USA TODAY International Edition
Big East signs extension with MSG
The most consequential box-out of college basketball season didn’t happen on a court. It happened with a pen.
The Big East has signed an extension to keep its conference tournament at Madison Square Garden in New York City through 2028, delivering a sharp elbow as the Big Ten and Atlantic Coast Conference encroached on the sport’s most coveted real estate.
The previous contract ran through 2026 but contained an opt-out provision in 2022. The new deal is iron-clad through 2028.
“We’re thrilled that we’re going to be able to keep the magic of this tournament going,” Commissioner Val Ackerman said. “For us, it’s a big announcement, and hopefully great news for everybody who’s a Big East supporter.”
It’s a major development for the Big East, which began playing its tourney at the mecca in 1983. The Big Ten Tournament moved there last winter, setting up shop the week before championship week, an undercard arrangement that did not go over well with conference school coaches. Speaking with reporters in October, Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany acknowledged his league would seek to revisit the Garden every few years but not in the early week.
In other words, he was eyeing the traditional championship week, the Big East’s week.
“We’ve talked to (Madison Square Garden) about the future,” Delany said. “We’ve presented them with a powerful, promotional plan that we think, along with the other conferences, if you can elevate Madison Square Garden, we think we can elevate it to the next level with regard to college basketball postseason competition. We’ll see where that goes.”
Two weeks later ACC Commissioner John Swofford, whose conference tourney took place in Brooklyn last March and who rejected the undercard-week concept, said his league will “be in New York periodically” but added “it’s just a question of where.”
Translation: He was eyeing championship week at MSG, too.
These shots across the bow didn’t sit well with Big East officials and coaches.
“I don’t think it’s smart of any one of us in college basketball to say we’re going to push the other one out,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said during Big East media day. “I don’t think it’s collegial ... to say that about another conference.”
Ackerman responded by pushing to get the Garden contract extended immediately, USA TODAY NETWORK-New Jersey learned. She had a key chip in her pocket: The Big East Tournament posted an average attendance of 18,790 fans in 2018, more than any other league in the country — and 3,500 more than the Big Ten drew in the same building.
That, plus the long-standing relationship between the parties, led to a deal that will keep the Big Ten and ACC at bay for at least another decade.
“The Garden really was moved by the loyalty, the long history, what our conference has been able to do in the five years since reconfiguration,” Ackerman said. “Rightly there were questions early on about whether the Big East Tournament could withstand the test of reconfiguration. We’ve done that and more.”
“We’re thrilled that we’re going to be able to keep the magic of this tournament going . ... The Garden really was moved by the loyalty, the long history, what our conference has been able to do since reconfiguration.” Val Ackerman
Big East commissioner