Georgetown Hoyas: Why Georgetown Should Prepare for Life After the Big East

Ding dong, the Big East is dead. At least it will be soon.

Today's announcement that Boise State football is joining the conference next season along with San Diego State football, Houston, Southern Methodist and University of Central Florida in 2013 should send panic waves through Hoya fans as the Big East has officially written its last rites. 

There are several reasons the Big East likely won't survive in its current state more than a few painful years. As is, the conference is only guaranteed a BCS football spot until 2013.

Besides Boise State (which has only been dominant for less than a decade), the new additions to the Big East are on the whole mediocre football programs that bring little to the table in the form of championship potential or TV revenue.

Most importantly, the Big East has already lost conference stalwarts Pittsburgh, Syracuse and West Virginia as well as TCU, who left before ever playing a game. The last-ditch reactionary measures led by beleaguered commissioner John Marinatto seem hardly convincing enough to keep UCONN, Rutgers and potentially others from leaving should stronger suitors come calling (they already are all desperately seeking a new home).

While the move is questionable at best from a football standpoint, from a basketball perspective these additions are downright disastrous. 

With rumors of such additions swirling during the Big East's media day back in October, Louisville's Rick Pitino lamented the conference's future, saying, "[It would] probably be the last time we have media day with the conference intact."

Villanova coach Jay Wright's first sentence earlier on ESPN's six o'clock show summed it up when he began with, "It's really sad. It's really, really sad." ESPN's Joe Schad added to the sense of gloom when he said in the same segment that he understood why "basketball coaches are frustrated and disappointed."

Not only is it likely that Georgetown's Big East revenue will be further divided given that three teams will be leaving (Syracuse, Pittsburgh and West Virginia) and at least five will be entering, its brand will be diluted as well. 

The conference is by no means stabilized, and if it doesn't act immediately, Georgetown will be left out in the cold. 

Having criticized Syracuse and Pittsburgh for breaching their contracts, it would be hypocritical to advocate Georgetown to do the same. That does not mean, however, that Georgetown should remain idle.  The Hoyas must be well-prepared for the eventuality when the Big East either dissolves or so totally sells out to football that it no longer represents Georgetown or the conference's own core founding values. 

Without a prestigious football program—it's not even FBS level—to secure an invitation from another conference, Georgetown must now start positioning itself for the future outside of the Big East. 

If somehow the conference were to survive as is, great, but if not, then Georgetown athletics—particularly basketball—must be in position to still survive as a premier athletic school. In order to do so, it is imperative that new Georgetown athletic director Lee Reed begin reaching out to other ADs and putting together the framework for a Northeast basketball-only conference. 

Georgetown wouldn't have far to turn to find eager suitors. The Big East already has several top-tier basketball schools with no football programs or teams that play in a non-FBS division. Such schools include Marquette (currently ranked 11th), Seton Hall, Providence, St. Johns, Villanova, DePaul and Notre Dame (its football team is an independent). 

These programs are steeped in tradition, rich with talent and have passionate fan bases making for continued high-level competition and rivalries. 

With the familiar core, Georgetown and others could then reach out to other top regional basketball schools with devoted followings and legacies of winning such as Xavier, St. Joe's, University of Massachusetts, George Washington, University of Richmond and Butler.

With that lineup the conference would have 15 basketball schools that have racked up numerous Finals, Final Four, Sweet Sixteen and NCAA tournament appearances in the past decade. 

In order to keep or recruit schools with competitive football programs such as Temple and Memphis, along with current Big East members Rutgers, Louisville and Cincinnati, offers could be made for basketball-only membership. Obviously a deal is less likely, but nevertheless, should the Big East dissolve, such programs could be desperate to land somewhere and a coach with the stature such as Rick Pitino may have enough sway to make it happen. 

Even with half of the those 19 schools, a league with teams of that stature would not only survive, it would thrive. The critique that football is the driving force in terms of revenue is true, but not necessarily so in the basketball-crazy Northeast.

Should a majority of the potential schools listed above be part of such a conference, the biggest media markets in the country—New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and Chicago—would all be well-represented. No other conference, be it football, basketball or both, could share such a distinction. 

ESPN was well aware of the potential of the region's basketball-heavy TV markets.  Commissioner Marinatto already turned down one of the biggest TV contracts for college sports in 2010, a contract that given the weak nature of its football schools was largely based on the league's basketball successes. 

Georgetown's brand would also shoot through the roof as passive fans and purists alike would tune in to consistently high-quality basketball and a league that even with 12 member schools could regularly send eight teams to the NCAA tournament. 

This would not only benefit fans but recruits as well, who would know they would be playing in one of college basketball's most competitive leagues. Given that the Northeast has some of the deepest talent pools in terms of high school basketball, such a league would also be able to keep many of the area's best players as the Big East did during its heyday in the 80s and 90s. 

Last but not least, keeping a league based around a region would benefit the players and the students as well. Travel would be easier (and less expensive) and allow fans to travel more to away games as opposed to flying to Houston, Dallas, San Diego or Orlando (not that those aren't pretty good destinations). 

All-in-all, should the Big East dissolve, Georgetown would not only be OK but would be stronger for it, so long as the athletic department lays the foundations now. But it must act now. 

The Big East is still floundering. Its core identity has been erased, its brand diluted, its media markets spread too thin. The writing was on the wall the moment John Marinatto went West. Georgetown is on a sinking ship. There are still plenty of life rafts, but Lee Reed, John Thompson III and the administration can't wait. 

We can hope the Big East survives, but we must be prepared to move forward when it doesn't.  The best way to guarantee the Hoyas future success is to start thinking about a Northeast conference.