http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/...-landscape

Lots of discussion on the Big East board and elsewhere.

Thankful to be headed to the ACC right now.

The Big East so far is the only league that jumped the shark. Everyone else made pretty geographically logical additions (except for maybe WVU but I think that will be rectified with a bridge by L'ville).

He was a terrible commissioner and deserved to be fired long ago.

Wikipedia already lists him as "former" commissioner...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marinatto

As I mentioned in another thread... that only leaves ONE commissioner who is an alumnus of a member school. John Swofford, you are now officially on the clock.

(maybe this deserves its own thread, but... if Swofford ever goes the way of Marinatto, who should the ACC get to replace him? best available & best we could get?)

The ACC should ask FSU and Clemson this: Would you like us to invite Louisville? Go to 15 and wait for Notre Dame. I know Louisville's academics are not up to speed but they have been improving. Louisville brings in both Football and Basketball...also they are excellent among all sports. Allow Notre Dame to think about this.

What exactly do you think Swofford did that the Presidents didn't want him to do? Not counting the petty comments that go back to his time at UNC. What did he do that was against the wishes of the conference in his current role? From everything I see in the media, he is highly regarded among his peers. So there must be something he did against the Presidents's wishes to warrant firing?

Gosh, I sure hope the new commish is a Providence guy. Providence guys are so forward-thinking, always putting football first. Maybe a janitor at the Dunkin Donuts Center would like to be promoted.

(05-07-2012 01:31 PM)4x4hokies Wrote:  What exactly do you think Swofford did that the Presidents didn't want him to do? Not counting the petty comments that go back to his time at UNC. What did he do that was against the wishes of the conference in his current role? From everything I see in the media, he is highly regarded among his peers. So there must be something he did against the Presidents's wishes to warrant firing?

Clemson fans can answer this best ... Take it away, Catdaddy or another CU fan ...

(05-07-2012 03:26 PM)zibby Wrote:  Gosh, I sure hope the new commish is a Providence guy. Providence guys are so forward-thinking, always putting football first. Maybe a janitor at the Dunkin Donuts Center would like to be promoted.

I just ruined a keyboard.

(05-07-2012 01:31 PM)4x4hokies Wrote:  What exactly do you think Swofford did that the Presidents didn't want him to do? Not counting the petty comments that go back to his time at UNC. What did he do that was against the wishes of the conference in his current role? From everything I see in the media, he is highly regarded among his peers. So there must be something he did against the Presidents's wishes to warrant firing?

I'd respond with 2 Things.

1) There are numerous cases which give strong circumstantial evidence of conflict of interest (be it putting his Alma Mater ahead of the rest of the conference or, in the case of the current TV contract, his own son ahead of the conference). We don't need someone representing us who doesn't really represent all of us.

2) The intent of your question seems to be that if Swofford does exactly what the Presidents want him to do then he is doing his job. I would counter that the bar has been raised by commissioners like Mike Slive and especially Larry Scott who are more than just representatives - these guys actually show leadership and initiative. Slive and Scott don't wait for the Presidents to tell them which direction the conference should go - they persuade the Presidents to go in the right direction.

(05-07-2012 03:54 PM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  

(05-07-2012 01:31 PM)4x4hokies Wrote:  What exactly do you think Swofford did that the Presidents didn't want him to do? Not counting the petty comments that go back to his time at UNC. What did he do that was against the wishes of the conference in his current role? From everything I see in the media, he is highly regarded among his peers. So there must be something he did against the Presidents's wishes to warrant firing?

I'd respond with 2 Things.

1) There are numerous cases which give strong circumstantial evidence of conflict of interest (be it putting his Alma Mater ahead of the rest of the conference or, in the case of the current TV contract, his own son ahead of the conference). We don't need someone representing us who doesn't really represent all of us.

2) The intent of your question seems to be that if Swofford does exactly what the Presidents want him to do then he is doing his job. I would counter that the bar has been raised by commissioners like Mike Slive and especially Larry Scott who are more than just representatives - these guys actually show leadership and initiative. Slive and Scott don't wait for the Presidents to tell them which direction the conference should go - they persuade the Presidents to go in the right direction.

