Nehlen Lashes Out
May 23, 2003 10:32 PM | General
May 24, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Former West Virginia University football coach Don Nehlen is holding out hope that the Big East conference can be saved.
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| Former West Virginia coach Don Nehlen believes the defections of Miami, Syracuse and Boston College would deal eastern football a damaging blow. (AP photo) |
The coach told Tony Caridi Friday night on the MetroNews Statewide Sportsline that he believes the remaining conference schools will do everything in their power to try and keep Miami, Syracuse and Boston College from jumping to the Atlantic Coast Conference.
“I’ve got my ears open and I’ve been sniffing around a little bit and I know that (Big East commissioner) Michael Tranghese, the athletic directors and the presidents are making a real, real, major push to not let this happen,” he said. “I’m talking major: spending money, contacting the right people and doing things in a big-time way to keep this league intact. I don’t think it’s a done deal.”
Nehlen says the possible defection of Miami, Syracuse and Boston College would deal eastern football a very damaging blow.
“This, in my opinion, is the biggest problem, obstacle, or hurdle to face West Virginia and the other teams that have not been invited,” Nehlen said. “The Big East is a great conference. The camaraderie in the league is sensational. There wasn’t one coach in that league that I didn’t think wasn’t special and the ADs all got along.”
Tranghese said during a Monday news conference that Miami was the key school in the whole process.
"If Miami doesn't go there isn't going to be any expansion," he noted.
In addition to searching for more revenue to fuel its athletic department, Miami athletic director Paul Dee has cited the move toward a 12-team mega conference as the wave of the future in college football.
Nehlen, a former president of the American Football Coaches Association, says some of his colleagues warned him that this might happen down the road.
“The Joe Paternos and the Vince Dooleys said, ‘Don this is the wave of the future and it’s going to be the haves and the have nots.’ I asked them if they thought this was good and they weren’t sure but (football) is going in that direction.
“With West Virginia kind of caught in the middle it makes it very, very difficult for us and Pitt, Virginia Tech and the other schools that have not been invited (to the ACC),” Nehlen added.
The coach says television markets is the primary reason the ACC is adding Syracuse and Boston College to the equation.
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| Nehlen says Penn State coach Joe Paterno warned him that college football was moving toward mega conferences. (WVU Sports Communications) |
“They don’t want Syracuse and BC – they just want the television ratings,” Nehlen said. “Let’s be honest if they wanted the best football, heavens, Virginia Tech for the last six-eight years has been riding a real crest. But they want that television market.”
Nehlen firmly believes the final decision will be made at the presidential level.
“This is a presidential call. A lot is going to be decided by what the president of Miami Donna Shalala feels the academic mission of her university is,” Nehlen said. “If she feels the academic mission is in direct proportion to North Carolina, North Carolina State, Duke, Wake Forest, Florida State and the rest of them then look out. We have to prove to her that the schools in the Big East have the same mission that she has academically.”
Nehlen will touch on a few of those topics in an open letter he’s drafted for the Sunday edition of the New York Times.
As one of the coaches that helped put Big East football on the map, Nehlen takes great pain in seeing a school like Miami carelessly endanger what many others have labored tirelessly to build up.
“It puts a knife in me,” he admitted. “This just kills you. I spent 21 years trying to build that program. The first team I inherited at West Virginia University didn’t have one football player that had ever been on a winning team. In two years we were pretty competitive and in three years we had defeated Florida and Oklahoma. And over the long run we averaged over seven wins a year and put that thing on a fairly high plateau. To see that all go down the drain because one team decides to jump to another league is flat out scary.”
Despite the pessimistic press reports indicating the eventual demise of the Big East, Nehlen holds out hope that Tranghese is the right man to keep that from happening.
“I was always impressed with him, I thought he was very knowledgeable and he knows everybody,” said Nehlen. “I would be shocked if he’s not just killing himself trying to keep this thing together. He knows the right people to kind of squeeze some people also. That’s why I don’t think this thing is a done deal.”
