John Marinatto

On Saturday, Pete Gillen left Providence to become the head coach at Virginia. It would be an upset if Drexel's Bill Herrion didn't emerge as a candidate at Providence. Three years ago, his name was linked with the vacancy at Duquesne. Last year, it was Rutgers. Both times, Herrion elected to remain in West Philadelphia. Yesterday's Providence News Journal listed Boston University's Dennis Wolff and Iona's Tim Welsh as potential successors. Sources within the Big East said Providence athletic director John Marinatto likely will talk with former Friars coaches Rick Pitino and Dave Gavitt, as well as Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese, about the position and the future of the program.

NEW YORK - Big East Conference commissioner John Marinatto said the conference's 2012 football schedules would be finalized and released in a couple of weeks. Temple is finding a nonconference opponent to fill out its 12-game schedule. The Owls will join the conference for football this fall and for all sports in 2013. In July, the school will officially leave the Mid-American Conference. It had been a football-only member of the MAC since 2007. Temple will remain in the Atlantic Ten Conference for all other sports for one more year.

NEW YORK - As the Big East prepares to negotiate a television contract that could make or break the conference, it has chosen a man who has been part of some of the biggest media rights deals in college sports to be its new commissioner. The Big East on Tuesday hired CBS executive vice president Mike Aresco as it continues to rebuild from a tumultuous year of defections. "I'm not daunted by it all. I embrace the challenge," Aresco told the Associated Press in a telephone interview.

George Mason coach Rick Barnes was named yesterday to succeed Gordie Chiesa as basketball coach at Providence. Barnes, 33, won 20 games in his only season at George Mason. Providence school officials did not release any contract details, but athletic director John Marinatto told the Richmond News-Leader that it was for four years. "I can't say how many games we'll win or lose, but we'll work as hard as possible to create a love affair with the community," Barnes said. He made his first visit to Providence two weeks ago, then returned for another visit last week.

HARTFORD, Conn. - The presidents of the Big East member schools will discuss the future of the conference at a meeting this weekend, University of Connecticut president Susan Herbst said Wednesday. Herbst, in an e-mail to the Associated Press, said the meeting in Washington on Sunday is a confidential gathering for conference presidents only and will not involve other university officials. "We have to talk about the future and how to go forward as a strong Big East," she wrote.

MAYOR NUTTER has joined the fray on the side of his hometown team in the Big East realignment mess. Nutter issued a statement regarding a letter he sent to Big East commissioner John Marinatto, supporting Temple's inclusion in the conference. "Philadelphia is an enthusiastic sports town at all levels and the city's college sports rivalries are legendary," Nutter said in a statement. "I would like to encourage the Big East Conference to consider Temple University as a potential future member of the conference.

BIG EAST football school officials met last night in New York City to discuss the league's future. Three people with knowledge of the Big East meeting told the Associated Press that presidents and athletic directors from the conference's six remaining football members, along with officials from TCU, which is slated to join the league in 2012, met with commissioner John Marinatto. The remaining Big East football schools are West Virginia, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Rutgers, Louisville and South Florida.

BIG EAST commissioner John Marinatto said yesterday he has been in constant contact with Dan Beebe of the Big 12 and John Swofford of the Atlantic Coast Conference in recent days and has suggested the three meet to discuss conference realignment. Marinatto didn't reveal details about his conversations with his fellow commissioners. Beebe's conference, which nearly was wiped out last year when the Pac-10 expanded, is in danger of losing Texas A&M to the Southeastern Conference.

THE PRESIDENTS and chancellors of the 14 remaining Big East members and TCU, which is scheduled to join next year, met yesterday in Washington. Nothing happened, at least not in terms of adding anyone to fill the voids created by the departures of longtime fixtures Syracuse and Pittsburgh. But commissioner John Marinatto said a unanimous vote has given him the authorization to "aggressively pursue discussions with a selected number of institutions that have indicated a strong interest in joining.

BIG EAST commissioner John Marinatto has read the stories. And he's aware of the tense feelings they have caused in Philadelphia. Yesterday he took the time to defend the way Villanova has handled itself through this whole confounding expansion process. "Supposedly we have conference calls and meetings, and you begin with the premise that you hope everything that's said is confidential," he said. "Then you're seeing all these reports that something happened, and sometimes it's just made up. "In light of that, we just wanted to go on record as saying that at no time during any of this did anyone representing Villanova disparage Temple in any way. They've been very supportive in our expansion effort, and have handled themselves to the highest degree of professionalism you could imagine.

