Notre Dame announced this morning that it is leaving the Big East for the Atlantic Coast Conference in all sports except football, meaning that the absurdities and rampant speculation of conference realignment have started all over again.
Because the Big East requires 27-months’ notice before a school is allowed to leave, the Fighting Irish are in theory stuck in the league until 2015. It remains to be seen, however, if some arrangement can be worked out for a school that boasts what many think is the biggest fanbase in collegiate athletics.
Notre Dame is the fourth program to announce a departure from the Big East in the past two years, following in the footsteps of West Virginia (Big 12), Syracuse and Pittsburgh (both likewise to the ACC); while the latter two will make their moves in 2013, the Mountaineers have already made the switch.
Temple, however, is already in to fill the void left by WVU, leaving Big East football at the same number of team — eight — that it has had since the ACC finished its last swoop on the conference in 2005.
Most talk on the biggest repercussions of conference realignment have been about basketball — and the implications in Notre Dame’s move could be huge for the Blue and Gray, depending on whether or not Georgetown has, and takes advantage of, an emerging opening.
When the Irish make their move to the ACC, it will find itself with an odd number of 15 teams in its premier sport. It should go without saying that that total is unlikely to stay as is. The question, then, is who the 16th team will be.
But wait, you might ask, won’t the ACC be left with an even 14 teams in football when Pitt and that school in upstate New York join? So wouldn’t that seem to necessitate the addition of a school for basketball that doesn’t play FBS football? And isn’t Georgetown just such a school?
Geographically, Georgetown fits in perfectly with the schools of the Atlantic Coast, though there may be some concern about overlap with Maryland, Virginia and Virginia Tech, meaning the Hoyas wouldn’t add much in terms of market. Villanova or St. John’s have more to offer in that department.
And if you did in fact think all that, and I wasn’t merely giving you the unwarranted benefit of the doubt, then you might just be right on.
Everyone else is jumping ship, and recent events indicate that the Big East is only going to continue to go downhill from here, with Rutgers, UConn, Villanova, Louisville and Cincinnati just a few of the teams that have been rumored to be interested in moves to the ACC, Big 12 and elsewhere over the course of 2012.
Granted, the Fighting Irish are not a basketball powerhouse of Syracuse’s caliber, so this isn’t a death sentence for the Big East. But Notre Dame is another upper-echelon team that consistently ends the season (at least in recent years with Luke Harangodies 1.0 and 2.0) in the top-third of the standings. They’re also a huge media draw and brand whose loss does reduce the Big East’s prestige and revenue.
Yes, I realize that we’ve been in the Big East since its inception in 1979, and that founding status, our history in the conference and idealistic notions of loyalty must be taken into account. But moving to the ACC — and thus being able to continue our biggest rivalry in a league that is eclipsing the Big East as a basketball power center — is a conversation that has to be on the table.
Don’t let us do all the talking, now: what do you guys think about this issue? Let us know in the comments.
I say go. If the acc wants GU, go. My revisionist mind struggles with that but its time.
QUESS AT THIS POINT I AGREE WITH ANONYMOUS. CANT HERD CATS WEVE TRIED TO KEEP THE BIG EAST TOGETHER BUT ITS PROBABLY ON LIFE SUPPORT NOW. SOOOOOO GO HOYAS NEED TO DO WHAT YOU NEED TO DO FOR GEORGETOWN. TEMPUS FUGIT. TIMES CHANGE. GOOD LUCK BUT DONT SEE MUCH FUTURE FOR THE OLD BIG EAST…. DONT SEE NO MORE PHOENIX’S ARISING FROM THESE ASHES. GO HOYAS. WHEREVER YOU MAY BE.
As a proud alum (SFS ’99) I just want to add my voice to the many others urge Georgetown to aggressively pursue membership in the ACC conference. A vast majority of alums (over 80% in a recent online poll) favor reuniting with traditional rivals (Syracuse, BC, Pitt, and Notre Dame) in the ACC over starting new “rivalries” with San Diego State, Houston, and Central Florida. The added benefit of regional rivalries with Maryland and Virginia in the ACC make this an obvious choice. Moreover the academic excellence of the ACC schools is a far better cultural fit than those in the new Big East. Our natural fit, today, is in the ACC.
John Thompson, the AD, and President DeGioia should be aggressively pursuing this and enlisting allies such as Jim Boehiem, Dean Smith and Nike to make this union happen. The school needs to provide some assurance to the community that it is not passively letting the potential opportunity go.
Georgetown could fast fade to basketball irrelevance without a foothold in a major conference (the Big East isn’t anymore). It was not long ago that Holy Cross, Houston, and San Francisco were proud basketball powerhouses. Now look at them.
The central role basketball plays in the Georgetown community cannot be overstated. It distinguishes and unifies us as a community. Now is the time for bold leadership to cement its future.
A move to the ACC is best for Georgetown. The Big East is on the verge of irrelevance given its many missteps and defections. The ACC will pull in much more money from having decent football and very good basketball. The ACC will also provide JT3 with a much better recruiting basis (“We play Duke, UNC, and Cuse on ESPN” is much better than “We play USF, Central Florida, and SMU on MASN”).
For sports other than basketball, the travel will be much shorter for conference games. That’s very important when donors aren’t funding private planes.
That said, I don’t like our chances. All Georgetown has to offer is a good basketball team and a good academic reputation. Lee Reed isn’t exactly a mover and shaker on the college scene, and Nova makes more sense to spread the ACC to a new market.
Finally, why does the ACC need 16 basketball teams? You don’t need every team playing a conference game every Saturday (the Big Ten got by with 11 for a long time). You can have a 15-team tournament (top team gets a bye, 2 plays 15, etc) or have the top 12 teams make the tourney. The 16-team Big East tournament wasn’t much better than the 12-team version.
The ACC has no interest in Georgetown. Kevin Anderson will see to that.
By the way, who at GU is supposed to pay the $10 million exit fee?