Big East braces for transition year

[Papa_Bull]

Some new info:

Big East braces for transition year

 

By Joe Bendel

TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Thursday, July 29, 2004

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese stood at a table Wednesday morning that displayed helmets from the league's seven football-playing schools.

He then proceeded to speak to the gathered media, though it almost wasn't necessary. The helmets said it all: This is the new Big East, a league in transition.

Neither Miami nor Virginia Tech was represented along helmet row, as both powerhouses defected to the Atlantic Coast Conference in the offseason. Connecticut was there for the first time.

"This is an unusual year, to say the least," Tranghese said at the league's annual media day at the Meadowlands, where he discussed a number of issues, including the rebuilding league's new affiliation with the Motor City Bowl and the highly regarded West Virginia Mountaineers.

The Big East is looking for a new superpower -- or two -- to fill the void left by Miami and Tech. It is also looking to re-establish itself after a tumultuous 2003 offseason that nearly left it on life-support.

West Virginia could potentially grab the reins, considering it was picked to win the league by media members and is rated as high as No. 5 in one preseason publication. The Mountaineers, who return 17 starters led by quarterback Rasheed Marshall, received 25 of 28 first-place votes.

Boston College, which has been to five consecutive bowl games and received the other three first-place votes, was picked second by the media, followed by Pitt, Syracuse, Connecticut, Rutgers and Temple.

"We have seven programs here that think they can win this league," Tranghese said. "And the beauty is, the winner will represent the conference in a BCS bowl game. ... If I'm a player or coach, that's all the incentive I need."

Tranghese said there is no sense dwelling on the fact that Boston College will follow Miami's and Virginia Tech's lead and move to the ACC after this season -- provided it wins a lawsuit against the Big East -- or that Temple will be ousted at year's end.

He also limited discussions about South Florida, Louisville and Cincinnati -- the three schools that will join the league in 2005.

"Let's focus on this season," Tranghese said. "No matter what anybody says, I think we have the potential to be a great league."

Tranghese announced yesterday that the Big East has worked out an agreement with the Motor City Bowl, which is played Dec. 27 in Detroit. The bowl pairs teams from the Big Ten and Mid-American Conferences, but Tranghese said the Big Ten, which has agreements with seven bowl games, doesn't always have a bowl-eligible team to send to the game. If that proves to be the case this season, a Big East member would get the bid, provided it meets the bowl's criteria based on won-loss record.

"Any team in our league with a 7-4 record would be guaranteed a spot in the Motor City Bowl if a Big Ten team doesn't go," Tranghese said. "And if a team from our league finishes 6-5, it might not be invited, but the only way that would happen is if a team from another conference distinguished itself exceptionally, with eight or nine wins. And that's probably not going to happen," because a team with that many wins would earn a better bowl berth.

The new arrangement with the Motor City Bowl not only fills the gap left by the league's departure from the San Francisco Bowl (now known as the Emerald Bowl), but enables the Big East to send as many as five teams to a bowl game. The league already has arrangements with the Continental Tire, Insight, Gator and one of the four BCS bowl games.

The commissioner expects the league to have five bowl tie-ins firmly in place beginning in 2006.

"Everybody was in contracts, so it was harder this year," Tranghese said. "I'm pretty confident we'll get that all taken care of."

Tranghese re-iterated that the league is in good standing with the BCS series and will hold onto the BCS berth for at least the next four years. It then will go through an evaluation process.

Although it's highly unlikely, Tranghese also said the possibility exists that Boston College could be forced to stay in the league past this year. That's because BC filed papers to leave the league after the Big East amended its constitution and extended the waiting period from 12 to 27 months before a team could move to another conference.

"Thank God, I'm not a lawyer," Tranghese said.

Asked if BC could be in the league in 2006, Tranghese said it's a possibility.

"It could," he said. "I don't know what else to tell you. It's in the hands of the lawyers and presidents. It was complex when it started a year-and-a-half ago and continues to be complex. I'm planning for all contingencies."

[bulls96go]

force bc to stay one more year would make schduleing easy and would screw the ACC

[smazza]

how do you do that?

[bulls96go]

not 'let' them out of contract

win court case contact is binding

so they either pay $5M or stay the 27 months to end of 2005

the acc would pay in a second but it is in the hands of the lawyers

also the acc contract may be in trouble if they do not have a championship game in place for 2005 so time is on the side of the BE