A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
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| Association | NCAA |
|---|---|
| Founded | May 31, 1979 (de facto) July 1, 2013(de jure) [note 1] |
| Commissioner | Val Ackerman |
| Sports fielded |
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| Division | Division I (Non-Football) |
| No. of teams | 11 (All-Sports Members) |
| Headquarters | New York City |
| Region | Northeastern United States Midwestern United States |
| Official website | bigeast |
| Locations | |
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The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the 11 full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and Midwest metropolitan areas. The conference was officially recognized as a Division I multi-sport conference on August 1, 2013,[1] and since then conference members have won NCAA national championships in men's basketball, women's cross country, field hockey, men's lacrosse, and men's soccer. Val Ackerman is the commissioner.[2]
The conference was formed after the "Catholic Seven" members of the original Big East Conference elected to split from the football-playing schools in order to start a new conference focused on basketball. These schools (DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, St. John's, and Villanova) had announced their decision in December 2012.[3] In March 2013, the new conference purchased the Big East Conference name, logos, basketball records, and the rights to the men's basketball tournament at Madison Square Garden from the football-playing members of the old Big East, who formed the American Athletic Conference (AAC), which is the old conference's legal successor.[4] Both conferences share 1979 as their founding date, when the original conference was founded by Dave Gavitt, and the same history through 2013.[5][6]
Three more schools, Butler, Creighton, and Xavier, joined the conference on its July 1, 2013, launch date.[7] In June 2019, the Big East invited the University of Connecticut (UConn) to "re-join" the conference from the AAC, which they did on July 1, 2020.[8][9] Football is not a sponsored sport, and UConn is the only member with a varsity football team in the top-level Division I FBS. Butler, Georgetown, and Villanova do operate football programs in the second-level Division I FCS. The conference also has four associate members in field hockey, and one in men's and women's lacrosse.
History
The original Big East
The original Big East Conference was founded in 1979, when Providence College basketball coach Dave Gavitt spearheaded an effort to assemble an east coast basketball-centric collegiate athletic conference.[10] The core of the Big East formed when Providence, St. John's, Georgetown, and Syracuse invited Seton Hall, Connecticut (UConn), Holy Cross, Rutgers, and Boston College (BC). Holy Cross turned down the invitation, as did Rutgers initially, while BC, Seton Hall, and UConn accepted.[11][12][13] Gavitt became the Big East's first commissioner, and Villanova and Pittsburgh joined the conference shortly thereafter.[14][15][16] PR firm Duffy & Shanley is credited with the initial branding and naming work for the conference.[17] The "high point" of the original conference is widely considered to be the 1985 NCAA tournament, in which Georgetown, St. Johns, and Villanova all made the Final Four, and Villanova defeated Georgetown to win the national championship.
The conference remained largely unchanged until 1991, when it began to sponsor football, adding Miami as a full member, and Rutgers, Temple, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia as football-only members.[18] Rutgers and West Virginia upgraded to full Big East membership in 1995, while Virginia Tech did the same in 2000. Notre Dame also joined as a non-football member effective in 1995. Temple football was kicked out after the 2004 season due to what was deemed by the other football-playing members a failure to make a strong effort to field a competitive team, but rejoined in 2012 after seriously upgrading its football program and intended to become a full Big East member in 2013.
The unusual structure of the Big East, with the "football" and "non-football" schools, led to instability in the conference.[19] The Big East was one of the most severely impacted conferences during conference realignment of 2005 and the early 2010s. In all, 14 member schools announced their departure for other conferences, and 15 other schools announced plans to join the conference (eight as all-sports members, and four for football only). Three of the latter group later backed out of their plans to join (one for all sports, and the other two for football only). These waves of defection and replacement revealed tension between the football-sponsoring and non-football schools that eventually led to the split of the conference in 2013.[20]
Split and re-founding
On December 15, 2012, the Big East's seven non-FBS schools – DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall, and Villanova – announced that they had voted unanimously to separate from the Big East football-playing schools.[21] The schools splitting away were referred to as the "Catholic 7" due to their common religious background, and were motivated in part by a desire to return to Gavitt's original vision of a strong, Northeast-based and basketball-focused conference,[6] and by prospects of a better television deal than they would have received by remaining with the football schools.[22] The move occurred during a limited window in which these non-FBS schools held a voting majority in the conference—after the defection of certain FBS schools to the ACC but before the effective inclusion of candidate FBS schools to replace them.[23]
Negotiations with the other member schools continued in early 2013, and in March, it was reported that the "Catholic 7" schools would leave the conference on June 30, 2013, but that they would retain the Big East Conference name, logos, $10 million from the old conference's treasury, and the right to hold their men's basketball tournament at Madison Square Garden.[24] At a March 20 news conference in New York City, Georgetown President John J. DeGioia, representing this new conference, announced that Butler University and Xavier University, both then members of the Atlantic 10 Conference, as well as Creighton University in the Missouri Valley Conference would also join the new league at its launch.[25][7][26] Additional announcements confirmed their headquarters in New York City,[27] and a 12-year, $500 million television contract with Fox Sports and its networks, and a 6-year television contract with CBS and its CBS Sports Network.[28][29][30] On June 26, 2013, the new conference hired Val Ackerman, former WNBA president, as the conference's first commissioner.[2]
