One of college basketball’s biggest rivalries will be cut short when Syracuse leaves the Big East conference and becomes a member of the Atlantic Coast Confrence and Georgetown will leave the Big East with six other catholic schools to form their own league, in which they will take the Big East name with them.
The Big East was formed in 1979 and Georgetown and Syracuse were two of the original schools along with five other schools. In 1984 Georgetown became the first Big East basketball team to win the NCAA Championship game. Syracuse won the championship in 2003. Georgetown has been to the championship four times and Syracuse three. The two schools have a total of 9 Final Four appearances, Georgetown five, Syracuse four. Syracuse leads the overall series with 49 wins to Georgetown’s 41 wins.
These two teams first played each other February 15th 1930 with Syracuse winning 40 to 18. When the teams first played as members of the Big East Syracuse played their home games at the Manley Field house. IN 1980 Georgetown won the last game there. After the win Coach John Thompson Jr. was quoted as saying, “Manley Field House is officially closed.” Since then Syracuse has move to the Carrier Dome and Georgetown from McDonalds Gym to the Verizon Center.
This year Georgetown beat Syracuse in both regular season games including the last Big East game at the Carrier Dome. Georgetown also won the Big East regular season title, but Syracuse beat Georgetown in the Big East Semifinal game to advance to the championship game.
So after 35 years in the Big East the two teams will go their separate ways, but not without leaving us with so many great games and championships. Yes I’m a big Georgetown fan, but I wish Syracuse good luck in the ACC, and thank both schools for the memories.
