PROVIDENCE � Stu Jackson remembers his two seasons as an assistant coach at Providence College fondly. Well, sort of.

PROVIDENCE � Stu Jackson remembers his two seasons as an assistant coach at Providence College fondly. Well, sort of.

As the recruiting coordinator on Rick Pitino�s all-star staff, Jackson rode the dynamic wave in 1986 and �87 that miraculously swept the Friars all the way to the Final Four. He left town along with Pitino for a shot at the NBA life with the New York Knicks, but appreciates that those years in the PC basketball offices catapulted his career to another level.

�I had the second office on the right,� Jackson says. �Herb Sendek had the first and Gordie Chiesa was next door. Jeff Van Gundy, I don�t know where we put him. We were there all the time. Rick had these late-night meetings in the sauna, or we�d play 3-on-3. It was crazy.�

Jackson returned to see his old offices on Thursday, this time as the new associate commissioner in charge of men�s basketball for the Big East. It�s the latest challenge in a career in which Jackson has literally done it all. He�s been a head coach in college (Wisconsin), a head coach in the NBA (Knicks), a general manager in the NBA (Vancouver Grizzlies), a board member of the Naismith Hall of Fame and, for 13 years, the executive vice president of basketball operations for the NBA.

After dealing with scheduling and rule changes � and fining Ron Artest, Rasheed Wallace and other players millions of dollars � Jackson left the NBA after the 2013 season. But now he�s back in basketball. Before a season-ticket-holders appreciation party at PC, Jackson was asked a simple question: Why now and why the Big East?

�Well, I want to work and I feel I have a lot to add,� said the 58-year-old. �I really feel like I�m coming into the Big East at a really good time. College athletics are beginning to change and it�s certainly no secret that college athletics has some challenges ahead. But we have an opportunity to be the best basketball-only conference in the country. Because we don�t have the same challenges and issues that big-time college football brings, we can be true basketball specialists. We should be the best at what we do.�

Jackson is spot-on when he brings up the changes that are blowing through college sports, and where the Big East fits in those winds is open to conjecture. It�s clear that the major football conferences � to self-proclaimed Power Five � are making the rules and intend to use the autonomy granted to them by recent NCAA rules changes to guide their own path.

But Jackson says that while he and commissioner Val Ackerman are focused on monitoring the NCAA�s changes, they have a simple answer for anyone who is selling the idea that the Big East will no longer be able to compete on a national stage.

�Whatever they enact, we will follow,� Jackson said. �We want to be competitive, plus. We�re also looking at ways to separate and distinguish ourselves in this changing collegiate sports model.�

Before addressing the PC fans, Jackson sat with Friars coach Ed Cooley and radio voice John Rooke for a preseason show. When Rooke mentioned the �Power Five� term, you could see both Jackson and Cooley cringe. It�s a dynamic that the Big East (and other leagues like the rising Atlantic 10) won�t stop fighting.

�I don�t use that term,� Cooley said. �It�s the football five. We�re power. The Big East is just as powerful and competitive as anyone else.�

�The Power Five is a football term,� Jackson added. �It�s the Power Five football leagues. Basketball offers a very different dynamic.�

Jackson�s job with the Big East is to help the 10 men�s basketball programs remain in the �power� discussion. In its first season last winter, the Big East did not enjoy a �powerful� campaign. While Villanova and Creighton bobbed in and out of the top 15 most of the season, the league ended up with four teams ranked in the top 50 of the RPI and four in the NCAA Tournament. None of the four lasted past the opening weekend. But Jackson notes that the current crop of incoming freshmen in the Big East is very strong and early returns on the Class of 2015 are promising, too.

College basketball has eight leading conferences right now: the American (four top-50 RPI teams last year, four NCAA bids), the Atlantic 10 (6, 6), the ACC (5, 6), the Big 12 (6, 7), the Big Ten (6, 6), the PAC-12 (6, 6) and the SEC (4, 3). What�s interesting to note from those numbers is that the unquestioned football king � the Southeastern Conference � had the worst showing in hoops.

Jackson said that all 10 Big East schools are committed to funding any of the NCAA�s possible changes, such as cost of attendance and health insurance for injured athletes.

�I feel very blessed to have had an opportunity almost my entire professional career to stay involved with what I really love,� he said. �I�ve gotten a great deal of personal satisfaction out of effectuating change and here I am at another juncture, and I�m excited about this possibility.�

Ackerman heard howls of discontent from the Big East�s coaches last season at the quirks in the league�s first attempt at drawing up a schedule. Jackson said as soon as he was hired, �I felt I was being fed with a fire hose about the schedule,� but the recently released schedule is a dramatic improvement.

�There were a lot of issues last year, but by and large we got most of them ironed out and a lot of the credit goes to Fox, our broadcast partner,� Jackson said.

Jackson said the Big East is looking toward a �scheduling relationship� with another conference (believed to be the PAC-12) and could leverage its strong group of game officials by combining resources with other conferences.

�We�re trying to think forward and come up with ideas that strategically make some sense for our league,� he said. �It�s an exciting time and an interesting time, but I really feel the Big East is in a good spot for the future.