Big East chief quits
John Marinatto, Big East commissioner has quit:
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/7899745/big-east-commish-j…
he claims to be leaving because the ever changing landscape has settled, not because the big east has been killed by the shift. probably not true. now if we can just get delany to go...
Delany birthed the Big Ten Network. You're right, he sucks.
You could write a similar paragraph about Dave Brandon, IMO.
Agree.
Nebraska joining and stabalizing the conference during conference armagaddeon is much more important than legends/leaders.
BTN is much more important than off-putting comments.
All the big issues I think he has handled extremely well. When it comes down to it that matters much more than sillier annoyances like the names of divisions.
As for the Big East... still effed... they got destroyed by reallignment and being basketball focused with many smaller schools- not sure anyone can change that. They can only hope the BCS gives them an auto-bid and that school like UConn don't also bolt in coming years.
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now when the Big East loses its automatic bid into the BCS he won't be forced to answer questions. That is of course as long as the BCS is still in place.
Vince Lombardi himself could not have led the Big East to success in the past few years.
"John helped build the Big East into what it is today, and played a critical role in our successful expansion efforts, and for all of that we thank him." - USF President Judy Genshaft
Except, of course, the "successful expansion efforts" came at the expense of flagship members of the conference bolting, even suing to get out. In exchange, the fans in the Big East conference will need to be satisfied with the vaunted San Diego State vs. Central Florida rivalry. They may be stable monetarily for the moment, and they may even get a substantial deal which makes them the 3:30 PM game on ESPN3 every other week, but it is officially second-world as a football conference now.
I don't know if Marinatto could have managed the change in a different way which would have mitigated the damage, but I would wonder what I was being thanked for, if I were him - geographic focus and what remained of a credible perception were sacrificed to right the ship in this case. If UConn goes to the ACC at some point, as people discuss now and again, then I would pity the commissioner that has to recover from that.
In the news today the former Big East commisioner, John Marinatto, abruptly resigned when he discovered that the Big East actually had no teams left in it. "My bad" said Marinatto when asked about the accidental dissolving of the conference. "I could've sworn we had the SWAC or the MEAC or something coming in just before the last six or seven teams left to join the Big26. I guess I must've mis-timed that one!" Marinatto added. "I thought maybe nobody would notice but when the BCS asked me who'd fill their their auto-bid hotel rooms I knew the jig was up".
Delany is basically the reason why the Big Ten is sitting on a pile of money and is the most stable conference in all of college sports. He created a TV model that other conferences are now emulating. There are about a dozen big-time schools who would kill for an invite to the Big Ten.
Given all that he's done for the conference, I'm willing to put up with some of the more annoying aspects of his tenure (division names, standing in the way of a college football playoff, etc).
But he really isn't standing in the way of a playoff currently. He is negotiating (with the press involved) to get the best deal for the Big Ten possible.
All hail the Sun Beast.
Oh the humanity! Big East is done for.