Big East promotes Marinatto to commissioner

ERIC TUCKER Associated Press Writer
Published: November 12, 2008

PROVIDENCE—The new commissioner of the Big East Conference wants to solidify the league’s future bowl berths and discounts the possibility the league would split its membership or add another football program.

John Marinatto, the conference’s senior associate commissioner, was unanimously promoted to the top job Wednesday by the league’s presidents and chancellors.

He replaces Mike Tranghese, who announced his retirement in June and presided over a major restructuring of the league during 18 years as commissioner.

Marinatto will begin his new job July 1 and becomes the league’s third commissioner after Tranghese and Dave Gavitt.

“I truly believe that the next decade will prove to be the best decade in the history of the Big East conference and for its members,“ Marinatto said in a conference call with reporters.

Marinatto said his primary goal was arranging the next series of bowl opportunities for the league’s eight football programs. The current contracts expire after the 2009 season.

The conference, which receives an automatic berth in a Bowl Championship Series game, has six postseason bowl contracts - the most the league has ever had.

“Our next specific agenda item falls to the next cycle of our postseason bowl opportunities,“ Marinatto said.

If it has enough bowl-eligible teams, Big East members will play in the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Bowl; the Meineke Bowl in Charlotte, N.C.; the Papajohns.com Bowl at Birmingham, Ala.; the International Bowl in Toronto; the Texas Bowl in Houston; and either the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, or the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla.

Marinatto oversees the conference’s finances and has been with the Big East for seven seasons, serving as Tranghese’s second-in-command. Before joining the conference he was athletic director at Providence College.

“We identified the best, interviewed the best and ultimately appointed the best,“ said Rutgers president Richard McCormick and chair of the Big East presidents.
The Big East expanded under Tranghese to 16 schools to become the largest Division I-A conference in the nation.

The league added five schools in 2005 following the high-profile defections of Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech - all football powers - to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Louisville, South Florida and Cincinnati were brought on to fill out the eight-team football side of the Big East, and the league also added strong basketball programs in Marquette and DePaul.

Marinatto said there was no discussion of splitting the conference or of adding a ninth football program.

Notre Dame competes in the Big East, except in football. The Fighting Irish are one of three major college independents, along with Army and Navy.

“Having bonded through the process of rebuilding the conference over the course of the past five years, we’ve actually come together in a stronger way than we’ve ever been,“ he said.

The conference has fielded competitive football teams in recent seasons, but it’s best known as a basketball powerhouse - eight Big East teams received bids to last season’s NCAA tournament, and seven are ranked in The Associated Press preseason poll.

“We thought when we expanded it we were going to be pretty good in basketball,“ Marinatto said. “I don’t know if any of us thought we’d be really this good in basketball.“