Better than a cup of coffee, the Morning Digest will provide you with what you need to be prepared for the day: a daily round-up of links, local news, and important events on campus and around D.C.

     Today will have scattered clouds with a chance of rain, with a high of 75.

To masticate today:

• OCAF, Student Housing do the bureaucracy shuffle: Yesterday, Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson and Vice President for Planning and Facilities Management Robin Morey announced that OCAF and Student Housing would be moving to the Division of Student Affairs effective July 1, 2013, among other office changes. 
• Question Time: Jim Coury (SFS ’15) has advanced to the semifinals in the College Championship of the show Jeopardy. Tune in on May 15 to watch the semifinal round.
• May Madness: Point guard Tre Campbell confirmed that he has committed to play basketball for Georgetown, last night via Twitter . He joins power forward Isaac Copeland as part of the incoming class.

What to look out for:

• Going to get law schooled: Yesterday, the American Civil Liberties Union filed two separate cases against Metro Transit officers. The teenagers represented in the cases allege that Metro Transit officers assaulted them, then invented charges in order to justify the arrests.
• Bus-spotting: Several changes to the D.C. Circulator have been proposed this week. Under the new plan, put forth by  Councilwoman Mary C. Cheh (D-Ward 3), Circulator fares could double, from the current fare of $1. The revenue from the increased fare would go towards expanding Circulator routes, including the Georgetown-Rosslyn and Georgetown-Union Station loops. Of course, if public transport is just too plebeian for you, D.C.’s cabs will be taking credit cards by the end of August, so buckle up.

Update, 6:55 pm: President Jack DeGioia officially announced the formation of the league in an email to students. “This is an extraordinary time for the Big East, and we couldn’t have wished for a better start to our new future. We have ten incredible schools, have retained our storied name, and have solid partnerships with FOX Sports and Madison Square Garden,” he said. “We look forward to our continued work together, to strengthening our relationships, and to the truly exceptional future that this will set for our athletics programs.”

Original Post: Georgetown athletic teams are set to play in a new league this fall, albeit under the same name. The “Catholic seven schools,” Georgetown among them, announced their departure from the old Big East conference last December over concerns that the desertion of its central members, such as Syracuse and Pittsburgh, would damage the standing of the league in in the long term.

The new league will retain the Big East name and add Xavier, Butler, and Creighton as full members. Conference play will begin next year, the 2013-2014 academic year. The new league also reportedly signed a 12-year $500 million deal with Fox Sports. The annual Big East tournament will still be played in Madison Square Garden.

“Today we relaunch the Big East,” said Rev. Brian Shanley, the president of Providence College, at a news conference in Manhattan. “We go back to being a basketball-centric … league going forward. … We looked for schools that had academic profiles like us. We wanted schools with strong sustainable and sustained athletic programs. And we wanted schools that could play really good basketball, because that’s really the bread and butter of the Big East.”

The league will begin operations on July 1 and the schools are in the process of searching for a new athletic director. Apparently, expansion to 12 members in coming seasons in possible. President Jack DeGioia has acknowledged that he has heard from “quite a few schools.”

Image courtesy Big East communications department.

The seven non-football-playing schools in the Big East, Georgetown among them, plan either to leave or to dissolve the conference, according to reports from ESPN.com and CBSSports.com. A joint announcement could come from the “Catholic seven” schools—DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall, and Villanova—as early as next week, barring an unexpected change.

Historically a basketball powerhouse, the Big East was rocked by the sequential departures of West Virginia, Syracuse, Pitt, Louisville, Rutgers, and Notre Dame. The Catholic seven are reportedly concerned that the addition of several schools with weaker basketball programs (especially Tulane) will damage the league’s reputation and standing over the long term.

Although nearly every media outlet expects a split, the details of a division and the rules surrounding it remain undetermined.

According an ESPN.com source, Big East commissioner Mike Aresco held a conference call with the athletic directors of the remaining and incoming Big East members to inform them that the seven schools plan on leaving the conference.

A two-thirds majority vote is required to dissolve the league altogether, which the seven-member pact holds until July 1, 2013, but, according to another ESPN.com source, the rules governing the dissolution may require at least two votes from non-football-playing members and two football-playing members. Such a requirement would force the Catholic seven to sway two of the full-member, football-playing schools UConn, Cincinnati, and South Florida, which presumably don’t want the Big East to break up.

