BE Commish - We will start our own network if we have to

[Atlanta Bull]

Big East Commissioner John Marinatto said Tuesday in an interview at Madison Square Garden that his conference was always working to improve itself. He cited the creation of three bowl games and the fact that the league was studying its television options, including starting its own network.

"If creating a network is what we need to do in the next several years, we'll create a network," Marinatto said. "We're here today because of the leadership the conference had five years ago when the conference had dramatically changed. That leadership is still the same. We will not allow it to not be successful."

Notre Dame has a standing invitation to join the Big East's eight-team football league, but that is not likely. A more likely move would be for Notre Dame to join the Big Ten, which be financially comparable to the Irish's current television deal with NBC and also would drastically increase the value of the Big Ten's network.

NBC is paying Notre Dame an estimated $15 million a year under its current deal, which runs through 2015.

"We've seen a lot of businesses in America change dramatically in the past five years," Swarbrick said. "The automotive industry and the airline industry couldn't look any different than it did five years ago. They are responding to the economic pressures, and college sports is doing the same thing."

The Big Ten's timetable for possible expansion could stretch well over a year. The Big East's television contract expires in 2012-13 and is considered undervalued because it was negotiated in the wake of the ACC invasion, which lured away Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech, and when much skepticism surrounded the football conference.

"It's all speculation," Marinatto said. "You envision numerous scenarios. You and I can come up with 144 iterations of what seismic change could be. But it's all based on speculation. So it's really not a fruitful exercise to go through. My job is to keep everyone grounded and to improve the conference and insulate it from changing."

[tampabull]

be proactive commish

[bulldozier1]

Be proactive indeed. He could lose USF in the mist of all the expansion talk. And the ACC could be the ticket.