It always comes as a shock when every few years the Georgetown basketball schedule is unveiled, as it was this year, without a home game against its biggest Big East rival, Syracuse. That’s one guaranteed Verizon Center sellout lost. But no game at all? That’s a tradition all but undermined completely.
The Hoyas and Orange have met annually since the 1978-79 season, but there’s a chance they might no longer with Syracuse making the leap to the ACC, where it will be joined by Pittsburgh and perhaps even Connecticut, according to an ESPN report.
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The Hoyas, meanwhile, stand to be one of the schools most left behind by the era of the super conference.
Ironically, size has been responsible for the recent pre-eminence of Big East basketball. With 16 teams all qualifying for the conference tournament at Madison Square Garden, the college basketball world’s watchful eye in early March is always on Manhattan.
But football rules college athletics, and that’s a place in which FCS card-carrying Georgetown carries no clout, the same as other non-football members Marquette, Villanova and St. John’s.
Could the Hoyas defect to the Atlantic 10? Having Temple join the Big East might be a better option. The CAA? That’s a step down. The conference with a mission that most closely aligns with Georgetown is the Ivy League, but that would mean the end of realistic national title aspirations in basketball.
Whatever happens to the Big East, the Hoyas’ basketball history appears to mean as little as preserving its traditional rivalries.
– Craig Stouffer