Field hockey and lacrosse associate members
The remaining members of the old conference later announced they would continue as the American Athletic Conference (AAC). Several AAC and former Big East schools however continued playing lacrosse and field hockey with the new Big East Conference in 2013, including Rutgers and Louisville, before moving their programs to the Big Ten and Atlantic Coast Conferences respectively in 2014–15.[31] AAC members UConn and Temple also both joined the new Big East for women's lacrosse and field hockey, while Cincinnati joined the women's lacrosse league, Denver joined the men's lacrosse league,[32] and Old Dominion joined the field hockey league.[33]
The launch of a women's lacrosse league in the Big Ten for the 2015 season caused the American Lacrosse Conference (ALC) to dissolve after the 2014 season; two Southeastern Conference teams that had been ALC members, Florida and Vanderbilt, joined the Big East as associate members in that sport.[34] The next changes to Big East associate membership came during the 2015–16 school year. First, on December 8, 2015, the conference announced that Liberty and Quinnipiac would become associate members in field hockey effective with the 2016 season.[35] Then, on May 3, 2016, the Big East announced that Denver, already an affiliate in men's lacrosse, would move its women's lacrosse team into the league in the 2016–17 school year (2017 season).[36] In addition to the new associate members, full member Butler announced on October 21, 2015, that it would elevate its club team in women's lacrosse to full varsity status in the 2017 season and immediately begin Big East competition.[37]
The American Athletic Conference began sponsoring women's lacrosse in the 2019 season (2018–19 school year), which led to the departure of all then-current Big East women's lacrosse associates except Denver.[38] On that same date, the Big East announced that field hockey member Old Dominion would also become a Big East women's lacrosse member in the 2019 season, maintaining Big East women's lacrosse membership at 6 teams and preserving its automatic berth to the NCAA women's tournament.[39]
Return of UConn
– Full member
– Associate member, field hockey
– Associate member, men's soccerNot shown: Associate member Denver (Men's and women's lacrosse)
In June 2019, various news outlets reported that UConn would soon leave the AAC for the Big East, pending a decision on the future of the school's football program. Many news stories described UConn as "rejoining" the Big East,[40][41] because UConn was a founding member of the original Big East,[42] but remained with the football-playing members when the conference reorganized as the AAC in 2013.[43] By 2018 however, UConn had seen a dramatic decline in athletic department revenues.[44] Mutual interest between UConn and the new Big East had been reported by several sources starting in 2016.[45][46][47]
On June 24, 2019, the Big East formally approved an invitation for UConn to join the conference.[48] The UConn Board of Trustees accepted the invitation two days later, thus reuniting UConn with several of the schools against whom it competed for 34 years in the old Big East.[49] UConn and the AAC reached a buyout agreement the following month, clearing the way for UConn to become a member of the Big East on July 1, 2020. At the time the buyout agreement was reported, UConn announced that its football team would become an FBS independent upon its arrival in the Big East, leaving Temple as the only AAC member in the northeast.[50] UConn's men's & women's hockey teams remain a member of the Hockey East Association.[51] In 2020, Old Dominion's women's lacrosse left the Big East for the AAC, essentially swapping places with UConn, so both conferences maintained the six members required for an automatic bid.[52]
Commissioners
The office of the commissioner of athletics was created in 1979
| Name | Years | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Dave Gavitt | 1979–1990 | Former Providence College Head Coach. Namesake of the Dave Gavitt Trophy, given to the winner of the Big East Men's Basketball Tournament. |
| Mike Tranghese | 1990–2009 | Retired in 2009 |
| John Marinatto | 2009–2012 | Resigned May 7, 2012 |
| Joseph Bailey | 2012 | Interim Commissioner Following Marinatto's Resignation |
| Michael Aresco | 2012–2013 | Current Commissioner of the American Athletic Conference, The Original Big East's successor |
| Val Ackerman | 2013–present | Former President of the WNBA. First Commissioner of the Newly Recognized Big East. |
Academics
The following table shows National University rank by U.S. News & World Report as of 2023.[53]
Also indicated is membership in the Association of American Universities.[54]
| Institution | National University Rank | AAU Member |
|---|---|---|
| Georgetown University | 22 | No |
| University of Connecticut | 58 | No |
| Villanova University | 67 | No |
| Marquette University | 86 | No |
| Providence College | 120 | No |
| Creighton University | 124 | No |
| Seton Hall University | 151 | No |
| DePaul University | 151 | No |
| Butler University | 153 | No |
| St. John's University (New York City) | 163 | No |
| Xavier University | 201 | No |
Apparel
| School | Provider |
|---|---|
| Butler | Nike |
| Connecticut | Nike |
| Creighton | Nike |
| DePaul | Nike |
| Georgetown | Nike |
| Marquette | Nike |
| Providence | Nike |
| St. John's | Nike |
| Seton Hall | Under Armour |
| Villanova | Nike |
| Xavier | Nike |
Member schools
Full members
Nine of the eleven members of the Big East are private, Catholic institutions. The exceptions are Butler, which is nonsectarian (although it was founded by the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)) and UConn, which is the only public institution.