All of college football's current dynamics involve the pursuit of television money by conferences and their member schools. An example of this was Tuesday's announced hiring of CBS executive vice president Mike Aresco as Big East commissioner. The Big East gets a television power broker who is expected to maximize the league's TV value. The 62-year-old, who replaces John Marinatto, becomes the first commissioner of a Football Bowl Subdivision conference with an absolute television background.

NEW YORK - As the Big East prepares to negotiate a television contract that could make or break the conference, it has chosen a man who has been part of some of the biggest media rights deals in college sports to be its new commissioner. The Big East on Tuesday hired CBS executive vice president Mike Aresco as it continues to rebuild from a tumultuous year of defections. "I'm not daunted by it all. I embrace the challenge," Aresco told the Associated Press in a telephone interview.

NEWPORT, R.I. - The Big East Conference is not dead yet. At least that was the tone of senior associate commissioner Nick Carparelli's state of the league speech at Tuesday's conference media day. "I will say with absolute certainty the Big East will continue to be one of the most competitive conferences in the country," he said. "And by any objective criteria you choose, the Big East has been, is today, and will continue to be one of the top conferences in the nation. " Carparelli's declaration comes at a time when the conference appears to be unraveling.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. - All the praise R.C. Johnson received for leading Memphis into the Big East Conference appeared premature. Instead, it appeared Johnson, who will retire in June, signed the Tigers up for a big mess when they officially become full-time members in 2013. For that, the 70-year-old was understandably a little uneasy when he arrived here for the Big East's spring meetings. "I feel better now than I did two days ago," Johnson said Wednesday on the final day of the three-day meetings.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. - Now that the Big East Conference spring meetings have concluded, one of the conference's immediate goals is finding a league commissioner. "We will interview search firms next week, and probably a decision [on which firm to use] will be made shortly thereafter and [we will] immediately go into the market," interim commissioner Joe Bailey said Wednesday, the final day of the meetings here. "I think we will fast track it. To the degree that we can move the process quickly, [it]

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. - It is a testament to the radical overhaul of collegiate athletic conferences that the representative of faraway Boise State could declare at Monday's Big East Conference spring meetings that his school remains committed to joining the conference. "They made a decision five months ago to join the Big East Conference, and nothing's changed," said Mark Coyle, who was named Boise State's athletic director in December. "We are here at the conference meetings.

Are the non-football schools in the unsettled Big East Conference thinking of leaving and creating their own basketball-first league? The answer, according to Joe Bailey on his third day as interim commissioner, is no. In a teleconference with reporters on Wednesday, Bailey - who agreed to become the temporary head of the Big East after John Marinatto resigned Monday - declared he had heard no talk of a mass defection. The managing director of an executive sports recruiting firm and former CEO of the Miami Dolphins, among other positions, he actually poked fun at the claim.

As Temple athletic director Bill Bradshaw sees it, John Marinatto had one of the toughest conference commissioner jobs around. Perhaps that's why Marinatto resigned Monday after fewer than three years as the Big East Conference commissioner. Joseph Bailey, the managing director of executive recruiting firm RSR Partners and former CEO of the Miami Dolphins, was named the interim commissioner. CBSSports.com and USA Today reported that Marinatto's resignation was forced.

NEW YORK - Big East Conference commissioner John Marinatto said the conference's 2012 football schedules would be finalized and released in a couple of weeks. Temple is finding a nonconference opponent to fill out its 12-game schedule. The Owls will join the conference for football this fall and for all sports in 2013. In July, the school will officially leave the Mid-American Conference. It had been a football-only member of the MAC since 2007. Temple will remain in the Atlantic Ten Conference for all other sports for one more year.

AT WEDNESDAY'S news conference welcoming Temple back into the Big East, commissioner John Marinatto gave every indication that Villanova might join the conference for football at some point. At the very least, the Big East is on record as trying to help position the program for that possibility. Doesn't mean it will happen, only that it could. Villanova's trustees were poised to vote last April to move up from the Football Championship Subdivision to the BCS and play football in the conference it's called home for almost everything else for 3 decades.