NCAA Basketball Big East

Well, this will cause some tremors in college sports over the next couple of years. Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese has announced that he will retire in June 2009.

"I am stepping down at this point because I believe it is the right time," added Tranghese. "The Conference is in great shape and it will give my successor the best opportunity to be successful."

Tranghese will have been the Big East Commissioner for 19 years when he steps down. He was the first employee of the Big East conference, the second Big East commissioner.

He was also the force that managed to keep the conference intact and a full member of the BCS after Miami, Boston College and Virginia Tech left for the ACC. He prevented the conference from splitting into two conferences -- football schools and basketball schools -- by refusing to choose one over the other.

The football schools needed him because he had the connections and relationships with the other conferences and their commissioners to stay in the BCS. His expansion of the conference into 8 basketball schools (this includes Notre Dame) and 8 football schools. Has surprisingly worked to this point.

Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson is saying that the school is not discussing a move to the Big East conference ... hdespite reports saying that they are.

''No, absolutely not,'' Johnson said. ''I have had no meetings with the Big East.''

"We have no expansion plans and are speaking to no schools about expansion," Big East spokesman John) Paquette said.

However, that doesn't mean that he's not interested in leaving Conference USA. There are some rumblings that Memphis does want to move up into a BCS conference and believe they've set up their program to be an attractive addition somewhere.

The pros for staying in Conference USA is, well, domination in basketball and a shorter travel schedule. The cons are everything else (competition, mo' money, mo' exposure, etc). They'd also rejoin Louisville and Cincinnati as conference brethren.

The rumblings also have East Carolina also thinking about bolting C-USA for the Big East.

Rodriguez might not be such a jerk after all! I'm just kidding. Nothing will ever justify the way things have gone down between Rodriguez and West Virginia. It's been one stinking mud slinging mess that hasn't benefited either party. Suggestions of racism that probably aren't true. West Virginia fans shredding Rodriguez along with a slew of youtube's taunting Rodriguez. And of course, the WVU administration enslaving Rodriguez. Hell, I just want the season to start just so we can get out of this silly off season.

But it's hard not to look at the new contract signed by West Virginia basketball coach Bob Huggins, and not wonder how screwed up the lines of communication are at West Virginia.

Yet, the deal was a surprise even to some who shouldn't have been stunned. That's because WVU's administration -- continuing to be battered by the Heather Bresch bogus degree scandal -- did this deal behind the backs of its athletic leaders. It was a spin move right out of a Joe Alexander post-up. The WVU athletic staff had no knowledge of the "lifetime" contract talks until WVU Athletic Director Ed Pastilong finally was informed about it 24 hours before the dog-and-pony show to announce it.

The Bresch thing, if you don't know, is about Governor Manchin's daughter receiving a masters degree from West Virginia without earning it. The whole story is best read here (language warning). Back to my point though, who's in charge of the athletic department if the athletic director doesn't know a coach is getting a raise?

West Virginia's president, Mike Garrison, probably wanted to make a splash in his first year. But I doubt this is what he was looking for. He's single handedly ushered out the most successful football coach in Mountaineer history and has 80% of the faculty calling for his resignation over the Bresch scandal. Not bad for just over seven months on the job! And now leaving the athletic department in the dark about contract negotiations. It's been a bad year off the field for West Virginia. A little house cleaning might be in order before it works it's way onto the field. My suggestion would be to start at the top.