In addition to facilities, geographic locations have a lot to do with certain Olympic sports and who is generally successful nationally. Warm weather sports geberally have more success in the Southern regions and in the West Coast (california). Baseball, Softball, Tennis & Golf players want to be in environments conducive for more year round play.
Women's Cross-Country just had Villanova replace Georgetown as the new #1 team in the country last week. But they isn't surprising as they both finished 1st & 2nd last year in the NCAA Championship as Villanova has won the last 2 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS bringing their total to NINE NCAA Women's X-country Team Championships. Villanova is currently #1, Providence is #2 and Georgetown slipped to #5 this week and ND is 25th.
Men's Cross-country currently has Georgetown, Villanova and Providence in Top 24 in the country. Providence dominated the Conference championships for much of the BE history. BE Conference championship Totals: Providence 15, Notre Dame 5, Georgetown 6, Villanova 3.
Marquette is transitioning to Varisty to become the 6th Varsity Men's Lacrosse programs from the private Catholic schools in an NCAA recognized Conference. The ACC, SEC, and Big XII do not have NCAA recognized Conferences and none recieve an official NCAA bid to the postseason tournament.
The ACC with the addition of Syracuse and Rutgers could then apply for recognition from the NCAA. As talented as the 4 current ACC LAX teams are, they need a minimum of 6 varsity teams to become recognized as a NCAA approved Conference. The majority of the ACC doesn't care about LAX and never will. The 2 SEC schools that bother to field a team play in ConfUSA. The BIG XII has zero LAX and has it several spots below Varsity "NASCAR" as a sport to add to their line-up.
Women's Lax had Big East member Loyala-MD ranked #7 and they won the 2011 BE Tournament last year and reached NCAA quarterfinals. Georgetown was the regular season champion and finished #19. Notre Dame was ranked #26
Georgetown won the 2010 BE tournament.
ND won the 2009 BE tournament.
Baseball & Softball are warm weather sports but ND has done well in both sports in recent years and other catholic schools have also remained competitive. 18 of the 27 Big East tournament Baseball Champions have been Catholic schools with St Johns, Seton Hall, Villanova and Notre Dame winning multiple championships. St Johns won the 2010 Tournament and Seton Hall won the 2011 BE tournament.
Depaul Softball #29 was ranked close to ND #23 in the top 30 last year as all 8 of the BE Catholic schools sponser a softball program. ND & DePaul finished 1st and 2nd in the BE regular season but got knocked out by Syracuse in the 2011 BE tournament. The Catholic schools have won 9 out of the last 13 BE softtball tournaments with ND(6), Seton Hall (2) and DePaul (1).
ND & Villanova have won 19 out of the last 20 BE Women's Swimming & Diving Championships.
Men's Swimming & Diving has been dominated by PITT, Louisville and ND. Pitt actually has 19 BE Championships total and ND has 4 and Louisville has won the last 2 BE Championships.
INDOOR and OUTDOOR Track for both Men & Women have involved Villanova, ND & Georgetown in the top group of Big East competitors for many years and they are still very strong today.
Men & Women's Conference Tennis Championships has been a ND mainstay for a rather weak BIG EAST showing nationally for most of the decade since Miami left the conference. Only Louisville even appears in last year's Men's rankings at #24. And only ND at #20 was in the Women's rankings. Tennis is not exactly a geographic drawing point of the Big East.
ND doesnt sponser Field Hockey and there is only 6 teams left in the BE after Syracuse departs with Nova, Gorgetown & Providence as the only non-football schools.
In a couple of these olympic sports, it's easy to see that possibility of partners such as Army & Navy as candidates to become Associate Members. The walking dead Patriot League is near collaspe (It's clear even to the people in their home office that they will fracture at the end of 2012 football season with the departure of Lehigh, Colgate and ghost member Fordham to the world of FCS Football scholarships.) If the academies can find a place to park their marginal Basketball programs, they may be possible LAX, Soccer, Baseball, Softball, Rowing additions to a rebooted Big East. Many of the Academy women athletes are built like a brick house in some of these sports from their military conditioning and would benefit a rebooted Big East in some olympic sports. The Academy's Mens LAX could bring BE Lacrosse to at least 8 teams in a very competitive League.
