Big East Conference
Big East Conference logo
Established	1979
Association	NCAA
Division	Division I FBS
Members	16 Full Members, 1 Associate Member
Sports fielded	24 (men's: 11; women's: 13)
Region	United States
Headquarters	Providence, Rhode Island
Commissioner	Joseph Bailey, Interim (since 2012)
Website	bigeast.org
Locations

The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletics conference consisting of sixteen universities in the eastern half of the United States. The conference's 17 members (16 full-time and 1 associate member) participate in 24 NCAA sports. Eight of the seventeen conference schools are football members and the Big East competes as a BCS conference in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the top level of NCAA competition in that sport (also known by its former designation: Division I-A). Three members have football programs but are not Big East football schools: Georgetown and Villanova compete in the Football Championship Subdivision and Notre Dame plays as an FBS independent. The other five schools—Seton Hall, St. John's, DePaul, Marquette, and Providence—discontinued their football programs.

In football, the Big East has had all eight members play in bowl games since the 2005 realignment and has had seven of eight teams ranked in the Top 25 since 2003. In that time, the Big East has seen the emergence of new national players West Virginia rising to as high as No. 1 and was ranked in the Top 10 for three-straight years (2005, 2006, 2007) (South Florida rising as high as No. 2, Cincinnati and Louisville both as high as No. 3, Rutgers as high as No. 7, Pittsburgh as high as No. 9, and Connecticut as high as No. 13 in BCS standings). Also, Big East football has seen an increase in attendance and is enjoying a new, $250 million plus television package that lasts through 2013.^[1][2]

In basketball, Big East teams have made 16 Final Four appearances and won seven NCAA Championships (UConn with three, Villanova with two, and Georgetown, and Syracuse, with one each). Of the Big East's 16 full members, all but South Florida have been to the Final Four, the most of any conference,^[3] though Marquette, DePaul, Notre Dame, Rutgers, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh made all their trips before joining the Big East. In 2011, the Big East set the record for the most teams sent to the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship by a single conference with eleven out of their sixteen teams qualifying.

History[link]

Locations of the Big East Conference member institutions in 2012.

The 2011–12 academic year is the Big East's 33rd year of existence.

The early years[link]

The Big East was founded in 1979 when Providence, St. John's, Georgetown, and Syracuse invited Seton Hall, Connecticut, Holy Cross, Rutgers, and Boston College to form a conference primarily focused on basketball, with Rutgers and Holy Cross declining to join.^[4] Villanova joined a year later in 1980^[5] and Pittsburgh joined in 1982.^[6]

In 1982, Penn State applied for membership, but was rejected, with only five schools in favor (Penn State needed six out of eight). It was long rumored that Syracuse cast the deciding vote against Penn State, but Mike Tranghese confirmed that this was not the case and that Syracuse had, in fact, voted for Penn State's inclusion.^[7]

Football expansion[link]

About a decade after the conference's inception, Big East members decided to become a major football conference and thus added five schools including Rutgers, Miami, Temple, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia. The inaugural Big East football season launched in 1991.^[8][9]

West Virginia and Rutgers joined the Big East as full members in 1995^[10] and Virginia Tech joined as a full member in 2000.^[11] Temple remained a football-only member until 2004, but was voted out of the Big East after failing to attract enough consistent fan support^{[citation needed]}. The Big East offered Notre Dame a non-football membership effective 1995.^[12] This led to an unusual conference structure with some schools competing in Division I basketball only.

Instability, departures, and replacements[link]

The unusual structure of the Big East, with the "football" and "non-football" schools, led to instability in the conference. In 2003, the ongoing press reports of tensions between the football schools and the basketball-only schools finally exploded into a months-long public tug-of-war between the Big East and the Atlantic Coast Conference over several Big East members. The end result was that three Big East schools—Virginia Tech, Miami and Boston College—moved to the ACC, while five teams moved to the Big East from Conference USA—Louisville, Cincinnati, South Florida, Marquette, and DePaul.

