DE PERE, Wis. -- Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue thinks the Big East Conference is being proactive about its future and sees cable giant ESPN as the key player in any long-term decisions the 16-member conference will make.
With conference expansion rumors swirling and Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany perhaps looking at several Big East schools to add over the next year, Tagliabue said it makes no sense to wait.
“I don’t think that anyone, not in the Big East, is waiting for the Big Ten,” Tagliabue said Wednesday. “We’re looking ahead proactively. It starts with ESPN. It starts with listening carefully to all of the university presidents so we have a proper balance between sports and academics.”
The Big East’s six-year TV contract with ESPN runs out after 2013 for football and 2013-14 for basketball. The two have been affiliated since both were founded in 1979.
Tagliabue was named a special adviser for the conference last month and is part of Georgetown University’s board of directors. He was the keynote speaker at the Sport and Society in America conference in De Pere, Wis., near the Green Bay Packers’ Lambeau Field.
Tagliabue spent 17 years as commissioner, shepherding the league into a new era with four new teams, massive TV contracts and labor peace until retiring in 2006. He took on the latest role advising the Big East as a volunteer.
“My piece is really in the immediate space, how to create value for conferences in this case without sacrificing the other values that universities need to preserve. It’s going to be an interesting piece of work,” Tagliabue said.
