Eleven years after he became the first...

Eleven years after he became the first full-time employee of the conference, Mike Tranghese was named the second commissioner of the Big East. He wasted little time in making it known that he planned to continue where Dave Gavitt left off.

Tranghese, 46, who has served as associate commissioner since the conference’s inception in 1979, immediately fired several shots: He warned others not to “raid” Big East teams in order to expand their conferences; he said that he planned to become “more immersed” in NCAA issues, becoming “political,” as he called it; and, he said that he planned to shed his image as a behind-the-scenes bureaucrat responsible for day-to-day operations and take “a more visible and up-front approach” to running the Big East.