Projo Sports Blog

By KEVIN McNAMARA
Journal Sports Writer

PROVIDENCE - The Big East is set to name its third commissioner and it appears that the job will remain in the Providence College family.

John Marinatto, a former PC athletic director and the current senior associate commissioner of the conference, is expected to be named as the replacement for outgoing boss Mike Tranghese. A press conference will be held Wednesday morning at the league's offices in Davol Square to make the official announcement.

Numerous press outlets were reporting Marinatto's hiring last night but no one associated with the league would comment publicly.

Marinatto would be following in the footsteps of two men he worked for years ago at PC. Dave Gavitt created the conference while he was PC's basketball coach and athletic director. He left the school to become the Big East's first commissioner back in 1979. Tranghese was the sports information officer for Gavitt in the 1970's but left to become the conference's first full-time employee. Marinatto worked as a student assistant for both Gavitt and Tranghese while attending PC in the late 1970's and became the school's athletic director from 1987-2001.

When Gavitt left the Big East to run the Boston Celtics, Tranghese succeeded him as commissioner in 1990. Tranghese announced last summer that he would resign the position in June of 2009. The Big East instantly went to work on finding a replacement. The co-chairmen in charge of the search are the University of Pittsburgh president, Mark A. Nordenberg, and Georgetown president John J. DeGioia.

Those two men presented their search findings at a meeting of the presidents of the league's 16 schools Tuesday in Philadelphia. Athletic directors of each school were in attendance as well and a presidential vote was taken on the commissioner's position.

 Tags  Big East John Marinatto

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