Marinatto

[Clam Crowder]

The last sentence may be one of the most telling of all, without a commissioner with the basketball school's best interests at heart the B-ball only schools such as MU are living in the Big East on borrowed time.




From the Providence Journal...
World that Marinatto knew has fallen off its axis
  Bill Reynolds
     He always was one of those feel-good stories out of adolescent fiction. He was the local kid who started as the manager of the Our Lady of Providence basketball team, the   kid who parlayed that into being Dave Gavitt’s manager at Providence College, the kid who all but defined loyalty and commitment and all the other words that hang on innumerable locker-room walls.
   These words were the foundation of John Marinatto’s faith back there in the late 1970s, back when he ran errands and baby-sat for Gavitt’s kids, all but part of the family. Back when he was the Man Friday of the PC basketball program, always there, as loyal as a house pet, the behind-the-scenes   guy who helped make it all work.
   These were the traits that would get him the athletic director’s job at Providence College, back when words such as loyalty and commitment were words to be cherished, back before words such as branding and revenue sources became the new holy grail of college athletics.
   These were John Marinatto’s roots, and eventually he rode them to become the commissioner of the Big East Conference, one of the most powerful positions in college sports.   
   And if this were a movie, the credits would roll and the theater lights would go on and everyone would walk out happy.
   Except this is real life, and the dream job has ended for John Marinatto.
   On Monday, he resigned from the Big East after just three years as its commissioner, but don’t let anyone fool you. Suffice to say it wasn’t his choice.
   So there he was Monday afternoon in his spacious office that     looks out over the State House and the Providence Place mall, a corporate office that tells you all you have to know about the new soul of big-time college sports. Rest assured it’s a long way from a small office in the gym.
   This is a world that speaks to rights fees and television contracts, a world that often feels like the action in the boardroom is more important than the action on the basketball court and the football field. A world that, ultimately, the presidential executive committee of the Big East felt Marinatto wasn’t suited for.
   Although it certainly wasn’t for lack of effort.
   The two white pillows and a Big East blanket on the couch in his office speaks to that.
   “I spent a lot of nights here,” he said resignedly. “I was putting in so many hours it just seemed to make more sense.”
   For no one has a better work ethic than Marinatto, no one who puts in more hours, no one makes his job his life more than he does.
   Ultimately, though, it didn’t matter.
   In a college sports universe that is changing right in front of us, one in which loyalty is just another word in a dictionary people no longer look at, Marinatto all but had a target on his back. It’s a world that began changing in the Big East back in 2003, when Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech all but sneaked away to the Atlantic Coast Conference in the middle of the night. That was the beginning, and ever since then the world of big-time college sports has been like musical chairs at some junior high dance, everyone trying to find a spot to land   before the music stops. “It’s totally different,” Marinatto said. “It’s not the old Big East anymore.” No, it’s not. Last fall, both Syracuse and Pittsburgh announced they were leaving for the ACC, UConn said it wanted to go, West Virginia went to the Big 12, and Louisville began shopping itself. Central Florida, Houston, Memphis and SMU will be joining the Big East in all sports, and Boise State, San Die-go State, and Navy are coming to play football. Got that? It doesn’t really matter. Odds are it will change soon. The point is it’s not the Big East anyone knew, never mind Marinatto. Or as he asked, “How do you brand all that?” You really don’t, of course. But that’s what all this is all about, college sports at the crossroads, positioning itself for a future no one can see. A future without geography, without tradition; a future cobbled together by money and a multitude of television channels; a future no one could have seen two decades ago. A future where the sport keeps getting bigger, ballooned by seat licenses, ad signage, anything else that can bring in more revenue; a future that’s more and more about the business of sport. It’s the world he inherited, so different from the one he came of age in, back when loyalty and commitment were words to be cherished, words at the core of what he was. “The past two and a half years have not been fun,” Marinatto said. “It’s been too chaotic. But this has been my life for two and a half years. Then, in September, Syracuse and Pitt changed everything. It’s an arms race now.” He was silent for a beat, and when he spoke again his voice seems to come up through layers of regret. “The world changed.” His world, too.  breynold@providencejournal.com   (401) 277-7340   
 
  AP / STEW MILNE
 
   John Marinatto has left his post as commissioner of the Big East. The departure likely ends a lengthy run of PC-schooled leaders.

[lab_warrior]

All this needs is a clip of Kent Brockman riding a carousel while The Byrds' "Turn! turn! turn!" plays after reading.  Very Bill Reynolds-ish.  Well, that, and columns full of bullet pointed unconnected sentence fragments. 

I think the next person in charge of the BE really has his/her hands full.  This conference realignment/genuflect to college football dollars thing is basically a choice between giant douche, and turd sandwich. 

