunity being offered to them.
Through all of these defections, the Providence Mob was able to remain in charge because of the power wielded by the Catholic Schools, who have finally had enough of this bull shit. Charter member Syracuse leaving was probably the piano that broke the camel's back. Reportedly, Marinatto was asked to resign because school administrators did not trust him in the ongoing negotiations with ESPN, FOX, and NBC for the Big East's new TV deal. Marianatto wanted to accept ESPN's initial, low ball offer, but he was stopped from doing so by the smart Athletic Directors from the football side like Tim Pernetti, Oliver Luck, and Steve Pederson, who knew the Big East could get significantly more money, especially after they expanded.Once some of the eight non football schools lost faith in him he was done. Hopefully Pernetti and others who are more knowledge of TV business step in and get a TV deal equal to or greater than the agreement that the ACC recently reached with ESPN.
Combined with the TV deal kerfuffle, a painfully slow expansion progress caused Syracuse, Pitt and West Virginia to look elsewhere. The Big East did a good job taking action and adding TCU, the best program in a "mid major" conference, but halting at 9 schools while others were at 12, on the verge of 14, left the Big East vulnerable. Temple was an obvious candidate, and should have been added a lot sooner, but Villanova continuously acted like petulant children and blocked their admittance into the league. In fact, they only agreed to let them into the conference when Marinatto offered them financial assistance to upgrade their program to FBS status as a trade off. Central Florida was another obvious candidate, but South Florida blocked them, and for some reason Marinatto and co. dragged their feet with Houston and SMU, despite the fact that they made a ton of sense with TCU joining. I wouldn't doubt the expansion process would still be "ongoing" if Pitt and Syracuse didn't jump towards refuge in the ACC.
At this point, the Big East must forget about the past and do all they can to move forward and become a powerful football conference again. In order for this to happen, the new commissioner must: 1. Have absolutely no ties to Providence College. The Providence "Mob" is what started this mess and reign of terror needs to end. 2. Be some one who puts football first. That's the way it is and the conference can no longer live in their dream world where basketball is king. 3. Have knowledge of the TV Landscape. ESPN will probably come into negotiations and try to take advantage of an inexperienced commissioner. The new commissioner must hold his ground and use Fox and NBC as leverage, at the very least, and possibly accept their deal. The financial gains in the new TV contract are vital towards becoming a big time conference again. And 4. Significantly cut the TV money provided to the basketball schools, kick them out all together, or split. This scenario has been inevitable for years, the differences in philosophy between the football schools and basketball schools is massive, and can't go on like this. My ideal candidate to fill this position would be Rutgers' own Tim Pernetti, who interviewed for the job when Marinatto was hired, and he did not flat out deny interest in the job when asked, but as of last Tuesday, there has been no dialogue. Regardless of whether he gets the job or not, hopefully he is heavily involved in these negotiations. In the mean time, Joseph Bailey, a former executive with the Miami Dolphins, will serve as the interim commissioner.
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I'm going to try to not dwell on things that can not be changed, but one thing is really bothering me. I've seen a lot of people call Marinatto a scape goat, but to put it bluntly, that's bull shit. The Providence trio has been sabotaging Big Eat football since before its' inception. Gavitt refused to let Penn State into the conference in the early '80's, because he couldn't give a crap about football, and the league was a basketball only conference at thtat point and he wanted to keep it that way. Tranghese tried to end Big East football in 1998, by attempting to give away Miami, BC, Syracuse and Pitt to the ACC and make the conference a basketball only league once again (can't find the actual article about this, but I saw it on On the Banks and found a transcript of it on a message board). He then allowed Notre Dame into the conference as a non football member, letting them to take down Big East football from the inside. These three incompetent oafs who mismanaged the league are 100% responsible for its' downfall. Lets not kid ourselves into thinking that the schools who bailed for greener pastures are to blame, this joke of a league was holding them back financially and on the gridiron and they put themselves in a better potion by leaving the conference.
Pete Thamel and McMurphy have been leading this cause, and you have to question their angle here, since they both have developed professional relationships with Marinatto over the years. Taking quotes from Mike Tranghese and others who are obviously Marrinatto's lackeys isn't going to help the questions raised by intelligent readers about your angle in this story.
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