Big East commish: It's 'irresponsible, inappropriate' to speculate on expansion

As the commissioner of the conference most often linked with Big Ten expansion, the Big East’s John Marinatto has a very vested interest in the speculation that’s seemingly enveloped the college football world 

That interest, however, doesn’t mean he’s going to publicly feed the rumor mill machine.

Speaking at his conference’s annual spring meetings, Marinatto acknowledged that he’s heard all the talk but won’t be sucked into the expansion vortex in the public arena, instead focusing behind closed doors on what his league may have to do to save themselves from the long arms of Jim Delany & Company.

“To me, sitting in the seat that I (sit in), it’s just irresponsible and inappropriate to speculate, and speculate on other people’s speculation, to feed into that frenzy,” Marinatto was quoted as saying by the St. Petersburg Times.

“I look at this situation as another threat certainly. It [would] be irresponsible not to be concerned about it. We’re trying to position ourselves as best we can. In my mind, you always play out what it is you might do, but we certainly can’t do that in a public forum. (It would be) even more irresponsible of me to bring in other players to the situation in a public way.”

We took that last sentence to mean “Conference USA, our lips are sealed”, but your mileage, as always, may vary.