[Ellenson Guerrero]

http://outkickthecoverage.com/could-big-east-basketball-schools-form-a-catholic-league.php

Hopefully the Catholic school league idea starts to gain more widespread traction. Looking at the football schools and the basketball-only schools the distinction is glaring. The football schools are all middling in their sport, but their sport makes more money. The basketball schools are generally high class programs, but their sport makes less money.

The question is whether the additional football revenue (which I'm not sure is even shared with the non-football schools) makes it worthwhile for the basketball schools to delute their basketball conference. I actually think the football schools may be more dependent on the basketball schools than vice versa. Yes football revenue drives college re-alignment, but I don't think it would be crazy for the basketball-only Catholic league to get a major media deal (especially given the Catholic fanbase element). And if you take away the basketball schools from the conference, then the football schools are left with a middling football conference and a middling basketball conference; they lose the prestige value of being a power conference in at least one sport and potential risk their automatic bid status for football.

The more I think about it, the more it makes sense for MU to be in Georgetown and Villanova's ear on this Catholic conference concept.

[slingkong]

In concept the schools in the "Catholic League" are fine - the bball league would be OK but not great.  But it shouldn't be known as the "Catholic League" or anything similar.  The best reason is that it's just dumb.  But a secondary reason is to avoid the inevitable linkage with the troubles the church hierarchy has had recently.  No matter where you come down on that, the simple fact is that the schools should try to avoid that linkage, even if they are, individually, Catholic.

[ATWizJr]

There's another article in today's ProJo indicating that no schism exists between the football and BB schools.  Not computer savvy enough to provide the link and apologize in advance,  Hags, can you help?

[Dawson Rental]

There's another article in today's ProJo indicating that no schism exists between the football and BB schools.  Not computer savvy enough to provide the link and apologize in advance,  Hags, can you help?

Here you go.

http://news.providencejournal.com/sports/college/2012/05/marinatto-exit-wont-effect-catholic-school-split.html

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

Boise State is asking the Big East to help them find a location for their other sports.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/sns-mct-can-big-east-help-boise-state-find-home-for-its-20120510,0,3213162.story

Can Big East help Boise State find home for its other sports?by Brian Murphy
 
The Idaho Statesman, Boise
 
5:55 a.m. CDT, May 10, 2012
Boise State has asked the Big East for help in placing its non-football programs in another league, a sign the Broncos remain committed to moving their football team to the league in 2013.

A Boise State spokesman confirmed the school's request, hours after the Big East's interim commissioner said he was not aware of those talks. Joe Bailey took over Monday after the resignation of John Marinatto and acknowledged that he was not up to speed on all the league's happenings.

Boise State is seeking a stable home for most of its non-football teams after the WAC was raided last week. The Big West, one potential land-ing spot, is holding meetings next week and will discuss expansion, though it has no specific proposal to consider, Commissioner Dennis Farrell told the Statesman.

Bailey said Boise State and partner San Diego State have affirmed their plans to join the league July 1, 2013.

"Those schools have indicated, to my knowledge, to the executive committee and to the other members, that they have a big belief that the Big East is a really good partner for them," Bailey said on a conference call.

Bailey also disputed talk that the Big East's powerful basketball programs were considering splitting off.

"The reality of the situation is that there has been no indication from anybody that I have talked to ... even close to this idea of any kind of split," Bailey said.

But the biggest development for the league -- and its biggest reason for optimism -- had nothing to do with Bailey's words but from a rival league's lucrative television contract.

The ACC, which took Big East founding members Pittsburgh and Syracuse to set off the latest round of conference instability, agreed to a reported 15-year, $3.6 billion deal with ESPN. The contract will pay each of the ACC's 14 members $17.1 million per year.

Earlier this week, the Big 12 agreed to a new rights deal that will pay its 10 members roughly $19 million per year.

That is good news for the Big East, which will begin negotiations for a new television contract this fall. Bailey will not be a part of those negotiations, but he expects a positive outcome for the league he now runs.

Several networks are expected to bid for the rights.

"I would expect that on balance, whatever the results are going to be, (they) are going to be awfully positive for the entire conference," Bailey said "It's not as though it's a secret just to us; it's obviously very apparent that there is a market demand for what I would term ... authentic content. And that's sort of the difference between entertainment and sport. Sport is authentic. No one really knows what the outcome is going to be."

The potential of a lucrative television contract was one of the major reasons that Boise State opted to join the Big East. The Mountain West's television package produced roughly $1.2 million per year for its members.

Bailey is not a candidate for the permanent commissioner job and he said it would likely take three or four months to find his successor.

Brian Murphy: 377-6444

[Canadian Dimes]

Pittsburgh was not a founding member

[TribalRage]

This does illustrate the dollars associated with football. MU must regret the 1960 decision to drop the sport.

[tower912]

This does illustrate the dollars associated with football. MU must regret the 1960 decision to drop the sport.

Doubtful.    For fun, check out how many non-state schools (ok, private) with enrollments approximately equal to MU's have D1 football.   Then see how many are actually making money on it.