On the other end of the phone, Mike Tranghese sighed quietly. It was a sound that conveyed a sense of empathy, if not resignation. The emotions returned, almost 20 years later. Back then, as the commissioner of the original Big East Conference, Tranghese watched with a sense of helplessness while three of his league’s most important schools left for the better financial fortunes of the ACC.
For the old Big East, the spring of 2003 represented the beginning of the end. For the ACC, the spring of 2003 was supposed to represent a new beginning, one that would solidify its status for decades to come. Instead, a new Big East rose from the ashes and has rebuilt itself on its basketball roots. And now the ACC finds itself imperiled by a trend that in many ways it began.
Tranghese, now almost 80 years old and at peace in his retirement from college athletics administration, takes no joy in it.
