Huge news.

Saying it was simply time to do something else, Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese will announce his retirement later today, ending a reign of 19 years in which Tranghese guided development of the Big East basketball conference into a 16-team super league and oversaw the creation of the Big East football conference into a competitive 8-team league, which took a full body blow five years ago when three of its members — Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech — jumped to the Atlantic Coast Conference, but has still managed to survive, if not thrive.

The official announcement that Tranghese will retire next June will come later today, but Tranghese said that he felt the timing was right for him to spend one more year to make things were in order before he stepped down at the end of the 2008-2009 athletic season.

“It was just the right time for me,” said Tranghese, who has been with the Big East since it was created in 1979 as a seven-team basketball league. “The league has never been stronger in basketball. Everyone seems happy.”

The Big East TV deal is in place through 2013. The 16 teams have a written agreement not to split that lasts two more years, and no one is talking about extending it.

This news is a lot to actually digest and consider. Odds have just risen substantially, that by 2010 something will happen with the football side and membership.

As ESPN.com’s Bruce Feldman noted, mixed-martial arts is making plenty of mainstream news in the last couple of weeks. So, he does a Q&A with Pitt punter and MMA practitioner Dave Brytus (subs. only).

Q: Who on your team do you think could be a good MMA fighter if he worked at it and why?

A: Scott McKillop could be a great fighter! He was one of the best wrestlers in the state of Pennsylvania in high school. He also has good size and speed. If he worked on Jui-Jitsu and learned how to strike, he could be a force in MMA.

Dorin Dickerson could also be good in this sport I think. He is the most athletic guy on our team and is also one of the strongest. He could cut down to the 205-pound division and wreck people if he learned how to strike and use submissions. Anyone who is that athletic and has the kind of power he does at his weight class is dangerous.

Feldman, generally, is bullish on Pitt this season.

From Dan in NYC: Give me a sleeper team and sleeper Heisman pick for 2008.

Feldman: I’ll double up. I think LeSean McCoy would be my sleeper. I don’t think he’ll win it, but I could see him getting to New York, and Pittsburgh will be better than most people think. The Panthers lost a lot of key guys to injury for most or all of 2007 (QB Bill Stull, WR Derek Kinder, OT Jason Pinkston and DT Gus Mustakas) and now they’re back and McCoy will be the engine of a much-improved offense. Plus I think the Big East is really up for grabs.

Feldman has been one of the few mainstream writers from the start that liked Pitt hiring Wannstedt, and never jumped off that bandwagon. He had his doubts after year 2, but I think everyone did.

Lots of little things. On the transfer front, there are reports that Duke Crews who was dismissed from Tennessee might be interested in Pitt. Considering why Crews was likely tossed (multiple failed drug tests) from the Volunteer team, I’m not seeing Pitt as being too eager to take a chance on him.

Looking several years ahead, though, nowhere near where Billy Gillispie and Tim Floyd troll, to the class of 2011 Pitt is positioned as the early leader for a stud point guard.

Sterling Gibbs recently was named the Rookie of the Year at iS8 and there are those who say he could be the best point guard in the nation in the Class of 2011, certainly the best in New Jersey.

Prep coach Bob Farrell said the 5-10, 160-pound Gibbs doesn’t hold any official offers coming off his freshman season, but “Every time I talk to a college coach, he’s the first name they bring up. He just has so much growth yet to go. They just have to see what level he’s at.”

Farrell said Rutgers and Pitt have been to see Gibbs play…

It helps to have already built a relation with the family in recruiting Ashton Gibbs for the 2008 recruiting class.

It will be a fierce competition to get Dominic Cheek. Tom Crean taking the Indiana job, seems to have helped Kansas’ case

From the Maryland/DC part of things, Pitt has an interest in 6-8 power forward Thomas Robinson. Pitt hasn’t actually offered the 3-star recruit, but he has shown marked improvement this past spring. He does hold an offer from Marquette along with Oklahoma, Virginia and Georgia. In addition to Pitt, G-town, NC State, BC and Minnesota are all taking closer notes.