Big East

The courtship between the Big East and the Navy football program was made public last fall, but league and academy officials said Tuesday that the mutual wooing went on for the better part of a decade. Neither Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk nor Big East commissioner John Marinatto could pinpoint the day it began, but the courtship officially has become a marriage that will be consummated when the Midshipmen begin league play for football only in 2015. "We feel really strongly that it's clear to us the future of college football is in a conference," Gladchuk said during a joint teleconference.

John Haus had a career-high six points for the Terps , but No. 7 Maryland lost, 13-11, to No. 12 Colgate on Saturday. The visiting Terrapins (9-5) led 9-7 with 2:08 remaining in the third quarter, but the Raiders (13-3) scored twice in the last 38seconds of the third to tie the game at 9. Colgate scored the first two goals of the fourth quarter to lead 11-9 with 12:28 to play. Michael Shakespeare trimmed the deficit to one with his first goal of the game with 9:43 to go, but Ryan Walsh scored an unassisted goal with 3:46 to play to give the Raiders a 12-10 lead.

Short-term solution Jeff Otterbein Hartford Courant So much is still in flux in the ever-changing world of conference realignment. The Big East has already lost two teams, Syracuse and Pitt, to the ACC. Certainly Connecticut and Rutgers from the Big East would like to land in the ACC. The Big 12 figures to be crumbling soon as four teams, led by Texas and Oklahoma, figure to depart. That leaves whoever remains in the Big East and Big 12 needing each other and coming together to form a league that doesn't solve the problems of those in it. Travel will be an issue since that league would stretch so far. It still would be way behind the ACC, SEC, Pac-12 and Big Ten in status.

College Lacrosse St. John's stuns No. 2 Notre Dame, 8-7, in Big East men's semifinal St. John's recorded one of its biggest wins in program history as it upset No. 2 Notre Dame, 8-7, in the Big East semifinals Thursday. The Red Storm (8-6) was led by three goals and four assists from Kieran McArdel . Jeff Lowman made 13 saves in the winning effort. For the Fighting Irish (11-2), Westy Hopkins had three goals and Conor Doyle (Gilman) added two. In the other semifinal, Syracuse defeated Villanova, 15-6.

No. 12 Georgetown defeated host No. 9 Syracuse (12-5, 6-2 Big East), 10-9, on Saturday to win the Big East regular-season championship and finish undefeated in conference play. The Hoyas earned the top seed in the Big East tournament and will face No. 4 seed Loyola on Thursday in the semifinals. This marks the second year in a row that the Hoyas (11-5, 8-0) have won the regular-season championship. … College of Notre Dame senior midfielder Lauren Terry (Catholic) was named to the All-Colonial States Athletic Conference first team for the second consecutive season.

Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk has worked at schools in big conferences, such as Syracuse, and has spent the past decade helping bring the football program in Annapolis back to national prominence as one of the few independents remaining in the country. As much as Gladchuk sees "a lot of panic, a lot of shuffling and a lot of speculation" among conferences such as the Big East, he says that Navy is in a "safe harbor" when it comes to television deals and bowl contracts as well as scheduling big-name opponents for the next eight years.

College Lacrosse St. John's stuns No. 2 Notre Dame, 8-7, in Big East men's semifinal St. John's recorded one of its biggest wins in program history as it upset No. 2 Notre Dame, 8-7, in the Big East semifinals Thursday. The Red Storm (8-6) was led by three goals and four assists from Kieran McArdel . Jeff Lowman made 13 saves in the winning effort. For the Fighting Irish (11-2), Westy Hopkins had three goals and Conor Doyle (Gilman) added two. In the other semifinal, Syracuse defeated Villanova, 15-6.

The University of Miami needed to do something about its moribund basketball program. The Hurricanes had sold 362 season tickets last season at the nearly 16,000-seat Miami Arena, and a change of coaches hadn't improved the prospects of generating more interest.The Big East Conference needed to do something to keep its membership intact. Despite unmatched success in basketball in its first 11 years, having only three of nine members playing Division I-A football had put the league on shaky ground.

MIAMI -- The Big East Conference is essentially three votes away from expanding, and commissioner Mike Tranghese said the University of Miami is the "focal point" of most expansion discussions.The three major football schools in the nine-team conference -- Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Boston College -- already have endorsed expansion. The approval of only three other schools is needed to expand, and the conference could get those votes as soon as next week."I would say the status quo is unacceptable," Villanova athletic director Ted Aceto said yesterday.

