LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Last week, somebody asked University of Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich who he'd suggest for Big East Commissioner. It's one of those questions a guy would never answer in a million years -- unless he's Rick Pitino. So Jurich joked his way out of it, looked over at me and said, "Probably Eric. He'd be good. He's moving around jobs. He's available."
Not the smartest thing Jurich ever said. Having been nominated for the job of Big East Commissioner, I accept -- for at least the next 1,200 words. I don't know that I'd call these the first five steps, but they'd certainly be five principles to use moving forward.
1). PICK A FIGHT. Since TCU jilted the Big East, followed by the departures of Syracuse, Pittsburgh and West Virginia, the Big East has been portrayed as a loser. The Big East needs to win something. It's not going to beat the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 or Pac 12 in money or marketing, so forget that. The Big East needs to take aim at the ACC and make a clear, creative and borderline obnoxious case that, "We may not be the best conference in college football, but we're better than THOSE guys." I'm picturing a multi-pronged marketing effort. Some billboards in South Beach with the U's national championship trophies and the words, "Hey Miami, how's the ACC workin' out for ya?" Or, how's this for a commercial? "The Big East. Birthplace of ACC champions."
(Note to self: Hire marketing minds better than my own.) Still, the message needs to be strong. It needs to be enough to make news, and to begin conversation around the sport. If the ACC claims to be one of the football powers, it only has the ability to do that because it has poached five teams from the Big East. Capitalize on that. And on the head-to-head BCS record between the leagues. I'd hit the Orange Bowl angle particularly hard, noting that the ACC has been a no-show for the most part since 1997 -- producing only one winner in all that time. But the specifics of the argument don't matter as much as just making an argument. The ACC's a fine league, supplies more than its share of NFL stars and has great schools. But the Big East needs a foil, and it isn't without ammunition in an argument comparing the two. And the Big East needs to begin more forcefully making a case for itself, because no one else is going to make
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