Tranghese: Big East 'blew it' with Penn State

◊ This is an interesting bit of pretty mediocre news. Mike Tranghese, the Big East's commissioner, said in a Q&A with the New York Times, that the league's biggest mistake was not taking Penn State in the early 1980s.

"The idea wasn’t to take Penn State and start a football league. It was to give Penn State a place. And then they would have been aligned with Syracuse and Boston College. We probably would have brought Pitt in, too, and the four of them probably would have agreed to play and continue as independents."

Tranghese goes on to say how Penn State was within one vote (it was 5-3) of being accepted into the league, and that former Syracuse A.D. Jake Crouthamel took a lot of undue heat from Paterno about it.

"We voted five different times and all five times Jake voted for Penn State. And Bill Flynn at Boston College, God rest his soul, voted for Penn State all five times. The reason that they didn’t get in was that the league was new, a lot of the directors felt it was a basketball league. Some of the directors felt that the concept of the Big East was big markets."

Ok, I'll admit that being from New Jersey, I have a real soft spot for Eastern Football and the Big East. Sure, the conference took a big hit losing Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College in 2004, and would they even have left if Penn State was in the league? It doesn't really matter, because like the entire discussion, it's history now. Still a hoot to talk about, though.

As much as I like Eastern Football, I have no sympathy for the Big East. They had their chance, and blew it big time. At least Tranghese knows it.

But we'll have more on the whole conference realignment thing later this month. Should be lots of fun.

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Big East looking at Service Academies

It seems that the New York Post is trying its hand at college football. Sure, they've done it in the past, but now that Rutgers is a player, the Post must feel obligated to devote more than a fraction of its attention to college football. According to a story run this morning, the Big East is stable enough to explore stronger relations with the conference's closest allies next to Notre Dame--the two service academies, Army and Navy. What's really interesting about this is how Big East Commish Mike Tranghese envisions the early stages of a deal. "...Army would play Connecticut, Cincinnati, Louisville and Pittsburgh. Navy would face Rutgers, South Florida, Syracuse and West Virginia," the Post article said, reasoning that the Big East and the academies are just falling victim to the 12th-game crisis happening across college football. You know, how it's now "impossible" to find opponents for that 12th game? Puh'lease.

"A ninth member, even limited partners such as Army and Navy (both have a significant TV following) would give league members eight league games. That would allow the flexibility of four non-conference games so teams could pursue non-conference rivals such as Pittsburgh and Penn State."

If I'm not mistaken, Pitt is already in the Big East. Papers like the Post should stick to covering A-Rod's next bowel movement. College football to them is just a gambling sport, nothing more.

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