Georgetown University’s athletics, including its 27 sports teams, are a key component of the school’s identity and student life. Attending games are a great way for new students to support sch
First, some general scene-setting for the complete beginner: The Georgetown Hoyas are a founding member of the Big East conference, alongside schools like Seton Hall University, St. John’s University and the University of Connecticut. The Big East doesn’t offer football, so the Hoyas’ football team competes in the Patriot League alongside Colgate University and Lafayette College in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision.
The Big East recently agreed to a broadcast rights deal with ESPN to show games across the conference’s sports on ESPN+, a subscription streaming service. Patriot League football is also broadcast on ESPN+. The Big East’s basketball broadcasts are split across NBC, Peacock, Fox, TNT, ESPN and ESPN+.
Attending Georgetown Sporting Events
Georgetown students can attend all sporting events other than men’s basketball at no cost. Men’s basketball student section season tickets sold for $99 last year, but details have not yet been released for this season. The student section is located behind the basket next to the visiting team’s bench, but the seats closest to the court fill up soon after gates open.
Most of Georgetown’s athletic teams play on campus with a few exceptions. Men’s basketball, aside from a few early-season matchups, plays at Capital One Arena, the home of the Washington Wizards NBA team and Capitals NHL team. Baseball plays their home games at Capital One Park in Tysons, Va., while softball plays at the Washington Nationals Youth Academy facility in southeast D.C. Women’s basketball plays most of their games at the on-campus McDonough Arena, but hosts a few premier matchups at CareFirst Arena, the Washington Mystics WNBA team’s stadium.
Georgetown operates shuttles to Capital One Arena for men’s basketball games, and the other stadiums are reachable via public transportation.
Two on-campus stadiums, Shaw Field and Cooper Field, host Georgetown’s outdoor field sports. Shaw, a grass stadium on the north side of campus near the medical school, hosts men’s and women’s soccer. Cooper, located at the center of campus, is the larger turf field and is home to football, field hockey and men’s and women’s lacrosse.
The State of Play
This season marks the dawn of a new era in the ever-evolving landscape of college athletics. After a settlement agreement between the NCAA, conferences and a group of student-athletes, universities may now directly pay their players. However, not much should change immediately for Georgetown’s athletic programs.
Both soccer teams are ones to watch for a potential postseason run. Last year, both qualified for the NCAA tournament. Entering this season, the men’s team is ranked 25th in the country.
Georgetown’s premier sport, and the program that established the Hoyas as a national brand and cultural institution in the 1980s, is men’s basketball. In the last decade, though, the Hoyas have struggled to reach those same heights, culminating in a winless conference season in 2022.
Last season, though, marked a substantial step forward in the men’s basketball team’s long rebuild. Two Hoyas, forward Micah Peavy and center Thomas Sorber, were drafted to the NBA, and new transfer portal additions look to boost the roster’s strength going into Head Coach Ed Cooley’s third year at the helm. The Hoya broke down all the team’s transfer portal activity here.
The Hoya will have much more coverage of men’s and women’s basketball closer to the season, including our annual basketball issue ahead of the season.
The Hoya will have live and continuing coverage of all Georgetown sports on our website, in print and on our X, formerly Twitter, account @TheHoyaSports. If you are interested in getting closer to the action, see The Hoya’s table at CAB Fair to sign up as a staff writer.
