As the Big East’s commissioner for 19 years, Mike Tranghese saw his share of conference realignment, whether adding programs (in the early 1990s, when the conference first began competing in football) or losing them (starting in 2003, when Miami and Virginia Tech bolted for the ACC).



But the events that played out in the years immediately following his retirement in 2009 surpassed any before them in the realm of absurdity.



“I look back and I see things I still can’t believe,” he said. “Someone would have to explain to me — and talk until they’re blue in the face — and I still can’t see why Rutgers and Maryland are in the Big Ten.”



The Big Ten set off the entire three-plus years of chaos that followed when, on Dec. 15, 2009, its Council of Presidents/Chancellors put out a press release announcing they had authorized commissioner Jim Delany to begin evaluating potential expansion candidates “over...