John Marinatto is out as Big East commissioner. His departure was first reported by CBS Sports’ Brett McMurphy, who also reported that Marinatto may have jumped before he was pushed — league presidents asked for his resignation Sunday, according to McMurphy’s sources. Marinatto extolled the virtues of the academy’s football-only move to the Big East alongside Navy officials shortly after the official announcement was named. The commish since 2009, he was behind the conference’s expansion efforts that have ranged from next-door neighbors to Conference USA refugees to schools on the other side of the country. He’s also been on hand…
Browsing: Big East Conference
The Navy’s commitment to join the Big East as a football-only member in 2015 was one in a series of rapid-fire realignment moves by the conference, which recently parted ways with West Virginia and will lose Pittsburgh and Syracuse to the Atlantic Coast Conference in the next year or two (probably not two). Farewell, Mountaineers, Panthers and Orange. Hello, Boise State, Central Florida, Houston, Memphis, Southern Methodist and, straining the dictionary definition of “East” to the breaking point, San Diego State. And now, according to a New York Times report, Temple. The Owls’ last stay in the Big East ended…
During the Jan. 24 teleconference that welcomed Navy football into the Big East starting in 2015, conference commissioner John Marinatto was pretty clear: “I’m not done with regard to our expansion efforts.” Less than a month later, he’s apparently made good. Multiple reports, including one from USA Today, have Memphis joining the conference in all sports as of 2013. If the rest of the conferences’ arrivals and departures go off as scheduled, Navy will enter a 12-team football league, likely split into two to-be-determined divisions, in 2015. Memphis leaves Conference USA to join the Big East, creating a reunion of…