Sports

Marinatto’s resignation has no immediate effect on waiting period for Syracuse to leave Big East

Syracuse and Pittsburgh’s timetable to leave the Big East for the Atlantic Coast Conference remains uncertain after the resignation of conference commissioner John Marinatto on Monday.

Syracuse is currently set to join the ACC on July 1, 2014, in time to begin competition in the conference that fall. But before Marinatto resigned, he had said the league would be open to discussing the possibility of allowing SU and Pittsburgh exit the conference for the 2013-14 athletic season.

On Wednesday, Big East interim commissioner Joseph A. Bailey III said in a teleconference that Marinatto’s resignation has not changed the waiting period for the two schools. Bailey also said he has no interest in becoming the commissioner of the league, and he is only helping the league during the transition in leadership.

‘I wish I could see around corners, but I can’t,’ Bailey said during the teleconference. ‘So really, I would not want to in any way speculate on what’s going to happen with regards to those schools either way. It’s really in one sense not my position to sort of think that way.’

After reaching a settlement with West Virginia to leave for the Big 12 for the 2012 season, Marinatto said the Big East ‘might be open to discussion’ of letting Syracuse and Pittsburgh leave early, too, according to a February article by The Associated Press.



Bailey said he has not been in his position long enough to have a full understanding of the situation surrounding Syracuse and Pittsburgh. And as a result, he declined to answer questions on any changes in the timing of the departures for the schools.

‘I can’t answer that question. I simply can’t answer it,’ Bailey said. ‘I wish I could, but I cannot.’

rjgery@syr.edu 





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