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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 8, 2012Judy GenshaftR.C. JohnsonJohn MarinattoShirley RainesJOHN PAQUETTE: Thank you, everyone, for joining us on this teleconference with the Big East Conference and the University of Memphis. This is John Paquette. I'll be the moderator of the call today. We'll have some opening remarks from John Marinatto, Big East commissioner; Dr. Judy Genshaft, USF president and chair of the Big East Board of Presidents; Dr. Shirley Raines, president, University of Memphis; and R.C. Johnson, Memphis' athletic director. After opening remarks, we'll open it up for questions. We'll start with John Marinatto. John. COMMISSIONER JOHN MARINATTO: Thank you very much. Let me begin by echoing John's gratitude to all of you for joining us this morning on such short notice. Today is an exciting day for the Big East Conference. I'm thrilled to be here to announce the addition of the University of Memphis, its 19 athletic programs, over 400 student‑athletes, alumni and fans to the Big East Conference. Memphis has accepted an invitation to join the Big East Conference as a full member effective July 1 of 2013. Over the past week, I've had the pleasure of working directly with President Raines, my friend and colleague on the NCAA Management and Leadership Councils, athletic director R.C. Johnson, who has long advocated membership on the University of Memphis, and several members of their board to bring a potential partnership together. During that time, it did not take long to realize that the University of Memphis would be a perfect fit for the Big East Conference. There were a number of contributing factors for our membership in making the decision to invite Memphis, including among other reasons its geography in the heart of our future membership makeup, its central time zone presence, its top‑50 media market as well as its outstanding corporate and community support, quality athletic facilities, and the overall branding and competitiveness of its athletic programs. As we noted since December, the Big East Conference and its football imprint will soon stretch from coast‑to‑coast. We've worked very hard to add new members on both the East Coast and the West Coast to create a unique membership model that spans all four time zones and to almost 32 million American households. Today we add a school located in the heart of the United States, solidifying the Big East's footprint in not just football but all sports in the heartland of America. Upon visiting Memphis, it immediately became clear to me and to our membership that the administration of Dr. Raines and R.C. Johnson has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to maintaining first‑class athletic facilities. From the recent renovations to the Murphy Center athletic complex and the Liberty Bowl, a new recruiting room, a weight room and locker room, to the development of the state‑of‑the‑art FedEx Forum and brand‑new FedEx Park, there is no question that Memphis has built a foundation for future success for each of its 19 athletic programs. As became evident to me very quickly, Memphis has done a great job in fostering great community and corporate support as evidenced by my meeting with several board members. In those meetings, I had the pleasure of learning firsthand about the passion that they have for the university and its academic and athletics programs. The university enjoys unparalleled financial support from the community, support that has been wisely invested into many different areas of the university and provides a rock solid foundation for the future success of Memphis student‑athletes. I spoke at great length with President Raines and R.C. about the overall quality and competitiveness of the Memphis football program. From those discussions it became clear to me that they are truly dedicated in their efforts to rebuilding Memphis football. They've taken steps in that rebuilding process with solid personnel and facility initiatives. Moving into a conference that is a founding member of the BCS is a great next step. In short order, we fully expect Tiger football to return to the same form that's already qualified for five post‑season bowl games between 2003 and 2008. Memphis' basketball success obviously speaks for itself. The school has appeared in 23 NCAA men's basketball tournaments and three Final Fours and has had 10 straight 20‑win seasons. That success fits right in with a conference that prides itself as the best college basketball conference in the country. In closing, I would like to once again offer my sincere appreciation and my gratitude to Dr. Raines and my long time friend R.C. Johnson, who I know is retiring soon, for their collegiality, diligence and support as we work to make this partnership come to fruition. I look forward to having you two on our side of the table as we work together in the future. Thank you all again for your interest. JOHN PAQUETTE: Thank you, John. Now we'll go to Dr. Judy Genshaft. DR. JUDY GENSHAFT: Thank you. I am so pleased and proud to officially welcome a truly great university to the Big East Conference today. I would also like to offer a personal welcome and congratulations to my good friend and colleague Dr. Shirley Raines. The Big East's effort to create a unique national football conference has been well‑documented. Today's announcement to invite the University of Memphis will allow us to achieve our goal of hosting a conference football championship game in the very near future. We as a league have every confidence in Memphis' ability to rebuild a solid and competitive football