In Mike Tranghese’s 17 years as Big East commissioner, he’s had his share of tough negotiations. Tuesday’s media deal with ESPN might have been the easiest.

The two sides basically met and said, ‘Do you want to make a deal?’ They then put down what they wanted and on Tuesday, the Big East and ESPN officially announced six-year media deals that will keep Big East football and basketball on ESPN networks through 2013.

The complicated agreement will ensure every Big East basketball game is on an ESPN channel — whether it’s ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN Classic, ESPN Regional or ESPN360.

‘It’s unprecedented, collaborative, wide-ranging,’ Tranghese said in a teleconference Tuesday. ‘It provides exposure to our membership beyond anything that’s happened before.’

Football and women’s basketball were components of the deal, but Big East basketball is a national draw. The Big East title game last season between Syracuse and Pittsburgh was the highest-rated cable tournament final of the year. The new agreement makes the Big East the only conference with every game on television.

‘This wasn’t about business as usual or like the current deal,’ ESPN senior vice president John Wildhack said. ‘The breadth and depth of exposure that the conference will enjoy is groundbreaking.’

Big East basketball will still be on CBS, though. Five conference games a season – all repeat matchups of marquee games – will be on CBS. It will also receive access to the top non-conference Big East games.

But while basketball draws headlines, the deal is important for football, which has received considerable objections about its place among the power six conferences after the defections of Miami (Fla.), Virginia Tech and Boston College.

Most importantly, the new deal ensures Big East football a spot on ESPN, which will keep it in the national forefront.

‘We are excited with two teams ranked in the preseason top 10,’ Wildhack said, referencing conference favorites West Virginia and Louisville. ‘And then with the progress that’s been made off in Rutgers, Connecticut. South Florida, with the potential that exists there. Syracuse has terrific tradition.

‘There’s commitment with the schools and the conference with the coaching hires, facility updates, scheduling. We’re bullish on the future of Big East football,’ Wildhack said.

The three major ESPN networks – ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2 – will carry a total of 17 games each season. It’s the highest total for ESPN and ABC ever promised to the Big East.

On Championship Saturday in December – a day when the Big East takes a backseat to the Big 12, Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference because the Big East doesn’t have a championship game – one Big East game will be televised on ABC or ESPN and a second game will be on ESPN2.

There will also be four Big East games featured on ESPN’s Thursday night package and at least one game on its Saturday primetime series. There is no promise, though, for Big East football on ABC’s Saturday night lineup.

ESPN Regional will still feature a Big East Game of the Week syndicated primarily in Big East markets. It can also be expected to find more games on ESPN360, which is a broadband service, like Saturday’s Syracuse-Wake Forest game.

To illustrate how serious ESPN is about expanding its coverage, Sept. 8’s Pittsburgh-Cincinnati game will be televised on ESPN2 and ESPN Mobile.

It’s a long way since the skepticism of 2003, when the Big East was shaken by the defections of its top teams. But fundamental to any conference is a stable television contract, and Big East football received its vote of confidence from ESPN on Monday.

‘For a conference people had dead and buried about three years ago, with this announcement people can put that to rest and focus on what I consider the important things, which are the games themselves,’ Tranghese said.

Published on August 29, 2006 at 12:00 pm