With DMV-area teams on rise, now is the time to re-establish local classic

American University won a share of the Patriot League regular season championship and won the Patriot League Tournament. George Mason won a share of the Atlantic 10 regular season and made the finals of the A10 Tournament. George Washington made it to the A10 Tournament Quarterfinals despite being picked 13th in the preseason and losing an All-Conference-caliber player before the season. Mount St. Mary’s won the MAAC Tournament and ended up winning a game in the NCAA Tournament First Four.

Given the overall upward trajectory of each program, now seems like perfect time to establish a local non-conference tournament or “Classic.” Something similar, the BB&T Classic, which existed from 1995 to 2017. Local teams like American, George Mason, George Washington, Howard, Maryland, and Navy all competed at various points.

As the profile of a mid-major rises, it becomes harder to schedule quality non-conference games because, historically, Power-5 teams have little to gain by playing them. Other high-profile mid-major programs have gotten together to compete in events like “The Field of 68 Opening Day Showcase” to build interest for the start of the college basketball season and ensure they had a few high-quality non-conference games on their resumes.

With the Washington Commanders and Baltimore Ravens looking to command even more local attention next year after each reaching the playoffs this season, it could be even harder for college basketball programs to cut through the noise and stand out early in the season. A “DMV Classic” would be a great opportunity to get local fans excited about college basketball earlier, the same way the Philadelphia area does with the Big 5 Classic.

George Mason and George Washington already play each other during conference play so dividing them up would make sense. And American and Mount St. Mary’s have a strong recent track record of playing each other, although this season it didn’t happen until the NCAA Tournament. But there could be plenty of combinations that could be enticing for each program, especially if Maryland and Georgetown showed any interest in participating.

If for whatever reason, a local school wasn’t interested in participating in a given season then the event could broaden its reach and include teams a little farther away like James Madison, Norfolk State, Old Dominion, UMBC, and so on.

There certainly appears to be an appetite for more local matchups and several of the coaches have expressed interest in such an event. Mount St. Mary’s head coach Donny Lind said he would be interested in participating.

“I love the local rivalries in the non-conference,” he said. “One of the great parts about our location is how many ’50-50′-type games you can play without having to go too far. I’d be all for playing those sort of games on a relatively neutral floor in the DMV.”

And he’s not the only one who shares that sentiment. George Washington head coach Chris Caputo sees value in the idea as well.

“I’m all for potential early, doing some sort of [DMV] Classic,” he said. “I even floated the idea of doing some sort of preseason thing, which we’re able to do scrimmages and that’d be something that’s open to the public, and it doesn’t count. Maybe you can look at it like that to try to build some exposure. I’m open to all that.

“I want to be a good partner with our institutions locally, to try to think of what could be a good thing. But everybody’s got different ideas about what they need for their programs. And so obviously, we’d have to all come to the table and figure out what, if anything, would make sense. You benefit from the Commanders being good with more people opening the sports page, more people are clicking on the websites or what have you. I don’t want to view the world as a zero-sum world here. I think it can be a rising tide can lift all ships.”