Post by concord on Nov 3, 2011 22:45:30 GMT -5
Again, the disadvantage of the BE -- the reason why our commissioners have been powerless to stop the bleeding -- is the inclusion of several basketball-only schools, of which Georgetown is one. The present college sports landscape is 100% controlled by big-time football, and the possibility of Georgetown being one of those big-time football schools has been nil for a very long time. Georgetown fans who believe we have any real leverage in this situation are fully deluding themselves. The only way for a BE commissioner to keep football schools from leaving the BE for the ACC was to find a way to ditch all the basketball schools, and I'm glad that's not what went down. "Band together and form a stronger conference" in a world where college football means everything would mean ditching the basketball schools. How would that serve Georgetown's interests?
Why do optics matter at all? Do "statements and reaction" make any real difference? That's all just window dressing. As long as the BE hangs onto a major television contract, Hoya basketball (and our other teams that depend on the TV income) can continue to thrive and compete for national championships. As a Hoya basketball fan, that is ALL that matters to me. It sucks that some of our traditional rivals ditched us, but they clearly want to be part of all-football conferences and their decisions are driven by football, no matter what their esteemed basketball coaches may want. I think it's abundantly clear that there is nothing we could have done to head that off, unless you have a time machine and a master plan to keep the Georgetown football program a force through the year 2011.
If he is able to pull this off, and land a huge new TV deal -- and I think he has a fighting chance of doing so -- I'm pretty happy with Marinatto. It's not a done deal yet, but whatever universities need to be lined up to make it happen, however far-flung, they're OK with me. I would rather be playing rivalry games against BC and Cuse than traveling to SMU, but our former BE buddies lost interest in us right around the time that TV contracts became completely dictated by football and the realignment frenzy raised the possibility of four all-football super conferences with 64 schools in and everyone else out.
With this week's developments, we seem to be headed for an acceptable outcome. In the range of actually possible, realistic situations, this western expansion is one I can live with and frankly more than I expected from Marinatto. Adding service academies for political cover would be a great benefit as well. Long term, I think we have to expect that Georgetown will be on the outside looking in as all the football schools squeeze the basketball schools out. To catch up after decades of facilities mismanagement so that our basketball could continue to be seriously competitive in that scenario, Georgetown desperately needs to buy some time and bank some money, and I believe the conference leadership may be on the verge of making that happen for us.
Why do optics matter at all? Do "statements and reaction" make any real difference? That's all just window dressing. As long as the BE hangs onto a major television contract, Hoya basketball (and our other teams that depend on the TV income) can continue to thrive and compete for national championships. As a Hoya basketball fan, that is ALL that matters to me. It sucks that some of our traditional rivals ditched us, but they clearly want to be part of all-football conferences and their decisions are driven by football, no matter what their esteemed basketball coaches may want. I think it's abundantly clear that there is nothing we could have done to head that off, unless you have a time machine and a master plan to keep the Georgetown football program a force through the year 2011.
If he is able to pull this off, and land a huge new TV deal -- and I think he has a fighting chance of doing so -- I'm pretty happy with Marinatto. It's not a done deal yet, but whatever universities need to be lined up to make it happen, however far-flung, they're OK with me. I would rather be playing rivalry games against BC and Cuse than traveling to SMU, but our former BE buddies lost interest in us right around the time that TV contracts became completely dictated by football and the realignment frenzy raised the possibility of four all-football super conferences with 64 schools in and everyone else out.
With this week's developments, we seem to be headed for an acceptable outcome. In the range of actually possible, realistic situations, this western expansion is one I can live with and frankly more than I expected from Marinatto. Adding service academies for political cover would be a great benefit as well. Long term, I think we have to expect that Georgetown will be on the outside looking in as all the football schools squeeze the basketball schools out. To catch up after decades of facilities mismanagement so that our basketball could continue to be seriously competitive in that scenario, Georgetown desperately needs to buy some time and bank some money, and I believe the conference leadership may be on the verge of making that happen for us.