the Music city info is old...but there is some new stuff in here
jackson
New Big East sacks its football problem
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
By Paul Zeise, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
NEWPORT, RI -- Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese was all smiles yesterday as he addressed the assembled crowd at the conference's annual media day.
That is a sharp contrast to his demeanor two years ago when he was faced with the real possibility that his handiwork -- the Big East football conference -- was about to crumble because of the defections of three key members.
That day, he stood with defiant resolve and said he would fight to keep the Big East a viable football conference. Two years later, he believes he has delivered on that promise. The conference is about to begin a new era after two years in limbo.
"This day has been a long time coming," Tranghese said. "Two years ago, people were telling us we were going out of business, we're losing our BCS bid, we're losing our television contracts and we're going to lose our secondary bowl bids. I stand here before you two years later and none of that is true.
"I have been here from the start and for me, personally, this is probably the most exciting day in our 26-year history. There is such excitement and exuberance about where we are at, and if you stop and look at our eight programs, they are all on the upswing."
The past two years have seen the conference undergo massive changes with the biggest in the membership.
Three new members -- South Florida, Cincinnati and Louisville -- have joined the league. Boston College and Temple have followed Virginia Tech and Miami out the door.
Two teams also have new coaches -- Pitt, where Dave Wannstedt takes over for Walt Harris, and Syracuse, where Greg Robinson is now in charge.
Another big change for this season is instant replay will be instituted. The system will not allow coaches to challenge referees calls but there will be a replay official in the press box who can overturn certain calls based on replays.
Now that the league membership has been settled and the BCS berth is intact, the next item of business is to secure a few more bowl bids. This is the final year for the league's contract with the Insight Bowl, and the bowl has announced it will match the Big 12 against the Big Ten in the future.
The conference also is in its final year with the Meineke Car Care Bowl (formerly the Continental Tire Bowl) but league officials are confident they will continue to be a partner with the bowl. The Big East announced last week a deal with the Gator Bowl, the Big 12, Notre Dame and the Sun Bowl.
That means the Big East's bowl lineup for 2006 and beyond is the BCS game, the Gator or Sun Bowl and the Meineke Car Care Bowl. The conference also will continue to be a secondary partner with the Motor City Bowl and will serve as a backup to the Big Ten should the conference not have enough bowl-eligible teams.
Tranghese said the conference is negotiating with several other bowls, including a new bowl which will be played in Toronto against a Mid-American Conference opponent starting in 2006. The Music City Bowl, which was previously a Big East bowl, is another strong possibility and would pit the Big East against a Southeastern Conference team.
There is also still a movement to create a bowl in New York City, but that is contingent on a new stadium in Manhattan.
"We will have five bowl slots once everything is settled," Tranghese said. "We expect to announce all of our bowls within the next 10 days. I think when you see our list of bowls, you consider our BCS status, it is very clear that four years from now the only questions we will have to answer will have to do with players, coaches and teams.
"Our future is very bright."
The next challenge is to find a way to balance the schedule. With only eight members -- and the NCAA recently approving a 12th game -- there are only seven conference games, so schools will have five non-conference games each season.
Half the schools will get four home conference games a year, while the other half will have three. While the league is not opposed to adding a ninth football member, Tranghese said it is more likely the conference will enter into some sort of a scheduling alignment with another conference or several teams. The conference's top targets for such a deal are Army and Navy.
"Your seeing a lot of creativity in scheduling out there," Pitt athletic director Jeff Long said. "The Big Ten and the Mid-American Conference are on the verge of entering a scheduling agreement, and you are going to start to see more of that kind of thing as we move forward. And that is something we need to look at in the Big East in order to satisfy our lack of an even home-and-home conference schedule."
Tranghese said: "I don't think we're interested in taking on a ninth school. In order to take on a ninth school they have to make you better, it can't just be adding a ninth team to add a ninth team. We need to give our schools a balance of four home and four away games so this is the next big agenda item for us."
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Preseason picks
The following is how a media poll ranks the Big East football teams this season. There were 24 voters and teams received eight points for first place, seven for second and so on. The number in parenthesis is the first-place votes received:
School Pts
Louisville (23) 190
Pitt (1) 164
West Virginia 145
Syracuse 114
Connecticut 80
Rutgers 72
South Florida 59
Cincinnati 40
(Paul Zeise can be reached at pzeise@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1720.)
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