For the past two years, the St. John's Red Storm, Seton Hall Pirates and Rutgers Scarlet Knights athletic programs have been caught in the middle of the conference realignment hoopla involving the Big East Conference and other leagues.
These three programs stood by and watched as other schools realigned itself with a different conference, its commissioner resign during a time difficulty, and they all took punches from college media members who bashed its league for poor decision making.
However, the tides may turn for the better Wednesday when the Big East introduces its new commissioner Mike Aresco at a press conference held at the New York Athletic Club (10:30 a.m. ET). The league made the hiring official on Tuesday.
"Mike Aresco is a dynamic selection for our new commissioner," said St. John's athletic director Chris Monasch Tuesday.
Seton Hall athletic director Pat Lyons also expressed his positive feelings toward Aresco, when he told Newark Star-Leger reporter Brendan Prunty: "(Aresco is a) very well respected leader who knows the business of sports and media. We are very excited about him leading the Big East into the future."
Meanwhile, as the two non-football playing members breathed a sigh of relief -- because its conference may actually stand a chance with television's top contract negotiators -- Rutgers athletic director Tim Pernetti released a 4 minutes, 18 second YouTube video. In the clip, Pernetti admits the hiring couldn't have come at a better time.
"I think its great for the conference," said Pernetti. "The conference has had a great week. The media negotiations that's coming up really is the moment that's going to define the league going forward, not only from the perspective of membership, what its ability will be able to generate in the market, but stability."
"As we gear up for our media negotiations, I don't think we could of had a better week as a conference."
RVision: @RUAthletics AD @Tim_Pernetti on new BIG EAST commissioner. (via RVision1766)
Currently, Aresco is the Executive VP of Programming at CBS Sports, which makes him one of the people involved in negotiating TV contracts -- he handled CBS' contract negotiations with the NCAA for the rights to the men's basketball tournament, and negotiated the networks 15-year deal with the Southeastern Conference.
Despite his experience in the television world, Aresco admitted in an interview with the Associated Press Tuesday its going to be a tough road for his new employer and all eyes will be on him.
"It would be hard to overstate it," Aresco said of the importance of the next TV contract. "I consider it job one. All eyes are going to be on it. I'm not making any predictions, but I'm very confident our value is going to be recognized and maximized."
As of a few day ago, the Big East "New York's conference" had a shot of losing its big market feel. Now, it seems all the hoopla could be revolving around it.
For more on the Big East Conference, check out the SB Nation blog Big East Coast Bias.