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Yet, Tranghese says he cannot single-handedly get Memphis into the Big East or any other Bowl Championship Series conference.

"I've been hired to help them evaluate their athletic program, not to get them in a conference," Tranghese, who was hired Aug. 1, said Wednesday in a phone interview. "I can't get people into conferences. That's not what I do."

Tranghese spent 19 years as the Big East commissioner before stepping down at the end of June.

Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson was not immediately available for comment, but he told the Memphis Commercial Appeal Tranghese is being paid $5,000 a month from privately donated funds.

"His role is to help us and advise us," Johnson told the newspaper in Tuesday's editions. "He asked me, 'What's my charge?' I said, 'There are six BCS conferences. Just get us in one.'"

Tranghese was approached by other schools to act as a consultant but decided to work with Memphis because of his longstanding relationship with Johnson, whom he has known since Johnson was the athletic director at Temple.

"That's where the relationship began," Tranghese said. "We just stayed in touch throughout the years.

"He's just a good friend. I've had other people call me about doing this stuff. Normally that's not what I want to do, but he's a very good friend and I agreed to do it because of our personal relationship."

Tranghese remains based in Providence but visited the Memphis campus once to "review their facilities" and "meet their people."

Memphis has been a member of Conference USA since the conference's inception in the mid-1990s, but Memphis has long wanted to join a BCS Conference. BCS schools typically enjoy greater revenue from bowl payouts and TV contracts, offer better recruiting opportunities and have a chance to compete for the national championship in football.

Louisville, Cincinnati and South Florida all departed Conference USA for the Big East after the 2004 season and have benefited tremendously as a result. Memphis wanted to follow suit but was not invited.

Big East officials have considered bringing in a ninth team to balance out the football schedule, but current Big East Commissioner John Marinatto said it would have to be the right team, such as a high-profile program like Penn State.

"We talk about it and we recognize the fact that we'd love to have a balanced schedule and the way to do that obviously is to add a ninth football member," Marinatto said last month at Big East Football media day. "But we don't want to solve one problem and possibly create another, because now you're dividing revenues nine ways. ... If someone did in fact bring quality to our conference and solve that problem and carry their own weight, then we would obviously do it. But until that time comes we're not going to do something just for one reason."

Still, Frederick W. Smith, the CEO and founder of Memphis-based FedEx, told the Commercial Appeal that the conference is poised to expand and that Louisville and Cincinnati provide natural geographic rivalries with Memphis.

"I think the Big East will have to expand at some point to at least nine football teams and, probably, eventually to 12," Smith told the paper. "With only eight football teams now, the teams have only three home league games every other year. Nine solves that problem.

"Secondarily, the money in the league championship games is getting so big. There are three BCS leagues that have them and three that don't, but there's a huge additional amount of money for the people that have a championship game. Sooner or later, it makes sense."

The Big East does not currently have a league championship game for football.

From a basketball standpoint, adding Memphis would bring the league to 17 teams, which could make scheduling even more complicated.

"There's a ways to go, in my opinion, before those discussions are serious," Memphis basketball coach Josh Pastner said via phone. "I think those are future discussions. Whatever the president [Shirley Raines] and the athletic director decide, they're my bosses and I'm going to back them."

FedEx could be a factor in the discussions. If Memphis were to join the Big East, FedEx could become a presenting sponsor of the men's basketball tournament, which last year lost Aeropostale. If FedEx were to offer the conference a large amount of money as a presenting sponsor, perhaps the issue of having 17 teams in an unwieldy basketball conference might become less significant.

"Right now, particularly in these economic times, everybody's looking for all the big-money sponsors they can get," said Bob Dorfman, a sports marketing expert with the San Francisco-based Baker Street Advertising group.

"FedEx is a huge international company with tremendous resources. I would certainly think that would be very desirable to the Big East. Not only the quality of play and the quality of the school but bringing in that FedEx sponsorship could be huge."