Sports fans had plenty to choose from this past weekend with the Red Sox wrapping up spring training, the Celtics on the march to another title, and the Bruins still competing, but my focus was on the NCAA Basketball tournament, also known as March Madness.

There’s no single team I’m rooting for and I don’t do “bracket” predictions, but the place of college basketball in the popular culture drew me in. But the biggest catalyst of my viewing interest came last weekend when I stumbled upon the Big East title game which featured St. John’s University and Creighton.

St. John’s won by a comfortable score of 82 to 66 so it wasn’t a great game. For me it was mostly nostalgic. I knew St. John’s quite well. Back in the late 1970s when the original Big East was born, I was a student at Providence College, which, along with St. John’s, was one of the conference’s founding members. And St. John’s is currently coached by Rick Pitino, who coached Providence right after I left and later the Boston Celtics.

Although I’d heard of Creighton, I had no idea where the school was located and had to look it up. It’s in Omaha, Nebraska. In fact, the men’s basketball teams in the Big East in 2025 have changed from the lineup when the conference was founded nearly 50 years ago.

Here are the current Big East conference men’s basketball teams:

• Butler Bulldogs (Indianapolis, Indiana)
• Connecticut Huskies (Storrs, Connecticut)
• Creighton Bluejays (Omaha, Nebraska)
• DePaul Blue Demons (Chicago, Illinois)
• Georgetown Hoyas (Washington, DC)
• Marquette Golden Eagles (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
• Providence Friars (Providence, Rhode Island)
• St. John’s Red Storm (New York, New York)
• Seton Hall Pirates (South Orange, New Jersey)
• Villanova Wildcats (Villanova, Pennsylvania)
• Xavier Musketeers (Cincinnati, Ohio)

The original Big East Men’s Basketball conference was founded in 1979 and consisted of seven teams:

• Boston College Eagles (Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts)
• Connecticut Huskies (Storrs, Connecticut)
• Georgetown Hoyas (Washington, DC)
• Providence Friars (Providence, Rhode Island)
• St. John’s Red Storm (New York, New York)
• Seton Hall Pirates (South Orange, New Jersey)
• Syracuse Orange (Syracuse, New York)
• (Villanova joined in 1981 and Pittsburgh in 1982.)

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The Big East men’s basketball conference was founded in 1979 as a response to changing dynamics in college athletics. Here’s a breakdown of how it came into existence:

In the 1970s, college basketball was gaining popularity thanks to the NCAA Tournament and increased national TV coverage. Many Northeastern basketball programs, despite their competitiveness, lacked the same visibility and financial backing as major football schools in other conferences. The region needed a focused, basketball-centric league that could compete nationally and secure TV contracts.

Dave Gavitt, then head coach and athletic director at Providence College, was the driving force behind the conference’s creation. He had a vision of elevating basketball in the Northeast through a strong, cohesive league. Gavitt was later named the first commissioner of the Big East.

The Big East focused almost entirely on basketball, unlike many other conferences that prioritized football. Gavitt successfully secured national television contracts, including with ESPN, which launched the same year (1979). This partnership significantly boosted the conference’s profile. The conference held its tournament in Madison Square Garden, which became iconic and helped the Big East grow into a marquee brand.

By the mid-1980s, the Big East was a dominant force in college basketball. In 1985, three Big East teams (Georgetown, St. John’s, and Villanova) reached the Final Four — Villanova won the national championship that year in a major upset over Georgetown.

In the 1990s, the Big East expanded into football, adding programs like Miami, Virginia Tech, Rutgers, and West Virginia, however, a football/basketball identity divide emerged, creating long-term instability. The conference boasted major success in both sports, but tension grew between basketball-first schools and football-driven members. Miami and Virginia Tech left for the ACC in 2004, signaling the start of major realignment pressures.

Between 2010 and 2012, key football schools departed for other conferences: Syracuse and Pitt to the ACC; West Virginia to the Big 12; Rutgers to the Big Ten. In 2013, the conference formally split with the “Catholic 7” basketball-focused schools — Georgetown, Villanova, St. John’s, Seton Hall, Providence, DePaul, and Marquette — retaining the Big East name and forming a basketball-focused conference by adding Creighton, Xavier and Bulter. The football-playing schools created the American Athletic Conference (AAC).

Since 2013, the “new” Big East returned to its roots as a basketball-only league and a lucrative TV deal with Fox Sports helped keep the league relevant. Villanova emerged as a men’s basketball powerhouse, winning the NCAA championships in 2016 and 2018.

This year, five teams from the Big East made it into the 64-team NCAA tournament: Creighton, Marquette, Connecticut, St. John’s, and Xavier.