http://ajerseyguy.com/?p=7251

Quote:“”It’s been very hectic to say the least,’ said Ackerman in a phone interview on Tuesday as she continued the business of putting together a league office as well as a league.

Eventually the league office will be in New York City. But for now, Ackerman’s office is her cell phone, where she is setting up everything from schedules to budgets.
“There are some similarities between the WNBA and this,” said Ackerman with a laugh. “”But with the WNBA, we were just an operating division of the NBA. We didn’t have to worry about setting up a pay roll system. Clearly we’re on the ground floor with a clean canvas and it’s very exciting.’

After several weeks of conference calls, Ackerman finally had a face to face with her 10 new athletic directors at Newport, Rhode Island last week, which was much more than a meet and greet gathering.

Part of the discussion was how to meld the tradition of the Big East with the issues of 2013 and 2014 which didn’t exist in 1979 when the Big East was founded by Dave Gavitt.

“”Part of the heritage you want to keep alive,” said Ackerman. “But we have to find a way of melding the heritage with innovation. Our goal is create as bright a halo over the league as possible.”

Quote:Ackerman concedes the 10 school format, which allows a balanced double round robin 18 game conference schedule is the ideal set up–at this time.

“It is ideal for a lot of reasons,” said Ackerman, “but the Presidents have said they would like to expand at some time and we will have to examine that. But not at this time. For now, it’s the perfect set up for us.”

Quote:Basing the league office in New York, allows the Big East more access to the power brokers and as she pointed out, makes the Big East the closest conference in Europe in geographical terms. Without being specific, Ackerman left open the door of a European venue as a site for Big East teams on a promotional basis. “In New York, we’re swimming with bigger fish,” said Ackerman. “There are some innovative things we can do within the NCAA rules.

Several items in this article that I thought Big East fans would find interesting here.

intersting articleanyone notice the quote "we cant replace a georgetown or syracuse"? did gtown go somewhere?

I would think she meant a "Georgetown and Syracuse rivalry"

(07-30-2013 08:05 PM)bostonspider Wrote:  I would think she meant a "Georgetown and Syracuse rivalry"

ah! now that makes sense!

Door open to Europe? I'm assuming that promotional basis is games played abroad? Do they intend on doing gimmick games for attention - I hope not.

isnt boston closer to europe? (and maine for that matter) so the ACC would be the closest to europes door

Think she meant where the conference is based. Not that I see why that would matter all that much.

Ackerman interview for the local Omaha sports station: http://t.co/7fvM7Yy671