Yet another Marinatto screw up

It's not the model. It's the individual members weren't strong enough to create a whole that is more attractive than pretty much any other league that would have an individual member. That was the problem in 2003. That is the problem now.

Oh, and the biggest fallacy in the world is the Big East's bowl record. Of course they have a good bowl record, while the SEC, Big 10 and Big 12 battle each other and send multiple teams to the BCS, the Big East has been playing the MAC, CUSA and the ACC.

But the BCS bowl record of the Big East also indicates some level of success as well. That's the record people are really talking about when discussing BCS conferences.

The members going forward are 1-3. The current members are 4-5, non WVU is 1-5. So really West Virginia has had some success, everyone else has Louisville's win over Wake Forest.

Do I think Scott would be increasing money more than Marinatto? Yes, probably. He hit the rock out of the park. Do I think he would have kept Syracuse and Pitt in? No. Not a chance. If Pitt and Syracuse thought it was important who was our Commissioner, they would have said "we'll leave unless ____ is hired." Why doesn't it tell you something that they just left?

Certainly demonstrates how vital is was to get a program like Boise in here to replace WVU. It cannot be sugarcoated that we have lost our best football programs over the last decade.

Not so sure Pitt and Syr would have left if Scott (for example) had developed and pushed the concept of a Big East TV network in concert with ESPN and perhaps others and sold the Pitt President on the deal. Or developed a partnership with the ACC like the Big 10 and Pac 12 did. He could have promoted the idea of getting to 12 and a Big East Championship game, etc. Larry Scott pursued and got Colorado and Utah for the Pac 12. He might have set his sights on a few wobbly Big 12 schools for the Big East as well, and early enough in the process when it would have mattered. In the end, ideas, charismatic leadership, money, and timing all make a very big difference. I don't mean to canonize the guy, but its pretty clear he would have been a catalyst rather than a reactor. You can chortle about the absurdity of any of that happenning but in fact that's exactly what the Pac 12 Presidents did when Scott first brought them his vision for the conference. Go back and read some of that recent history. They're not laughing now.

Toally agree Pudge. Tone it down folks with the denigrating of the new additions. Let them move into the neighborhood & set down some roots.
As an aside, I went to the Memphis Scout board & invited their posters to come over to this board for some conversation. One of them posted back that after visiting & seeing the insults toward the new arrivals, that he'd pass on future visits.

Pudge,
You are correct about the improvement at UCONN, Rutgers USF though not so much Louisville who actually took a step back, and I am hopeful that some of the new additons will take similar steps forward. And that will be fun to watch as it always is when a nobody suddenly becomes somebody in the world of sports. I've argued for years that that very fact is a reason that th ebig East should have added some of these new members a while ago. That doesn't change the fact that Marinatto has been a disaster. Had he brought together a major proposal, and sold it to his membership, it might not have prevented the quislings from bolting...but it might have. No real way of knowing. And in any event, if Central Florida and let's say Memphis, had been members since say 2007, heck even since last year, the Big East football conference and for that matter the basketball confernece which is also getting jocked BTW, would have been in far better shape. Can't, of course lay it all at the feet of marinatto, he didn't become commissioner until 2009, but he has continued to be reactive on football, just like Mike Tranghese (for whom, I have to say, I have only minimally more respect). When you look at the commissioners out there, even the former B-12 guy they fired, they have all been more creative, more aggressive than any that we have had. they have only ever looked at football when circumstances forced them to, and until the most recent expansion, never as a 'growth' part of the conference, only for defensive purposes. Not sure that UCONN, or Rutgers or cincy or USF could have done much differently. I'm not sure that Marinatto or any commissioner could have come up with a plan to protect the Big East. There may simply be too many diverse interests. But I don't think it is unfair to say that clearly Marinatto wasn't up to the task. Bottom line to me is that he had so little respect, and so few contacts that the Syracuse/Pitt defection occurred and he was absolutley clueless, and it was announced while he was attendinga game in an ACC stadium. Say what you will, colleges are not exactly the CIA. Leaks happen ALL THE TIME. And I refuse to believe that any other commissioner, even Tranghese, certianly not Gavitt, would have been dissed like he was on the Syrapitt announcement.