I may be way off on this and if I am I know someone will tell me, but I do not think Val Ackerman is doing a great job. The biggest markets in the conference are New York, Chicago, DC and Philadelphia. The schools in three of those four markets have not been performing well for years now. What has she done to put pressure on these schools to get their acts together and carry their weight in this conference. I’m not saying she should be doing anything to give them a competitive advantage or anything of the sort , but she should reading them the riot act with regard to how far their programs have fallen. We’re fighting for recognition with the power 5 football conferences and the teams in three of our four biggest markets are horrendous. Imagine if St. John’s , DePaul and Georgetown were all Top 25 teams. The revenue and recognition it would generate would be tremendous. It’s good to have these other teams ranked and doing well but they are in smaller markets. The Big East would be in much better position in every aspect if the schools in our biggest markets were carrying their weight. Val Ackerman is the commissioner of the conference, shouldn’t she be on their asses constantly? I don’t know , maybe she is. But, if she is doing anything it’s not having any affect. I don’t think she’s doing enough to put pressure on these schools. Like I said, maybe I’m way off base here. If our largest market schools were top teams we’d probably be able to secure a better TV rights package , charge more for advertising rights, have better revenue streams etc. just my opinion.
Val Ackerman
- Thread starter Mean Gene
- Start date
Mean Gene makes some interesting points re the big east getting involved in making basketball decisions for SJU. It made me think of how the NFL forced Wellington Mara, a wonderful man but a terrible football decision maker to step aside after 17 years of not making the playoffs. In a few years Bill Parcells was the coach and the Giants were winning Super Bowls.
If the league could get Father Shanley to commit to improving facilities maybe the league could come up with a better group of coaching candidates. Allowing the SJU board to select the next coach would be similar to letting Wellington continue making the football decisions for the Giants after 17 years of failure. Something has to change.
If the league could get Father Shanley to commit to improving facilities maybe the league could come up with a better group of coaching candidates. Allowing the SJU board to select the next coach would be similar to letting Wellington continue making the football decisions for the Giants after 17 years of failure. Something has to change.
MugCostanza
Well-known member
I don’t know what exactly you’d want Val Ackerman and the conference itself to do. Fire coaches themselves?
Yeah SJU, DePaul, and Georgetown stink but look at what the other programs in this league did when they started even a short dip back towards mediocrity.
Marquette fired Wojo and went and got Shaka.
Xavier fired Steele and got Sean Miller.
Butler fired Jordan and got Matta.
Clearly those programs are not settling for mediocrity in any way shape or form.
It’s sports. In an 11 team league, not all 11 will be good year in and year out. It’s a zero sum game. Look at the B12 and how you have to be elite just be .500 in that league.
The league is set up to be strong for years to come going forward unless the SEC and B10 split off to form their own thing, something Val Ackerman has zero control over anyway
Yeah SJU, DePaul, and Georgetown stink but look at what the other programs in this league did when they started even a short dip back towards mediocrity.
Marquette fired Wojo and went and got Shaka.
Xavier fired Steele and got Sean Miller.
Butler fired Jordan and got Matta.
Clearly those programs are not settling for mediocrity in any way shape or form.
It’s sports. In an 11 team league, not all 11 will be good year in and year out. It’s a zero sum game. Look at the B12 and how you have to be elite just be .500 in that league.
The league is set up to be strong for years to come going forward unless the SEC and B10 split off to form their own thing, something Val Ackerman has zero control over anyway
Don’t forget to mention GM George Young in the Giants resurgence.
I wouldn’t expect the league to fire a coach but when SJU has decided to change coaches the league might twist SJUs arm to commit to updating what is long overdue the CA.
They use that commitment to perform a coaching search and perhaps do a better job than the SJU board has done for the past thirty years and come up with a list of potential candidates.
If potential candidates for the job feel that the league is getting involved they may believe the effort is there to improve the current product instead of banking on Craggs meaningless promises.
They use that commitment to perform a coaching search and perhaps do a better job than the SJU board has done for the past thirty years and come up with a list of potential candidates.
If potential candidates for the job feel that the league is getting involved they may believe the effort is there to improve the current product instead of banking on Craggs meaningless promises.
ManhattAn1
Active member
It is tough to make changes when you have people on the board who have no idea about athletics
What I am also saying Mug, is that there’s a financial and business aspect to this in addition to the athletic and competitive aspect. In order for the Big East Conference to maximize the financial and business aspects of this they need the schools in their largest markets to be good. Three of the four aren’t even close to being high quality programs. She’s the commissioner, she has to address it in some way , shape or form. That’s her job, to maximize both the competitive and athletic aspects along with maximizing both the financial and business aspects. I just don’t feel that she’s done that.
Well, it’s happened ! The Red Storm Nation has got it’s blood boiling . We have CMA on the line of fire . Some suggesting Mike Cragg be the next . Val Ackerman is getting attention too . Who’s next ? Murdoch at Fox ? Dolan at MSG? I would say Fr Shanley escapes for now , any incoming . Actually , given his history at PC in getting rid of Welsh and Davis and hiring Cooley , the good Dominican seems to have the gear to do positive things . We can hope . Prayer as well . We need Divine grace after 20 some odd years .
next year’s media contract will be a good place to start.
This is exactly right. Worse than shrinking from the moment, she made the decision to let the organization she ran lie to our faces. I wrote her off after that. A typical college sports official who gets paid 7 figrues, rambles on about integrity, and shows none when the moment demands it. She sucks.
I do remember that the old Big East leadership pushed SJU to hire Calipari, after the Jarvis exit, but that was sabotaged by former coaches at the school, and we got Norm. The Big East leaders can suggest, but how do they get the clown posse, at SJU, to listen.