Football is not in the equation as Army is very reluctant to join a football conference and Navy was still considering Football options with the BE situation blowing up probably ending that idea.
Women's Cross-Country just had Villanova replace Georgetown as the new #1 team in the country last week. But they isn't surprising as they both finished 1st & 2nd last year in the NCAA Championship as Villanova has won the last 2 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS bringing their total to NINE NCAA Women's X-country Team Championships. Villanova is currently #1, Providence is #2 and Georgetown slipped to #5 this week and ND is 25th.
Men's Cross-country currently has Georgetown, Villanova and Providence in Top 24 in the country. Providence dominated the Conference championships for much of the BE history. BE Conference championship Totals: Providence 15, Notre Dame 5, Georgetown 6, Villanova 3.
Marquette is transitioning to Varisty to become the 6th Varsity Men's Lacrosse programs from the private Catholic schools in an NCAA recognized Conference. The ACC, SEC, and Big XII do not have NCAA recognized Conferences and none recieve an official NCAA bid to the postseason tournament.
The ACC with the addition of Syracuse and Rutgers could then apply for recognition from the NCAA. As talented as the 4 current ACC LAX teams are, they need a minimum of 6 varsity teams to become recognized as a NCAA approved Conference. The majority of the ACC doesn't care about LAX and never will. The 2 SEC schools that bother to field a team play in ConfUSA. The BIG XII has zero LAX and has it several spots below Varsity "NASCAR" as a sport to add to their line-up.
Women's Lax had Big East member Loyala-MD ranked #7 and they won the 2011 BE Tournament last year and reached NCAA quarterfinals. Georgetown was the regular season champion and finished #19. Notre Dame was ranked #26
Georgetown won the 2010 BE tournament.
ND won the 2009 BE tournament.
Baseball & Softball are warm weather sports but ND has done well in both sports in recent years and other catholic schools have also remained competitive. 18 of the 27 Big East tournament Baseball Champions have been Catholic schools with St Johns, Seton Hall, Villanova and Notre Dame winning multiple championships. St Johns won the 2010 Tournament and Seton Hall won the 2011 BE tournament.
Depaul Softball #29 was ranked close to ND #23 in the top 30 last year as all 8 of the BE Catholic schools sponser a softball program. ND & DePaul finished 1st and 2nd in the BE regular season but got knocked out by Syracuse in the 2011 BE tournament. The Catholic schools have won 9 out of the last 13 BE softtball tournaments with ND(6), Seton Hall (2) and DePaul (1).
ND & Villanova have won 19 out of the last 20 BE Women's Swimming & Diving Championships.
Men's Swimming & Diving has been dominated by PITT, Louisville and ND. Pitt actually has 19 BE Championships total and ND has 4 and Louisville has won the last 2 BE Championships.
INDOOR and OUTDOOR Track for both Men & Women have involved Villanova, ND & Georgetown in the top group of Big East competitors for many years and they are still very strong today.
Men & Women's Conference Tennis Championships has been a ND mainstay for a rather weak BIG EAST showing nationally for most of the decade since Miami left the conference. Only Louisville even appears in last year's Men's rankings at #24. And only ND at #20 was in the Women's rankings. Tennis is not exactly a geographic drawing point of the Big East.
ND doesnt sponser Field Hockey and there is only 6 teams left in the BE after Syracuse departs with Nova, Gorgetown & Providence as the only non-football schools.
In a couple of these olympic sports, it's easy to see that possibility of partners such as Army & Navy as candidates to become Associate Members. The walking dead Patriot League is near collaspe (It's clear even to the people in their home office that they will fracture at the end of 2012 football season with the departure of Lehigh, Colgate and ghost member Fordham to the world of FCS Football scholarships.) If the academies can find a place to park their marginal Basketball programs, they may be possible LAX, Soccer, Baseball, Softball, Rowing additions to a rebooted Big East. Many of the Academy women athletes are built like a brick house in some of these sports from their military conditioning and would benefit a rebooted Big East in some olympic sports. The Academy's Mens LAX could bring BE Lacrosse to at least 8 teams in a very competitive League.
Football is not in the equation as Army is very reluctant to join a football conference and Navy was still considering Football options with the BE situation blowing up probably ending that idea.