program in the Big East Conference. We also appreciate and respect its consistency over the past decade in basketball. We feel it would be an obvious fit to a conference that has prided itself on basketball excellence for over 32 years. But the university's success extends far beyond the playing field and into the classroom. The University of Memphis has a number of academic distinctions spanning a variety of disciplines. The university's audiology program is ranked number eight, and its speech pathology program is rated number 13 nationally by U.S. News and World Report. Its Fogelman College of Business in economics is ranked by Princeton Review as one of the top 10 business schools for minority students. In closing, I know I speak on behalf of all of our presidents when I say that we appreciate all of the support from the university's administration, and we look forward to working together with them and competing with them in the very near future. Thank you. JOHN PAQUETTE: Now we'll move to the University of Memphis. First from some remarks, President Dr. Shirley Raines. DR. SHIRLEY RAINES: Thank you so much for the call today. It certainly is an historic day for us. Our campus, faculty, staff, students, and particularly our student‑athletes are excited about this invitation that we have officially accepted. We're excited also, President Genshaft, to be able to join you and the other campus leaders from some of the most prestigious universities, to be a part of the Big East Conference. We've worked very hard over the years to build quality at our university, both academically and athletically. But I can tell you this vote is one of those votes that goes down for us in history. I also need to tell you, Judy, you should let your staff rest because I won't be calling every month to see what national conference you're going to so I can be sure and speak to you about the role that Memphis can play in the Big East. But I'm very grateful to you for your leadership, not only here, but with the NCAA. We've enjoyed great relationships with many of the chancellors from the institutions. I also want you to know that we plan to be great citizens for the Big East in all our sports and endeavors. Thank you so much. JOHN PAQUETTE: Now R.C. Johnson, athletics director, University of Memphis. R.C. JOHNSON: This is an exciting and fulfilling time. We are absolutely thrilled. The excitement from Tiger Nation has been overwhelming. It's really a pleasure to watch. I want to say I've really enjoyed working with John for these past few years to make this happen. John, you've been a pleasure to work with and you've been extremely professional in all of our meetings.  I've enjoyed our time together. With this move, the future for Tiger athletics is brighter than ever. One of our goals has always been to compete with the very best, and the prestige of the Big East certainly accomplishes that goal. Additionally, a BCS conference gives our coaches a most valuable recruiting tool that they haven't had before, and that just can't be measured. I want to thank President Raines for her support during this process, our corporate community, and of course all the athletic staff that worked so hard to make this happen. Back here, and everywhere around, it is a great time to be a Tiger. Thank you. JOHN PAQUETTE: Now we'll open it up for questions from the media. Q. Commissioner, I wondered if you've talked to any of these potential new members for joining for 2012 and if the Big East would be willing to pay any sort of buyout or help with a buyout for the potential in case West Virginia does leave? COMMISSIONER JOHN MARINATTO: The question is related to the impending litigation we're involved in on two fronts. It would be inappropriate for me to get into specifics about all of that at this point. I'm going to not talk about that specifically on this call today, if that's okay. Q. Commissioner, there will be 12 teams in 2015. There's obviously going to be a gap in there between Memphis joining and the other schools joining, and Navy joining. Is there any plan to have a title game sooner? Is there more expansion coming? COMMISSIONER JOHN MARINATTO: Our stated goal over the past four or five months has been that we wanted to create a 12‑team football league with two divisions, obviously with an annual championship game. We haven't talked about accelerating that. We knew that the Naval Academy's ramp‑up period was going to take three years before we could unwind their contracts both scheduling‑wise as well as with television. So we are not planning right now anything in order to accelerate the championship game, as far as it is today anyway, the championship game when Navy joins the league in the 2015 season. Q. John, I'm curious about the structure of the Big East basketball tournament now with 17 teams. Last time you said you hadn't ironed out the specifics. Are you leaning towards having all 17 in the tournament? COMMISSIONER JOHN MARINATTO: Our membership will get together and we'll analyze all of the possibilities of a 17‑team post‑season championship. We'll initially present what we have to our athletic directors at an upcoming meeting and we'll make recommendations to our president. Depending on what the membership's desire is, there are ways to do whatever you want to do. Some of them are obviously more challenging than others. We haven't yet had that discussion with this group of schools, but we will at some point in the near future. We'll make a recommendation to our board in the same manner as we have in the past. We'll finalize what the future configuration will be for our post‑season tournament. Q. Theoretically in 