The Blockbuster Bowl, still in its infancy, is trying to muscle in on football's traditional New Year's Day games by offering millions of dollars to win commitments from the Big East and Atlantic Coast conferences.A representative of the bowl said yesterday that the conferences have been offered major financial payoffs if they sign long-term agreements to play in the Miami-based game.Such a contract, however, could jeopardize a proposed alliance among the USF&G Sugar, Federal Express Orange, Mobil Cotton and Fiesta bowls.

THURSDAY'S TELEVISION HIGHLIGHTS MLB Orioles@Yankees (T) MASN9 a.m. Arizona@Washington (T) MASN12:30 Arizona@Washington MASN7 Yankees@Kansas City MLB8 Arizona@Washington (T) MASN11:30 C. baseball Florida@Kentucky ESPNU7:30 NBA play. Miami@New York: Gm. 3 TNT7 Oklahoma City@Dallas: Gm. 3 TNT9:30 PGA Euro.

Sophomore attackman Christian Walsh (Boys' Latin) had a career-high four goals and two assists Sunday as No. 5 Duke rallied from a 4-2 halftime deficit to defeat No. 7 North Carolina, 12-9, and win the Atlantic Coast Conference men's lacrosse championship on a cold and rainy afternoon in Charlottesville, Va. It was the Blue Devils' seventh ACC title in the tournament era and its fourth in the past six years. Sophomore Jordan Wolf added two goals and two assists, while Jake Tripucka and Robert Rotanz had a pair of goals each.

Marcus Holman (Gilman) scored a game-high five goals, including two during a late rally, as No. 4 North Carolina won a come-from-behind victory over Hofstra, 12-9, at the ESPNU Warrior Classic on Saturday in Charlotte, N.C. Trailing by one goal at the end of the third quarter, the Tar Heels (9-4) outscored the Pride (6-6) by 5-1 in the fourth. The third-seeded Tar Heels will travel to second-seeded Virginia to play an Atlantic Coast Conference tournament semifinal Friday at 7:30p.m.

Steele Stanwick (Loyola) came up big again with three goals and four assists to lead nine Cavaliers in scoring as top-ranked Virginia beat host No. 4 North Carolina, 15-10, on Saturday. With the win, the Cavaliers (10-1, 2-0) clinched at least the second seed in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, which they'll host April 20 and 22. Friday's home game against No. 10 Duke will determine the league tournament's No. 1 seed. Stanwick has 243 career points, moving past Kevin Pehlke (239)

Men's college lacrosse Towson's Mabus CAA Rookie of Week again Towson freshman midfielder Justin Mabus has been selected as the Colonial Athletic Association men's lacrosse Rookie of the Week for the second time in as many weeks, league officials announced Monday. Mabus capped the largest fourth-quarter comeback in the 53-year history of the program by scoring with 38 seconds remaining in the second overtime Saturday at Hofstra. Mabus' goal gave the Tigers a 10-9 victory in a game in which they trailed 9-3 in the fourth quarter.

Each week, The Baltimore Sun will publish a Q&A with an area college lacrosse player to get you more acquainted with the player and his/her team. Today's guest is Loyola senior Ana Heneberry , the Big East Conference Preseason Defensive Player of the Year. A Dulaney graduate who followed her sister Mary to Loyola, Heneberry has played every game since her freshman year and is one of the team leaders in caused turnovers and ground balls. Have you always played defense? Not really.

There has been talk for more than two decades of an Eastern college football league. After the discussion died in the early 1980s, it recently was revived with the Big East's invitation to Miami for next season."

The scrutiny surrounding the Syracuse basketball team has been there for months, starting with the allegations of sexual abuse by former longtime assistant Bernie Fine and, more recently, with accusations that Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim used players for the past decade who had failed drug tests. Then, center Fab Melo was declared academically ineligible prior to the NCAA tournament. In the midst of the circus that followed the Orange to Pittsburgh last weekend and will accompany Boeheim's team to Boston later this week, the perplexing shooting slump of sophomore forward C.J. Fair has barely registered.

Watch for upsets Todd M. Adams Orlando Sentinel Three teams are better than everyone else — Kentucky, Syracuse and North Carolina. But they all could get upset. First is Syracuse, just because of the strength of the Big East. Marquette is a dark-horse national-championship contender, and five other teams — Notre Dame, Georgetown, Cincinnati, South Florida and Louisville — have the talent to get hot. North Carolina would be next, just because Duke is in the bracket.