Standing in the Iocolano-Petty Football Wing at 2:25 p.m. yesterday, Paul Pasqualoni stared intently at the television screen.

His eyes focused on the images flashing off it: shots of a press conference at which Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese announced five Conference USA schools would join his league.

As he sipped a red cup of Bruegger’s coffee, Pasqualoni, Syracuse’s head football coach, stood about four feet from the TV and watched Big East officials answer questions about the conference’s – and, therefore, his football team’s – future.

Though the coach tried to downplay the issue earlier in the week – as men’s basketball head coach Jim Boeheim did after last night’s exhibition game – senior tight end Joe Donnelly yesterday issued the most candid opinion heard yet from an SU player.

Pasqualoni stayed mostly silent yesterday. When SU defensive tackle Christian Ferrara strolled by in the football wing, the coach hardly budged, saying, ‘How’s it going?’

Ferrara’s eyebrows rose and his eyes widened, clearly recognizing the important moment.

When Pasqualoni was asked how the press conference was going, he tersely responded, ‘It’s going fine,’ before darting toward his office.

‘Right now, the only thing I’m thinking about is the Temple Owls,’ Pasqualoni said Monday. ‘I guess we’ll be done (Tuesday). I’m sure the Big East will do a great job with what they are going to do. In no way, shape or form am I thinking about that. I’m thinking about Temple. That is it.’

Boeheim seemed eager to drop the realignment issue as well. Four months ago, he remained confident the Big East would end up with a strong basketball conference. Yesterday’s event proved him right.

‘I said all along we were going to have a great basketball league,’ Boeheim said. ‘Everybody’s been talking about it for four months and wasting its time, ink, voices and everything else. So let’s not waste any more time talking about it.’

Though Pasqualoni guarded his thoughts, the issue affects SU’s football future. The Big East will retain its Bowl Championship Series bid, at least through 2005. And since Virginia Tech and Miami left for the Atlantic Coast Conference over the summer, Syracuse no longer must contend with the two powers for a spot in one of the four BCS bowls – and the wagon-load of money that comes with it.

‘It opens the door,’ Donnelly said. ‘A lot of younger guys talk about it more than we do as seniors. Any time the road is easier traveled to a BCS game, you like it.

Still, Donnelly knows the Big East loses some luster without Tech and Miami.

‘It’s tough in the short term to replace teams like that,’ Donnelly said. ‘Personally, I’d want to play Miami and Virginia Tech. I don’t want to be the best of the average. I’d rather be the average of the best.’

Even with the Conference USA additions, the Big East still lags behind the ACC as a football league. But Donnelly thinks Syracuse still might stand in a better position than Boston College, which left the Big East for the ACC last month.

‘Boston College is going to get the shit kicked out of them every week,’ Donnelly said. ‘They’re going to have to schedule Army, Navy and The Citadel every year out of conference, because they’ll be 1-6, 1-7 (in conference) every season.’

Published on November 4, 2003 at 12:00 pm