News has broken this morning that Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese will call it quits next June, ending a tenure of 19 years. He has decided to stay on for another year in order to give the conference ample time to find a replacement.
The official announcement that Tranghese will retire next June will come later today, but Tranghese said that he felt the timing was right for him to spend one more year to make things were in order before he stepped down at the end of the 2008-2009 athletic season.
"It was just the right time for me,'' said Tranghese, who has been with the Big East since it was created in 1979 as a seven-team basketball league. "The league has never been stronger in basketball. Everyone seems happy.''
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"Right now everything is working fairly well,'' said Tranghese, who says he still wants to work, but at a different pace. "In football, there doesn't seem to be any movement towards a ninth school and everyone is happy with the level of basketball. We've never been stronger.''
The good news is that this represents an opportunity to get someone in power who will take a more open-minded look at issues like college football's postseason. The bad news is that Tom Jurich's name is very likely going to be on the short list to be that person.
This could be a dicey few months.