The Cincinnati snub with comments from Mike Tranghese who says in the article he is a basketball person.

The Cincinnati Post - March 14, 2006
Snub of UC still echoes
Chairman: No bias vs. Big East

By C. Trent Rosecrans
Post staff reporter


"Selection committee chairman Craig Littlepage says there was no bias against the Big East.

Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese was as shocked as anyone when he watched the final teams put on the board in Sunday's NCAA Tournament selection show and the University of Cincinnati hadn't been called.

Although Tranghese's Big East got a record eight teams into the tournament, he had mixed emotions because Eric Hicks, James White, Jihad Muhammad and Chadd Moore wouldn't be playing in the tournament.

"When I saw the selection and Cincinnati's name wasn't there, I got sick to my stomach," Tranghese said Monday. "I know what that program's been through. You look at Eric and you look at James White and they've played their brains out. I thought they'd earned the right to continue playing."

Apparently 10 people in the Westin Hotel in Indianapolis didn't. UC will instead host a game in the now-NCAA-owned National Invitational Tournament on Friday against the winner of tonight's Charlotte-Georgia Southern game.

UC interim head coach Andy Kennedy said Sunday that he believed the only reason the Bearcats didn't make the tournament was that there was a cap on the number of Big East teams the committee would include in the tournament.

Tranghese, who served as the committee chairman, said he could only believe what chairman Craig Littlepage said.

"They've told me time and time again that wasn't a consideration," said Tranghese, who served as the chairman of the selection committee in 2001. "Reasonable people can disagree on why teams are left out. I don't know if Andy's reason is why it happened. I'm a basketball person. I look at Cincinnati and I believe they belong."

Littlepage defended the committee again on Monday, saying there was no bias against the power conferences, such as the Big East.

"But to in any way feel as though there's a shift away from the bigger conferences, I don't think that's where the committee comes from," Littlepage said. "We're not looking at one set of conferences vs. another."

Tranghese said it's too early to tell if there's a barrier for the number of Big East teams selected.

"The only way to know is over a period of time, if this kind of thing continues to happen over time," Tranghese said. "(Monday) there are people in the ACC that are upset. It all depends where you're sitting."

In Tranghese's first year as commissioner, 1992, the Big East had seven teams out of nine selected. If they could do that, he said, nine of 16 should be possible.

"I think we're just scratching the surface right now," Tranghese said. "I think we're going to get better. People saw how exciting it is in to be this league and we're only going to get better."

Still, it was tough for him to hear the Bearcats were left at home this year.

"Mike Tranghese and Andy Kennedy will be fine," Tranghese said. "I feel for the kids. They played really hard all year. I think they went in expecting to hear their name called. I feel badly for them. We're going to survive whether we have eight or nine teams. It's about the kids."

Transman has always had the BB schools interest first ahead of the FB interests. Right now he is doing a better job to appease the FB schools but the hidden agenda is to save the BE conference as is for the sake of the BB schools. Otherwise there would be at least 9 all sports teams in the conference right now. Two additional all sports teams should have been added instead of DePaul and Marquette, or only one of the BB only teams should have been added with an additional all sports team. But that would have put the conference at 10 FB and 6 BB schools or 9 FB and 7 BB schools. The Transman and the BB schools would not let that happen, yet it would have kept a great conference together with out the scheduling problems that they currently have for FB. The conference could have still split into 8 & 8 regional BB divisions with the new TV contract and preserved the rivalries as they presently exist for the NE schools.

_________________
SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS - SEC
RUTGERS SCARLET KNIGHTS - BIG EAST / AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE / BIG TEN

Wow its finally elite 8 time and the new Big East is well represented which looks good for long term stability of the 16 team league.

Interesting that one basketball school and one football school remain for March Madness

UConn and WVU were great on the football side and
Villanova and Georgetown were great on the basketball only side.

With each win worth over one million, the Big East is going to bring in some serious cash this year for basketball.

The new TV contract with ABC/ESPN is looking good as well with all Big East conference games projected to be on one of the ESPN networks exception of CBS games.

So can we say there is not a chance this league is going to look to break up and maybe just a division up would be good.

Just a couple suggestions for Big East.

Split into division with basketball only schools and football schools with four cross over games. It works as four final NCAA teams would be from both divisions and two final teams will come from both divisions.

Too bad, the NCAA made the brackets have a potential Villanova/UConn in the semi final and not meet in the final.

One more point, all 16 teams need to go to NYC for the Big East basketball tournament. With a sweet 16 of their own, no reason all teams could not work in NYC. This would help the coaches out as well on years the teams were bottom dwellers.

Guess I will go ahead and make the pitch for Army/Navy as the 9th football member since we have just proved the conference is not going to fix something that is not broken.

Just cant resist this:

Nah Nah! Nah Nah! "ACC" good by!!!

