Big East hopes new members help bruised football image
By Jack Carey, USA TODAY
As Mike Tranghese prepares to throw out the first pitch for Friday night's Cincinnati Reds game against the Houston Astros, the Big East Conference commissioner's action might be seen as a good example for a league that's still in there chucking. No conference has been damaged more by the coast-to-coast league shakeups that officially reach conclusion Friday than the Big East.
First, the league lost five-time national football champion Miami (Fla.) and Virginia Tech, which played for the national crown in 1999, to the Atlantic Coast Conference. Then, when it seemed the dust was settling, Boston College announced in October 2003, that it too would bolt for the ACC, costing the Big East the fifth-largest television market in the nation and one of its original seven schools.
But as Tranghese gets ready to welcome Cincinnati along with Louisville, Marquette, DePaul and South Florida to the conference, day one of the new Big East finds the league, while still dinged up, no longer on the critical list.
The Big East's eight-team football conference has secured its automatic spot in the Bowl Championship Series for at least the next three seasons. Louisville's 10th-place finish in last year's BCS standings (higher than Miami and higher than any team from the Big Ten) will be applied to the Big East for future evaluation purposes. The 16-team basketball league might be the most imposing in the sport from top to bottom with seven members having won at least one national championship.
The league's football image, however, might still need some buffing. The Big East's BCS credentials were often called into question last season before and after No. 21 Pittsburgh's 35-7 loss to Utah in the Fiesta Bowl.
"Last year was really a difficult year because we didn't have our (new) members with us," Tranghese says. "We got killed (in public perception) last year, and we couldn't say, 'Louisville is one of ours,' even though essentially they were."
The Cardinals went 11-1 and won Conference USA last season. They enter the Big East as an immediate threat to earn the league's BCS bid.
But, as Tranghese understands, there's still work ahead.
"Whatever the perception is, we're not going to clear that up in a year," he said. "In the Big Ten last year, the best team (Iowa) was 12th (in the BCS), but nobody said they were bad because they've been historically good. So we've got to be consistent, have a team in the top 10 and a couple more in the top 25, so people look at us, and say, 'They're good.'
"One game or one season will not change it."
One thing that can help is to meet — and beat — high-profile, non-league opponents. "We understand the upside to playing quality people," Tranghese said. "Not to take on a suicide schedule, but it helps from a competitive point of view, it helps with the BCS, and with TV to take on a couple of strong non-conference games."
Though there was concern a year or so ago about the league's BCS bid, Tranghese said "our people are not worried anymore, once we heard that the (qualification) standards were going to be wide-ranging and it's about your overall strength. Our coaches said, 'That's great. We'll get there, and do what we have to do.' "
Although the 16-team configuration for basketball and other sports seems unwieldy, and many observers believe the eight football schools might eventually break away, Tranghese is confident.
"The world thinks we're going to fail, that 16 can't make it in this environment," he said. "You can gripe at everything and we will fail, or work at it together and make it work."
Hot tickets: This year's NCAA men's basketball tournament set an all-time attendance record in terms of seating capacity, according to the financial report presented to the men's basketball committee Thursday.
Attendance for the whole tournament was 98.4% of total capacity, topping the previous mark of 97.9% in 1994. At sites with conventional arenas instead of domes, 99.9% of all seats were sold.
Player suspended: LSU point guard Tack Minor has been suspended for the summer and fall semesters for an academic violation, the school says. The suspension means the Tigers will not have an experienced point guard until after the fall semester ends in December. Minor, a junior from Houston, violated the University's Code of Student Conduct, university officials said. Minor, who started all 30 games for LSU last season, averaged 10.8 points and 4.5 assists.
Staying put: Tulane baseball coach Rick Jones has accepted a one-year contract extension and ended speculation that he might be moving to the same job with Oklahoma. Jones is now signed with the Green Wave through the 2012 season.
Jones, 51, completed his 12th season at Tulane with the school's second appearance in the College World Series. The Green Wave finished 56-12 and were the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament before being ousted by Baylor in Omaha.
Sooners coach Larry Cochell, who won the CWS in 1994, resigned May 1 after using a racial slur while praising one of his players in an off-camera interview with ESPN. Jones is 523-237-1 at Tulane, including 10 NCAA regional trips.
Going: Toney Douglas, a freshman guard last year at Auburn, has transferred to Florida State. Douglas will sit out the 2005-06 season, but will have three seasons of eligibility remaining, Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said.
<a href='http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/2005-06-30-big-east-shakeup_x.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/200...t-shakeup_x.htm</a>