The addition of the three football schools, along with Big East non-football member Connecticut moving up to the Big East football conference, ensured that the league would keep the minimum eight teams needed to keep its BCS bid. In addition, two traditional basketball teams, DePaul and Marquette, were added to gain the Chicago and Milwaukee television markets and help the already solid basketball status of the conference.^{[citation needed]}

Meanwhile, Loyola University Maryland (then Loyola College in Maryland) also joined the Big East as an associate member in women's lacrosse for the 2005–06 academic year.^[13]

Continuing instability[link]

In 2010, Texas Christian University accepted an invitation to join the conference as an all-sports member beginning in the 2012–13 academic year.^[14] TCU later reversed its decision and accepted a Big 12 invitation beginning in the 2012–13 academic year.^[15][16]

On September 17, 2011, Syracuse and Pittsburgh announced that they will leave the Big East for the Atlantic Coast Conference as of 2014.^[17][18] On October 28, 2011 it was announced by the Big 12 Conference that West Virginia will accept an invitation to join, with membership beginning in 2012 after the Big East and WVU settled a legal battle over the move.^[19]

In December, after the 2011 football regular season was completed announcements were made that Boise State and San Diego State of the Mountain West would join the Big East in football only, and that UCF, SMU, and Houston of Conference USA would join in all sports for the 2013 academic year.^[20]

On Tuesday, January 24, 2012, the Navy Midshipmen accepted an invitation to join the Big East for football only starting in 2015.

On Wednesday February 9, 2012 the Big East invited The University of Memphis to join as a full member in all sports to begin play in 2013.

Seemingly forgetting the 2004 boot, it was announced on Wednesday March 7, 2012 that Temple University football will return to the conference in the 2012 season, filling the void left by West Virginia. The Temple Owls will join for all sports in 2013. Temple basketball will move over from the A-10 conference, where they had been a perennial powerhouse.

Current status[link]

Big East schools compete in Division I in basketball and Olympic sports. Football members of the conference participate in Division I FBS. Notre Dame remains an FBS independent, while Georgetown and Villanova have Division I FCS (formerly I-AA) football programs. Georgetown football competes in the Patriot League. Villanova competed in the Atlantic 10 through the 2006 season, but along with all other members of the A-10 football conference joined the new football conference launched by the Colonial Athletic Association in 2007. In September 2010, in the wake of a Division I realignment that affected a number of conferences around the country, the Big East extended an invitation to Villanova to become a football member. The school is currently considering the offer, which would require the school to substantially expand its entire athletic program, as well as expand its stadium to meet FBS requirements or find another suitable venue in the Philadelphia area,^[21] such as Lincoln Financial Field, however Lincoln Financial Field is the exclusive home of the Temple Owls and Philadelphia Eagles.

The eight schools that play football in the conference are all state-supported (or in the case of Pittsburgh, state-related) with the exception of Syracuse (a private but secular institution), whereas the eight schools that do not play football in the conference are primarily much smaller, private Catholic universities.

The Big East began sponsoring a men's lacrosse league in 2010 with Georgetown, Notre Dame, Providence, Rutgers, St. John’s, Syracuse and Villanova participating.^[22] Marquette will offer men's and women's lacrosse beginning in 2012, and will join the Big East in that sport for the 2013 season.

Membership timeline[link]

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         id:line value:black
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         id:Full value:rgb(0.742,0.727,0.852) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports
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         id:AssocF value:rgb(0.98,0.5,0.445) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for football only
         id:AssocOS value:rgb(0.5,0.691,0.824) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in some sports, but not all (consider identifying in legend or a footnote)
         id:OtherC1 value:rgb(0.996,0.996,0.699) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference
         id:OtherC2 value:rgb(0.988,0.703,0.383) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference where OtherC1 has already been used, to distinguish the two          

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  bar:1 color:OtherC1 from:2005 till:end text:ACC

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  bar:6 color:FullxF from:1979 till:end text:Seton  Hall (1979–present)

  bar:7 color:FullxF from:1979 till:1991 text:Syracuse  (1979–2014)

  bar:7 color:Full from:1991 till:2014 

  bar:7 color:OtherC1 from: 2014 till: end text: ACC

  bar:8 color:FullxF from:1980 till:end text:Villanova  (1980–present)

  bar:9 color:FullxF from:1982 till:1991 text:Pittsburgh (1982–2014)

  bar:9 color:Full from:1991 till:2014 

  bar:9 color:OtherC1 from: 2014 till: end text: ACC

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  bar:10 color:OtherC1 from:2004 till:end text:ACC

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  bar:12 color:AssocF from:1991 till:1995 text:West  Virginia (1991–2012)  

