Big East prepares defense for raid on its schools
The moment Big East Conference commissioner John Marinatto arrived in Scottsdale, Ariz., for a mid-April meeting of Bowl Championship Series schools, he found himself squarely in the sights of Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany. Their meeting occurred on the heels of a published report that said a decision on Big Ten expansion could happen quickly, resulting in a June raid on the Big East and Big 12.
"Jim told me there was no accelerated timetable," Marinatto said Wednesday. "I knew he wouldn't do that without calling me."
For the moment, it appears the Big Ten is sticking to Delany's original timetable of 12-18 months to reach a decision, which means the Big East and other conferences are safe for another year. But that doesn't mean the Big Ten won't expand by three or five schools to widen the reach of its TV network with the lure of a payout approaching the $22 million per year each of its 11 members reportedly receives now.
The threat to the future of the Big East is serious enough that Marinatto recently convinced former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue to serve as an adviser on how best to combat the possibility of losing some of the league's football schools. "Not only me, but all commissioners around the country would be irresponsible if they weren't concerned about the potential of what could happen," Marinatto said. "We'll utilize Paul's expertise to deal with these issues.
"We're going to look at the best scenario to enhance our value to our members. Our schools can deliver major markets. Our primary objective is to remain one of the most prestigious conferences in the country, including football."
Marinatto said the first step in defending the Big East's turf is consideration of forming its own television network to counter the Big Ten Network (BTN). At the moment, the Big East is television partners with CBS and ESPN, and those deals have three years to run starting with the beginning of the fiscal year in July.
"We intend to honor all our current agreements," Marinatto said. "But we want to be innovative in terms of how we position ourselves for the future. There are a lot of ways to approach it. All things are on the table."
According to one published report, the Big Ten expansion study targeted Missouri of the Big 12, Pitt, Rutgers and Syracuse of the Big East and Notre Dame, which is a football independent with its own TV contracts but a Big East member in all other sports. Several other schools have been involved in the speculation, including Nebraska and Colorado of the Big 12 and West Virginia of the Big East.
The Big Ten needs to add only one school in order to meet the 12-team minimum for holding a conference championship football game. But that wouldn't grow TV revenue nearly as much as going to 14 or even 16 teams, which would add significantly to the 30 million cable subscribers whose systems currently carry the BTN on the main tier.
All indications now are that Notre Dame has no intention of joining the Big Ten. Irish athletic director Jack Swarbrick has predicted, "There will be realignment," but in a recent speech to an alumni group in Chicago, Swarbrick emphasized the school's determination to remain independent and expressed loyalty to the Big East, adding that he will continue to monitor developments.
"If you take a poll of the alumni," one Notre Dame source said, "they don't want any part of it."
As a strong partner of the BCS and the bowl system in general, Notre Dame is unique. It never will be left out of the college football TV revenue equation.
The non-football members of the Big East don't share football TV revenue, so, the financial impact is a non-issue. St. John's and the six other non-BCS football schools in the Big East basically are innocent bystanders who could get caught in the crossfire of the expansion debate.
Having survived the loss of Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech to the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2005, the non-football members are optimistic the league can weather another storm. As St. John's athletic director Chris Monasch said, "If there were to be a shift, we want the remaining Big East football schools to have the best options ahead of them inside the Big East.
"The way to have the best possible conference is the inclusion of the football schools. Depending on what happens, there are other football schools that would be options for us to strengthen football."
And if worst came to worst and the Big East reverted to its roots as a basketball conference, Monasch said, "There may be other schools that strengthen us just from a basketball standpoint that would maintain the strong basketball brand that's historically been in place."
