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On Monday, the Big Ten and Big East conferences are scheduled to hold a 12:30 press conference to announce the creation of a new basketball series, according to a report by ESPN. The series will be called the Gavitt Tipoff games, which will be held annually between the two conferences to start the college basketball season.
Eight games will be played over the course of four days to tip off the basketball season over the next eight years, which is the length of the deal for the event. Each Big Ten school will participate at least four times, meaning Maryland will have their opening season opponent for four of the next eight years.
The most intriguing aspect of this new challenge, from Maryland's perspective, is the potential to play Georgetown in the event, ending what has become a bitter battle between the two schools about which of the programs should be hosting the next game in the series. This could, conceivably, resolve that dispute and give the D.C. area a basketball matchup that hasn't happened locally since 1993. The Terps last faced Georgetown in the 2008 Old Spice Classic in Orlando, which didn't go so well for Maryland.
Update: At least one prominent person thinks this will be the case!
JT3 said he expects Georgetown will Play Maryland in Gavitt TipOff Games
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) May 5, 2014
Even if Maryland isn't paired up with Georgetown, they should still be paired with a team that will add a quality opponent to the non-conference portion of their schedule in the years in which Maryland participates in the event.
What do you think about the event? Are you excited by the potential to jump start the Georgetown-Maryland series? Do you think it's a yawner because the Big Ten already essentially plays the old Big East in the B1G-ACC challenge, since half of the ACC is now made up of former Big East teams?