If the constituent universities vote to dissolve the conference and form a new league, however, the Catholic seven may be able to retain the Big East name, branding rights, and NCAA tournament revenue. If the seven schools simply leave they would be forced to forfeit that revenue and start a conference with their own money.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the seven Catholic schools have already decided to dissolve the league rather than leave, save the last holdout—Georgetown’s own President John DeGioia, who “is struggling with the idea of his school leaving the Big East.”

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In this week’s Feature, Kevin Joseph previews the Hoya’s 2012-2013 men’s basketball team, and Brandon Crowley previews the women’s team.

If they are to turn heads and play at an elite level, it will show early. The grind of the Big East schedule will be revealing, but these young Hoyas will have a chance to prove themselves to the nation from day one.

“Coach didn’t design the schedule for nothing,” Markel Starks said. “The schedule is designed to show that we can play some ball. As much as people don’t want to give us credit, I think we can play.”

On the Editorial page, the editorial board discusses Occupy Sandy, a combination of the Occupy Wall Street movement and the climate activism group 350.org that is working to distribute aid and resources to hard-hit areas of the city, arguing that it is a good model for disaster aid.

In News, Tom Ferry looks into how Georgetown PhD student-instructor benefits fall short of those offered at other institutions.

On the Sports page, Chris Castano gives a rundown of the other teams in the Big East.

Julia Lloyd-George reviews the newest Bond movie, Skyfall, on the Leisure page.

And in Voices, Sara Ainsworth tells of her difficulties in getting her absentee ballot for the election and argues that voting absentee should be made easier, perhaps through online voting.

The Big East announced complete schedules for its member institutions today, including Georgetown’s. The Hoyas have 30 games on the schedule, including 17 home contests, all at the Verizon Center. Though the Blue and Grey’s opponents have been known for quite some time, dates and times of the conference matchups were not finalized until this morning. The announcement finalizes the basketball team’s schedule for 2012-2013.

The Hoyas begin their Big East slate with a matchup against Marquette in Wisconsin on January 5. This leaves the team with almost two weeks off after their last out-of-conference matchup against American on December 22. The Hoyas then head back to DC to take on Pittsburgh on January 8 – the conference home opener is scheduled for the day before classes start for the semester, perhaps signifying a solid student turnout for the teams’ last battle before the Panthers leave for the ACC.

They then head up to Madison Square Garden for the second time this season to take on historic rival St. John’s on the 12th. The Red Storm make a return trip to DC on February 2 for a 4 p.m. start. The late start time seems to be a trend for this year’s schedule, with one late-season matchup with Rutgers scheduled for 9 p.m. on Saturday, March 2 (great news for hungover Hoyas who just can’t muster the noon start times).

After the first St. John’s matchup, Head Coach John Thompson III and company return home to face Providence before hitting the road for contests against USF and Notre Dame. The game against the Fighting Irish will be played on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in South Bend and will be nationally televised on ESPN.

After the brief road trip, the Hoyas return to the District for their second longest homestand of the season, in a week that starts with a projected top-five team, Louisville, on January 26 and continues with Seton Hall and Rutgers.

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The Hoyas’ 2012 rotation just got a lot stronger – various outlets are reporting that rising high school senior Stephen Domingo, who committed to the Hoyas in late May, will enroll at Georgetown a year early. The 17-year old Domingo has been noted for his long, athletic frame and sweet shooting touch.

According to the original report, Domingo is already in Washington D.C. If he enrolls right away, he will be eligible to showcase his talents in the Nike Pro-City (Kenner) League along with the other members of the Class of 2012. The news was confirmed by his high school coach, St. Ignatius Prep’s Tim Reardon.

“From what I understand, he’s going to Georgetown next year and playing for Georgetown next year,” Reardon told SanFranPreps.com. “I don’t know how that works, considering he didn’t graduate from high school, but that’s what his mother told our principal.”

For those wondering, the report says Domingo has finished all his obligatory credits for graduation. The Hoyas’ recruiting class, initially quite strong, is now stacked as Domingo adds a wing player to complement guard D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera and big men Bradley Hayes and Brandon Bolden. Smith-Rivera and Bolden made their Kenner League debuts this past weekend, as Smith-Rivera dazzled with his shooting touch and strong handle, both crucial requisites for a team that features just one true point guard in junior Markel Starks.

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Today, the SEC and Big East announced the matchups for this season’s SEC-Big East Challenge, with the Hoyas playing Tennessee on Friday, November 30, at the Verizon Center. The SEC scored their first victory over the Big East outside of the hardwood, though, as five-star recruit Devonta Pollard chose Alabama over Georgetown this evening.

