Big East Conference Information:
Headquarters: Providence, RI.
Commissioner: Mike Aresco
The Big East is unique in the sense that in 1979 when the conference was founded between Providence, St. John's, Georgetown, Syracuse, Seton Hall, Connecticut, and Boston College the intent was to create a basketball powerhouse. After Villanova joined in 1980 and Pittsburgh in 1982 the Big East was on its way to becoming just that. In 1982 future NBA stars Sleepy Floyd and Patrick Ewing would lead Georgetown to the Big East's first NCAA Championship Game. Two years later the five-year old Big East Conference would secure its first NCAA basketball title with Georgetown's win over Houston in 1984. The years to follow would only get better as the Big East began its imprint on the NCAA basketball world.
Today the Big East has seen expansion to other sports including football where they have had seven of their eight sanctioned teams ranked in the top 25 since 2003, but basketball still carries the Big East spotlight. The Big East has continued on the path that originally brought the conference together as all 16 basketball members have made a Final Four appearance but South Florida. In the 2011 NCAA Tournament the Big East set the record sending the most teams by a single conference where 11 of their 16 teams qualified for the tournament. With schools like Georgetown, Villanova, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, and UConn representing the Big East, talent has continued to find its way into the conference to maintain NCAA basketball dominance.
With a list of former talent that has moved on to the National Basketball Association (NBA) that includes names such as Ray Allen, Carmelo Anthony, and Ron Artest the Big East has truly managed to achieve its goal as a NCAA basketball powerhouse. As of 2012, all of the Big East's participating basketball programs have appeared in the NCAA Tournament bringing home a combined 6 NCAA Championships from UConn (3), Villanova (1), Georgetown (1), and Syracuse (1).