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  bar:12 color:OtherC1 from:2012 till:end text:Big 12

  bar:13 color:AssocF from:1991 till:1999 text:Virginia Tech (1991–2004)

  bar:13 color:Full from:1999 till:2004:

  bar:13 color:OtherC1 from:2004 till:end text:ACC

  bar:14 color:AssocF from:1991 till:2004 text:Temple (1991–2004)

  bar:14 color:OtherC1 from:2004 till:2006 text:Ind.

  bar:14 color:OtherC2 from:2006 till:2012 text:MAC (2007–2011)

  bar:14 color:AssocF from:2012 till:end text: Temple  (2012-forward)

  bar:14 color:Full from:2013 till:end text: 

  bar:15 color:FullxF from:1995 till:end text:Notre  Dame (1995–present)

  bar:16 color:Full from:2005 till:end text:Cincinnati (2005–present)

  bar:17 color:FullxF from:2005 till:end text:DePaul  (2005–present)

  bar:18 color:Full from:2005 till:end text:Louisville (2005–present)

  bar:19 color:FullxF from:2005 till:end text:Marquette (2005–present)

  bar:20 color:Full from:2005 till:end text:South  Florida (2005–present)

  bar:21 color:Full from:2013 till:end text:Houston  (2013–forward)

  bar:22 color:Full from:2013 till:end text:SMU (2013–forward)

  bar:23 color:Full from:2013 till:end text:UCF (2013–forward)

  bar:24 color:Full from:2013 till:end text:Memphis  (2013-forward)

  bar:25 color:AssocF from:2013 till:end text:Boise  State (2013–forward)

  bar:26 color:AssocF from:2013 till:end text:San  Diego State (2013–forward)

  bar:27 color:AssocF from:2015 till:end text:Navy  (2015–forward)

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Full members Full members (non-football) Assoc. members (football only) Assoc. member (list sports) Other Conference Other Conference

Commissioners[link]

Mike Tranghese retired at the end of the 2008–09 academic year, which he announced in June 2008, and was replaced by former senior associate commissioner John Marinatto. On May 7, 2012, John Marinatto resigned as commissioner. He was replaced by Joseph Bailey, on an interim basis, while the search for a new commissioner progresses. ^[23]

Current members[link]

As of the beginning of the 2011–12 academic year, there are 16 full members and one associate member. Endowment for the public institutions refers to the amount of public monies each university receives.

Full members[link]

Light green indicates departing member
† Denotes schools that will be leaving Big East for the Atlantic Coast Conference, presumably in 2014 (according to Big East commissioner John Marinatto).^[29]
‡ Denotes schools that will be leaving Big East for the Big 12 Conference in 2012

Full members except in football[link]

Future members[link]

Future full members[link]

Future associate members[link]

Former members[link]

Former full members[link]

^* Virginia Tech was an associate member of the Big East from 1991–2000.

Note: Syracuse and Pittsburgh have accepted an invitation to join the ACC. The presumed date of departure from the Big East is June 2014.^[29]
West Virginia has accepted an invitation to join the Big 12, and has settled their lawsuits with the Big East that will allow them to move in the summer of 2012.^[30]

Former associate members[link]

^* Rutgers and West Virginia joined the Big East as full members in 1995.

^** Virginia Tech joined the Big East as a full member in 2000.

^*** Temple was removed from the Big East as a football only member after the 2004 football season. Temple was invited to the Big East as a full member in March 2012, with football returning in July 2012 and all other sports joining in July 2013.

Sports[link]

The Big East Conference sponsors championships in eleven men's and thirteen women's sports. Under NCAA rules reflecting the large number of male scholarship participants in football and attempting to address gender equity concerns (see also Title IX), each member institution is required to provide two more women's varsity sports than men's.^[31]

Men's sports[link]

• Baseball
• Basketball
• Cross-country
• Football
• Golf
• Lacrosse
• Soccer
• Swimming & diving
• Tennis
• Track & field (indoor)
• Track & field (outdoor)

Women's sports[link]

• Basketball
• Cross-country
• Field hockey
• Golf
• Lacrosse
• Rowing
• Soccer
• Softball
• Swimming & diving
• Tennis
• Track & field (indoor)
• Track & field (outdoor)
• Volleyball

Sports facilities[link]