Mike Tranghese Quotations

When we began to look at Notre Dame, Marquette, DePaul, Louisville and Cincinnati as well as those schools located in the Northeast, we were also trying to not have people do even more travel,

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I can tell you that our coaches and athletic directors and presidents have all told me in the strongest terms where they want to be long term is they want everybody playing everybody at least once, ... They feel very strongly that if you're going to be in a conference, that any team not to be playing another team is just not the right thing to do. We have some of that right now and I think we're uncomfortable with that but we were left with little choice.

I think there's this public perception that we're under tremendous scrutiny, so I guess that's true, but I have to tell you, I would never have that conversation with West Virginia. I would never impose that extra burden on them.

People are quick to pass judgments based on the results of games. This is a long-term venture we're involved in. These are college kids playing. When one group outplays the other, they deserve the victory.

People are quick to pass judgments based on the results of games, ... This is a long-term venture we're involved in. These are college kids playing. When one group outplays the other, they deserve the victory.

We've got people out there working on this, they've spent an enormous amount of time on it already. I'm pretty optimistic what we craft will be better than what we have.

Two years ago a lot of people didn't even think our conference was going to make it, ... There was a lot of discussion about separation. ... Two years, for our members, have been pretty difficult. Collectively, we think we have a significant upside.

To go back originally to the defections, it was as bad a time as a lot of us have ever gone through. There were some days when we didn't even know if there was going to be a league.

We're not going to fail, ... But we're not going to simply succeed because we're 16. Sixteen presents a number of problems, and we're going to be aggressive in dealing with them. But this whole notion that we're too big is nonsense, because three years ago we were 14 and I didn't hear anyone saying we were too big.

We're not going to be judged on a single game; we're going to be judged over a four-year period, but obviously how West Virginia does against Georgia will have some impact on how we are judged. If I said I was not concerned about it, I'd be misleading you. We're all going to be evaluated, but a lot of the focus is aimed at us.

This, ... will be the most disastrous blow to intercollegiate athletics in my lifetime.

When we lost people and sat down and talked about it for the first time, Louisville was always part of those conversations. A big reason why was how much they seemed to want to be here with us.

We have a couple more who if we were voting today would probably get in, ... and I'll match the strength of our coaches with any league in the country.

We are very excited for our teams that have been invited to the NCAA Championship, but we are disappointed that Cincinnati was not included. They had some quality wins inside and outside the conference.

We had pretty high expectations before the season. You hope it's right, but I don't know if anybody could have written a better script than how it turned out.

We have done significant research and analysis into the use of instant replay for our conference football games for the coming season. We are pursuing what we think will be the best possible system for the coming season.

Everybody keeps telling me we're too big. We're all too big. We're just bigger than others.

Five new members makes us not only bigger, but better in terms of overall depth.

No two people stood up during those very, very difficult times and expressed such sincere support for the league, ... I know it's something I won't forget. When you're being attacked and you have two high-profile coaches just come off winning national championships it gave a lot of incentive to our league.

The way we're scheduling now is not the right way to do it. We are committed to having everybody playing everybody else at least once.

They're very ambitious. They're not coming here just to be a part of this league, they're coming to be a significant factor.

There was so much stability that people were partners for long periods of time. In the true sense of the word, they were conferences, ... I don't know what the word means anymore. My biggest challenge is making certain that this large gathering that we now have can adopt a family atmosphere that we've always had here.

There were certain rivalries that we were committed to keeping intact,

It's hard to sit here and do cartwheels. I understand the USC situation. I have empathy for them. But at the end of the day, I have little doubt that the Rose Bowl game between USC and Michigan will be a fabulous football game.

It's hard to sit here and do cartwheels, ... I understand the USC situation. I have empathy for them. But at the end of the day, I have little doubt that the Rose Bowl game between USC and Michigan will be a fabulous football game.

The NFL is going to be playing in that Thursday night slot now and ESPN didn't want that game on that night to go against it.

Then there are other rivalries that are good but that we just couldn't fit in, such as Connecticut-Providence. But because Connecticut is one of our top teams we had to cross over and have them play Syracuse and Louisville.

I keep hearing the question, 'Are we going to survive?'

I'm just not the kind of guy who says I told you so.

If I were IBM, I'd understand it. I'm not IBM. I represent 14 educational institutions.

I have nothing to apologize for. My conference has nothing to apologize for.

I never talked about numbers with our people, ... I just said obviously with the kind of quality that we have there's no reason to think that we can't generate more teams qualifying for the tournament. I think this is historical. This is a path that no one's ever traveled before, this many good teams in one league. What's it going to lead to?

If you're recruiting against Southern California, Oklahoma or Miami, those are hard recruiting sells. There are a whole bunch of teams in those leagues who are never getting to a BCS game. I told our coaches, every one of you has a chance to win this league and get to a BCS game.

I just think me saying anything, all it does, it doesn't help. I don't see what I have to gain by talking about it.

I don't think it can hurt. I think anything we do to excel, to demonstrate our ability to continue to compete at a high level can only help us.

I am absolutely convinced that we can get a lot of teams in if they do what they are supposed to do. The selection committee has good people, and they'll be fair about it. They know how good we are.

The market will accept it, we have little doubt about it.