My intent was more to say I'm uncomfortable with people demanding people be fired. I think there are people much closer to the situation than we are that employ him and they find him to be doing a good enough job to give him raises recently. I am also seeing that his name in the media carries weight and he seems to be well respected unlike some other commissioners. I haven't seen any AD's or Presidents claiming he is getting in the way of the conference doing what they want.

If there is actually something that the presidents happen to think he needs to do better then I think it would be communicated to him and he'd have a chance to conform before considering firing him.

(05-07-2012 01:11 PM)TexanMark Wrote:  The ACC should ask FSU and Clemson this: Would you like us to invite Louisville? Go to 15 and wait for Notre Dame. I know Louisville's academics are not up to speed but they have been improving. Louisville brings in both Football and Basketball...also they are excellent among all sports. Allow Notre Dame to think about this.

UL is a solid school and if they were already a member in a conference which FSU was a part of I wouldn't mind. But when you're bringing in only 1 or 2 schools, they don't do much for me. To be fair, there isn't anyone out there that the ACC could reasonably add that I would want to be targeted. And how does UL entice ND?

(05-07-2012 01:08 PM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  As I mentioned in another thread... that only leaves ONE commissioner who is an alumnus of a member school. John Swofford, you are now officially on the clock.

Tick tock, tick tock

The SEC didn't become the 800lb gorilla that they currently are because first Roy Kramer and now Mike Slive were puppets for the SEC presidents.

The B1G didn't become one of the big dogs because Delany was just the PR man for the B1G presidents.

Larry Scott is not the left coast version of Baghdad Bob, spouting the party line even when the overwhelming facts make it plain they aren't true.


However, Dan Beebe was all of those things. He's currently jobless and gets mocked almost daily on Twitter.

Meatball Marinara was all of those things. Two of the weakest BCS conferences out there treated the Big East like it was a Compton electronics store during the Rodney King riots while he coddled Villanova, and now he's crying his tears into a plate of shrimp alfredo at the Providence Olive Garden. (Probably part of his severance package)

People like to praise Swofford for the 2005 expansion, but he was just as reluctant as his puppetmasters EweNC. He simply had no choice once the decision to expand became public and had to make it work. Even then he just about screwed that up. He also had no choice this time around because several schools, Clemson included, weren't going to settle for being second tier behind the SEC. We still aren't.

What the ACC needs is a leader with vision, not one who's bowel movements have to be approved by someone in the Smith Center.

Honestly, I'm not sure there is a person alive that could control & juggle all those competing interests from such a wide range of higher educational institutions. Meatball may well have been over his head, but I am not sure there is anyone that could command the respect from all the presidents of every Big East school. It's not a conference; it's a conglomeration. Nebulous & omnipresent. Its everywhere but no where. A league with no clear definition.

From ESPN.com -- Big East needs vision, not a puppet

"Marinatto is a good man. He is a nice man. He was then, and remained until his last day at work, the wrong man for this job.

Jim Delany is a lawyer. Ditto Mike Slive. Larry Scott arrived at the then-Pac-10 having resuscitated a flailing women's professional tennis league. Bob Bowlsby has more awards and accolades as a big-time sports administrator than the cash-flush Big 12 members he will preside over.

Marinatto was born in Providence, went to Providence College, worked at Providence and then took a job in the Big East, which is located in … Providence.

With the exception of the ghost of Dave Gavitt, the league could not have hired a more "Big East" guy.

But the league didn't need a man well versed in the past; it needed someone who could project for the future."

John Swofford = John Marinatto. That's why he must be replaced.

The Big East is saying - okay, we get it, let's get a self promoting sports man who is media savvy, looks good at a speaking podium and on TV in an interview. They are doing this to get someone who will self promote the Big East into big bucks in their upcoming television negotiations.

I agree, Swofford's time is coming - the ACC has not been aggressive enough in promoting its football or itself, it is surviving on reputation and history alone, and we need someone to step up our game and bring everyone inline and encourage more investment on the gridiron to raise the public perception and eventually our television revenue. The Big East could very well match us if the open market is desperate enough for content in the fall, all the media groups are at the table ready to talk with them, and we're tied to a long term exclusive deal that benefits ESPN and leaves the conference in a weakened position - we need someone strong to officially renegotiate come 'Cuse and Pitt's official entry and not let us get walked over again.