2015 you could have a Big East men's basketball final of Memphis against Houston, two schools most people don't associate with the Big East. What are your thoughts on that? Is that just the changing nature of the league? COMMISSIONER JOHN MARINATTO: Sure, exactly. The one thing that we've learned, especially over the course of the past two and a half years, is that nothing stays the same. Obviously we're in a very unique situation where we're making moves that in the past, moves that we made in the past, too, when we took Miami back in 1990. That was foreign to the then landscape of the Big East Conference, out of the Northeast footprint we established. It's an ongoing evolution. Obviously what you just described, although it sounds odd today, five years from now it will be accepted and it won't be viewed in the same manner. So change is always going to occur. This is just another piece of evidence to support that. Q. John, just to be real clear, because you mentioned it before, you are done with expansion for now? Your plans are in place, barring other movement out of the conference? COMMISSIONER JOHN MARINATTO: It was our goal, as I said, to get to 12 football playing members, and we've done that. We're obviously pleased that we fulfilled our primary objective. But we're always going to be vigilant and we're going to continue to do whatever is in the best interest of the conference. You never say never, I guess. But we've reached our goal and we're pleased that we've done that. But we're always going to be obviously continuing to evaluate different opportunities as time goes on. Q. John, Rick Pitino has been a vocal proponent of adding Memphis to increase the strength of the basketball‑playing membership. COMMISSIONER JOHN MARINATTO: Rick who (laughter)? Q. Can you describe the influence that Louisville might have exerted over this selection. COMMISSIONER JOHN MARINATTO: Obviously Rick has been public for his advocation for the university. He's made those comments in declaring his position for the last three or four months. We always listen to our coaches. Obviously, we listen to our fans, we listen to our administrators. We understand how important this was to Rick. But that wasn't the driving force in us moving forward with the decision to explore and then invite the University of Memphis to the Big East Conference. As you've mentioned, the Big East Conference, its genesis really is in men's basketball. That's where it established itself some 32 years ago. I think the moves that we've made overall strengthen the conference. But for different reasons obviously I think we're always going to be very, very strong in men's basketball. With the addition of Memphis, I think we solidify our position of being the best conference in the country for men's basketball, and for that matter women's basketball. Q. Why Memphis over Temple, which has more of an eastern presence, which has a well‑established football program now, and a long established basketball program? COMMISSIONER JOHN MARINATTO: There were a lot of reasons that we explored Memphis, including among others central time zone. We've created, as you know, this very unique situation with regard to the West Division. We needed a school that would fit into that West Division. Geographically the school is located in the heart of our conference, in the heartland of America. All of those things were contributing factors in us determining ultimately that this was the best decision to make. Q. Have you then settled on the two divisions and how that makeup is going to play out? COMMISSIONER JOHN MARINATTO: No. What we'll do at some point in the very near future, just as we will with regard to the Big East Conference men's and women's basketball tournaments, have meetings with our athletic directors, and we'll talk about the concept of divisions, who should be in what division. All the decisions will be made with the input of that group and brought to our presidents for final approval. Q. Will two divisions also be in basketball? COMMISSIONER JOHN MARINATTO: No, we haven't had that conversation. Q. John, how soon will you release the 2012 football schedule? COMMISSIONER JOHN MARINATTO: For the same reasons I'm not able to comment on the impending litigation, I'm not going to comment on the release of the schedule at this point. We're in the process of doing what we normally do. We're on target to do what we have always done. I'm not going to get into the specifics of when we're going to release our schedule. Q. You may not be able to answer this either, but do you have any kind of idea how soon something will get resolved, I'm not saying what will happen, between the Big East and West Virginia? Are we talking days, weeks or months? COMMISSIONER JOHN MARINATTO: Yeah, I'm really not at liberty to comment on that either. I'm sorry. Q. How much of this was made to make the basketball schools happy? The recent football success wouldn't seem to strengthen you in that sport, the non‑success in football. COMMISSIONER JOHN MARINATTO: Obviously the University of Memphis has a very well‑known and highly respected basketball program. Its 19 athletic programs also, though, complement the Big East Conference membership in so many ways across the board. As I mentioned earlier, its geography, time zone, corporate and community ties were very impressive. I think that brings great value to our membership. Obviously the addition of Memphis also allows us to host a football championship game. As you mentioned, obviously their basketball success over the past decade is very, very admirable and respected across the country. That obviously is a factor. But there are