Mike Tranghese Team Quotations

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.

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 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 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 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.