Big East Considering Jay Bilas As Commissioner, According To Report

The Big East Conference is still without a permanent commissioner, but may be narrowing down candidates for the job as of Monday. One candidate who is reportedly under "serious consideration" to become the new commissioner is ESPN college basketball analyst and attorney, Jay Bilas. Bilas's name did not come out of the blue, as Louisville Cardinals men's basketball coach Rick Pitino recommended Bilas for the job last month.

The Big East has seemingly suffered while operating with an interim commissioner (Joe Bailey) during the discussions over the college football playoff which would replace the BCS. The Big East has not yet worked out a contract to one of the former BCS bowls, though it used to have direct access as an automatically qualifying conference.

It may be no coincidence that this report about Bilas came out on the same day that the Big East retained Bevilacqua Helfant Ventures co-founder Chris Bevilacqua to be their lead negotiator in upcoming television rights negotiations. Bevilacqua recently negotiated contracts for the Rose Bowl and the Pac-12 Conference.

The Big East will enter an exclusive 60-day negotiation period with current TV partner ESPN on Sept. 1. The conference would like to have their permanent commissioner in place by that date. The Big East will be free to negotiate with other networks if no deal is reached at the end of the 60-day period.

For more on the Big East, visit our blog Big East Coast Bias.