There was a time when the words of former Big East Conference commissioner Mike Tranghese mattered -- that's because he was in control of one of the most respected conferences in the country.
However, Tranghese, who's now long retired, recently decided to turn back the clock as he spoke candidly with ajerseyguy.com's Mark Blaudschun about his former league, and surprisingly took shots at the self-proclaimed "New York's College Team" -- Syracuse University.
Syracuse is talking about owning New York City. That’s a joke. The only people who own New York City are people who win.
Tranghese's comments stemmed from a question about if he thinks "it’s sad that teams like Texas doesn’t play Texas A&M and Kansas and Missouri will not play each other any more on a regular basis?"
For almost seven years now, the SU athletic department, led by athletic director Dr. Darryl Gross, has tried to broaden its appeal in the state of New York with a campaign claiming: it's "New York's College Team".
Of course, the claim means the Orange's appeal reaches all the way to New York City, a place where schools like St. John's University, Manhattan College and New Jersey schools Rutgers University and Seton Hall University reside.
However, Syracuse is possibly the most decorated of all of the schools when it comes to accomplishments in football, men's basketball and other Olympic style sports, and have thousands of alumni living in and around the NYC area.
At times, Madison Square Garden -- the home court for some of St. John's men's hoop games -- is called Syracuse's second home, because Orange fans love to travel to NYC to watch their team play.
For years, the Orange have had good rivalries with St. John's and Rutgers, but Tranghese doesn't see that continuing when Syracuse moves to the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2013:
Just like in basketball Syracuse and Georgetown and Syracuse and St. John’s not playing. People say they will schedule each other. No, they won’t schedule each other because people who are making those decisions are coaches and coaches won’t schedule those games.
Overall, says Tranghese, Syracuse's move to the ACC not only will end NY/tri-state rivalries and possibly Northeast football overall, but it was purely a basketball move.
I’ve read a lot of things about the expansion and what ACC officials have said. I just don’t believe anything I’ve read. You are not going to convince me they took Syracuse and Pitt just for football. It was pure basketball. They were sick of getting beaten up by the Big East so they tried to destroy the Big East. They said that was not their intention, but it has to be your intention. You have to be an idiot not to know what taking Syracuse and Pitt would do to the Big East.
In conclusion, maybe the Big East was in better hands under John Marinatto.