so many things that went into the discussion and into the final decision. Rick Pitino's comments, as much as I love him, didn't influence our membership's decision. Q. There's been talk in the last few days about proposals for a 14 playoff. I was wondering where you stand and where the Big East stands in regards to getting a playoff in college football? COMMISSIONER JOHN MARINATTO: We've actually had the discussion of what was publicly discussed in the last couple of days, I guess Jim, sharing with several people, the concept of a 14 playoff. Our membership hasn't had a chance to sit down and talk about that with everything else going on. I think we would be open to that concept at this point. We haven't fleshed out the details of what that would mean, how it would be figured. It's probably very premature for us at this stage anyway before our colleagues and I get together later on in February to talk about all of the prospects. As we've stated in the past we're open to all of the things that are on the table and being discussed today. Once we actually sit down and talk about the details, we'll determine what our formal position is. Q. Commissioner, how important is for Memphis to improve its football program? Can you fill us in on any representations or discussions you had about things they'd have to continue to do? You talked about some of the things they've already done. Did you talk about other ways in which they have to continue to revamp the football program? COMMISSIONER JOHN MARINATTO: When I was down last week, I did get a tour of the entire campus. It took about three hours. I got to see everything, including the upgrades in the facility I mentioned earlier. I also visited the Liberty Bowl. That's something that is historic in a lot of ways. We created a strategic plan for the conference a number of years ago. We shared that with the administration in Memphis at the time of my visit. We indicated what our minimum requirements are because we do expect our schools to compete at the highest level. We're a diverse conference in a lot of ways. A very common element that rings through to all of our schools is our respective commitment to excellence in a variety of ways. Football, as you know, is the driving force not only with regard to realignment in moving forward but the value of our television contract which will keep our membership together as we understand it and believe it for the long‑term. So football is very important. We feel confident not only with regard to the moves that the university has made in the past in upgrading its facilities, but as I mentioned earlier with the personnel and administrative moves they've made in order to solidify their situation going forward. Q. Can you give me an example of where Memphis would need to upgrade its football program in order to come up to the level of Big East commitment and standards? COMMISSIONER JOHN MARINATTO: I shared with R.C. the Big East Conference's strategic plan, all the elements associated with it. I think the university complies with it. What we simply want to do when we expand is to make sure that the schools coming in recognize the level of excellence we expect. From a practical standpoint, all of the elements of our strategic plan have been met. It's just now a question of execution. Q. John, you've been very determined to keep Pitt and Syracuse to the 27‑month waiting period. With the addition of these schools, is that still your basis for thinking or is there a chance they could get out before 2014? COMMISSIONER JOHN MARINATTO: West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Syracuse are members of the Big East Conference, as I've stated many times, until July 1st of 2014. I really can't comment further than that at this point. Q. John, how much better equipped was Memphis this time around than when it tried to get in around 2005? COMMISSIONER JOHN MARINATTO: It's hard for me to measure what 2005 was like compared to what today is really. Mike Tranghese was in the seat at that time. You'd have to ask him in terms of comparison. I was very impressed as I walked around campus last Tuesday. R.C. took me around to look at all the improvements made, the new recruiting room, the weight room, the upgrades which I had a tour of. From my perspective, as I look at the facilities that Memphis brings to the table, compare them to the current membership, I think the institution is obviously very well‑positioned for success in a conference that is also committed to the same level of success. Q. R.C., you had a previous relationship with the Big East when you were at Temple in the '90s.  Did that relationship come into play with this move? I know Mike Tranghese has been involved with Memphis as well. Did he play any sort of role in the talks there? R.C. JOHNSON: The Temple relationship was a long time ago. I don't think that really had any bearing. As John just alluded to, there are a lot of changes. When I was at Temple, Tranghese was the commissioner and John was not in the office at the time. Several years ago we asked Michael to come in and look at our facilities, kind of analyze where we were with the idea that someday we might have an opportunity to become a member of a BCS conference, and he did that. We had him in a couple times, asked him to be a consultant, which he did for us. But that was about two, three years ago. JOHN PAQUETTE: Those are all the questions we have. We appreciate your interest in our teleconference today and thank all of our guests. Thanks for your participation and have a good day. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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