After Nerlens Noel chose Kentucky over Georgetown on April 11, the Hoyas reportedly switched gears with the five-star Pollard at the top of their wish list. The Mississippi native has been highly-touted for his athleticism and defensive instincts. As a senior at Kemper County High School, he averaged 23.8 points, 15.7 rebounds, and 5.1 blocks while leading his team to a state championship. The lefty was also named a McDonald’s All-American and would have marked the Hoyas’ first such player since Austin Freeman and Chris Wright graduated in 2011.

Initially, Pollard was set to make his decision after a scheduled visit to Georgetown in mid-April. For a period of time after Pollard’s visit to the Hilltop, some recruiting circles felt it was a two-horse race between Georgetown and Alabama. The wheels came off, though, after assistant coach Robert Kirby left the program for the same capacity at LSU. Just prior to Pollard’s announcement, he added LSU to the list, perhaps because of Kirby’s arrival in Baton Rouge. Prior to the coach’s departure from the Hilltop, Kirby opened another side of the country for Georgetown recruiting, moving out of the DMV area to secure commitments from Missouri native Otto Porter and Mississippi-born Tyler Adams.

A similar commitment from Pollard would have put the Hoyas at their maximum of 13 scholarships, potentially creating a logjam for scholarships in 2013 with the addition of small forward Stephen Domingo. With a talent of Pollard’s stature, however, it would have been a good problem to have. As it stands now, the Hoyas’ have three commitments from the Class of 2012, headlined by four-star recruit D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera and bolstered by big men Bradley Hayes and Brandon Bolden.

Photo Credit: Jackson Perry

This morning, the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee named Georgetown University one of the hosts for the 2013 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. Georgetown will host the East Regional at their home arena, the Verizon Center.

This is the first time Georgetown hosts the regional finals since 2006, in addition to the Verizon Center’s first tournament games since 2010. The East Regional – better known as the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight – will be held on Thursday, March 28, and Saturday, March 30.

In a statement, Athletic Director Lee Reed said, “Along with Verizon Center, we’re very excited to serve as the host for the 2013 NCAA East Regional. It is part of our University’s commitment to be engaged with the community and we’re happy to bring this great event to our city for Georgetown fans and others who love March Madness.”

With the announcement, Washington DC joins Los Angeles, Indianapolis, and Arlington, Texas as regional hosts. The weekend’s slate ultimately decides who advances to the Final Four, to be held in Atlanta next season. If the Hoyas manage to advance to the Sweet Sixteen, they will be switching time zones – as the host school for the East Regional, they cannot be placed in the region.

This year’s tournament holds great significance as the 75th iteration of a tradition that has grown from eight teams back in 1939 to 68 teams in its current format. All of the other locations were selected back in 2009, but the committee delayed a decision on the East Regional until today.

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Well, that was disappointing. Nerlens Noel, the nation’s No.1 college basketball recruit, chose Kentucky over Georgetown and Syracuse on national television Wednesday night.

Noel, a 6-foot-10 center from Everett, Massachusetts had been on Georgetown’s radar (not to mention every other major program’s) for years. After spending his freshman and sophomore year at his local high school in Everett, Noel transferred to the Tilton School in New Hampshire, where he planned to stay for three years and enter college as a member of the class of 2013. However, in February, Noel reclassified to the class of 2012, setting off a recruiting frenzy.

The big man is a game-changing prospect, a true center many have compared to National Player of the Year and likely No. 1 overall draft pick Anthony Davis for his defensive ability. Some have even claimed that Noel is a better shot blocker than Davis, who averaged 4.6 blocks per game this year at Kentucky. Now Noel will have a chance to replace Davis and lead the Wildcats back to the Final Four.

With John Calipari having pulled in the nation’s best recruiting class in each of his three seasons at Kentucky, Georgetown was always the underdog in this recruiting battle. But as Noel dragged out his decision, the Hoyas’ chances kept looking better. The final decision was apparently a tough one for Noel, who claimed to still be undecided even yesterday.

Missing out on Noel isn’t the end of the world for the Hoyas. John Thompson III and his staff still have time to add to a recruiting class that already includes top prospect D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera. Georgetown’s next big target is McDonald’s All-American Devonta Pollard, a 6-foot-7 small forward. Pollard, who will be making his official visit to campus this weekend, is also considering Missouri, Texas, and Alabama.