The competitive prospects for most Georgetown athletic teams changed Tuesday, when five new colleges joined the Big East conference. At a meeting in New York, University President John J. DeGioia and the 10 other presidents of Big East member universities unanimously voted to invite the new schools.
The addition of the new members, Marquette University, DePaul University, the University of South Florida, the University of Cincinnati and the University of Louisville, brings the Big East’s membership to 16 schools. All are currently members of Conference USA; they will join the Big East for the 2005-2006 season.
Georgetown has been a Big East member in every varsity sport but football since the conference’s inception. The University’s historical ties to the conference are deep: former athletic director Frank Rienzo was among the conference’s founders in 1979, and Georgetown’s basketball notoriety during the 1980s is often credited with helping to bring the young conference to national attention.
More recently, however, the conference was thrown into turmoil when the University of Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College announced in June they were leaving the Big East for the Atlantic Coast Conference.
In a broadcast e-mail, DeGioia said the new members “will sustain and enhance the success of the Big East and is in the best interest of Georgetown’s athletic programs.” The e-mail said DeGioia and Athletic Director Joe Lang worked with other members for several months to “secure a successful future” for the conference.
“Our participation in the Big East ensures that Georgetown’s athletic teams will continue to engage in strong competition and enjoy long-standing rivalries, provides opportunities to enhance existing programs at Georgetown and other member schools, and sustains the financial resources that membership brings,” the e-mail read.
Lang was unavailable for comment.
“Ultimately the conference will be very, very strong,” said women’s basketball head coach Pat Knapp. “I think the men’s [basketball] conference is a monster conference, and I think the women’s conference is not far behind.”
Men’s Basketball Head Coach Craig Esherick did not comment, pending the release of final alignments and schedules, but his team’s future competitors are excited.
Dave Leitao, head coach of men’s basketball at DePaul, said his team is looking forward to greater levels of exposure and competition.
“We’re taking [Conference USA’s best basketball teams] to a league that already plays at the highest level,” he said. “With that kind of depth, it’s going to create a superconference like no one’s ever seen.”
Keith Tabatznick, head coach of men’s soccer, said the realignment will be good for smaller sports, not just basketball. “I’m happy we were able to maintain the strength of the conference, and possibly have increased it,” he said.
Tabatznik said he would miss the team’s “tremendous rivalry” with Boston College, but that the new expansion will likely aid recruiting efforts. He said the prospect of games against DePaul, which is located in Chicago, may help recruiting in that area.
The five new members further increase the Big East’s geographic spread; Knapp said the prospect of more travel and increased costs is similar to when Miami, the University of Notre Dame, and the University of Pittsburgh joined the conference during the ‘90s.
“We made all that work, and we’ll make this work,” he said.