Love it that BC is out. Payback is sweet and cost the ACC a possible few million dollars!

Big East sweet 16? Four games in four days, or do you hold students out of school for a week?

Do you really want to wear out your conference champion and runner-up like that? Or do you want known qualifiers to tank the tournament and limit viewership of the final?

Well Lash, you need to correct your boasting, I believe you said the Nah! Nah! Nah! Nah! stuff a bit to early. It is also Big East goodbye! (who now join the earlier departures of the ACC and the Big 10).

SEC has two in the final four.

;D

Here we go.

The Big East should expand with ECU for football... and George Mason for basketball.

(Only posted because I want royalties for thinking it up. Unfortunately, I'm probably 20 hours too late.)

No no George Mason will be a Big East affliate. ;D

Affiliate, indeed has become a popular word on these boards and others, and often misused ;D.

CUSA uses the term affiliate on their website for men's soccer. They are the HOST conference for a group that includes 7 of their own members: SMU, UAB, Marshall, ECU, Memphis, Tulsa, and UCF. The three defined affiliates are the Universities of South Carolina and Kentucky (from the SEC), and Florida International (SunBelt). The reason is simple, not all of CUSA teams sponsor men's soccer, and the SEC doesn't.

The PAC 10 is a part of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation that sponsors competition in such sports as water polo, volleyball, men's soccer, indoor track and field, and women's gymnastics and lacrosse. In addition to PAC 10 schools, some of the other participants for various sports include BYU, Oklahoma, Pepperdine, Long Beach State, Seattle Pacific, UC Irvine, CS Northridge, and UC Davis. The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation is listed within the PAC 10 official website.

The Army website and the Navy website do not identify themselves as affiliates with the Big East football or any other Big East sport whatsoever. They have Patriot League membership and are both fb independent.

The Big East website does identify Notre Dame as a member, but ND is not included in BE fb as any kind of named affiliate.

In college sports, using the CUSA example whereby they denote affiliates, it refers to schools from another conference(s)/independent, who participate in one or more particular sports in a given conference because their home/primary conference does not sponsor the given sport(s). The affiliates play a FULL slate of competition for the given sport(s) and are eligible to compete for the conference title of the sport(s) and are listed in conference standings for the sport(s).

The CUSA men's soccer website below shows S. Carolina, Kentucky, and FIU listed as affiliates:

http://conferenceusa.collegesports.com/sports/m-soccer/c-usa-soccer-body.html

(click men's soccer from the list; somehow the page was not coming up directly)

Wow, what a NCAA tournament so far. Now that I have ate some crow for previous comments, a note of interest:

Have roles reversed in the Big East and SEC this year!.

SEC has two teams in the basketball final four and the Big East football champion won the BCS game over the SEC champion.

Who would have predicted this at the beginning of the season.

The SEC has been very impressive in this year in basketball post season.

Gosh we still have to have Louisville verses South Carolina.

Can we just move on to football and have these two teams meet on the gridiron.

Dangit, my funny got derailed by a left-brain. I'm supposed to be the left-brain. :P

Funny that Pac-10 / MPSF got mentioned, when a couple of those ties have been severed. Pac-10 men's soccer has re-emerged, though San Diego State is an affiliate member of a 6-team conference. Pac-10 wrestling includes Boise State, Portland State, CS-Bakersfield, California-Davis, Cal Poly SLO, and Fullerton State as affiliates. Each affiliate plays a full conference schedule and competes for conference titles.

I apologize for the drift, but it's good for definitions.

Lets see what happens after the Toronto Bowl in April.Also the Army schedule does appear like its booked up yet.Furthermore if there is a bowl deal with Army and Navy for Toronto Bowl the word affilation will have a stronger meaning.

Nebraska is also a member of the MPSF:

http://www.mpsports.org/membership.htm

I remember seeing a reference to this organization before and now remember its sorda a group of schools from the Big 12/Great Plains footprint on the east to the Pacific Coast on the west.

Big East basketball: Despite all the hype, some said that we'd see in the end.

It turns out that BE BB was, in the words of Macbeth, "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing".

Well, it now comes down to the reemergence of the west coast's perennial powerhouse, UCLA, and the SEC's Sunshine State school, Florida.

While it will be a great match-up between two teams from the opposite ends of the country and from two prestigious conferences, they were not the top seeds, nor were they from the most hyped conferences.

However, the eastern media establishment will be doing it all again starting next fall. We'll hear the awesomeness of the 16 team Big East and how many #1 seeds they will take and whether or not they will get at least 9 tournament selections; then, thingy Vitale and company will tell us how Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill have some of their best teams ever; and Illinois, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Indiana with their new coach, will not lack for immense notice and praise. OK, I offended a few people. :-X ;D