Big East Conference

St. John's University playing baseball against Georgetown University

The Big East Conference is a college sports conference in the United States which sponsors many sports, but does not play football. The league has its roots in the original Big East Conference, which was founded in 1979 as a basketball-focused league by a group of schools in the Eastern U.S. That league added football in 1991, leading to years of conflict between schools that played top-level football and those that did not. In July 2013, the original league split along football lines. The seven schools that did not play FBS (top-level) football—often called the "Catholic 7" because all are run by the Catholic Church—bought the "Big East" name and formed a new Big East. The FBS schools joined with several new members and stayed in the original Big East structure under the new name of American Athletic Conference (The American).

Although the current Big East was not founded until 2013, it claims the 1979 founding date of the original Big East. Both the current Big East and The American claim the pre-split history of the old Big East.

Members

The 10 schools that formed the current Big East are private schools. All of these are also Catholic except for Butler, which was started by Protestants but has never been run by any church. UConn (Connecticut) became the Big East's first public school in July 2020.

School	Location	Founded	Type (affiliation)	Nickname	Joined Big East^[a]
Butler University	Indianapolis, Indiana	1855	Private (nonsectarian)	Bulldogs	2013
Creighton University	Omaha, Nebraska	1878	Private/Catholic (Jesuit)	Bluejays	2013
DePaul University	Chicago, Illinois	1898	Private/Catholic (Vincentian)	Blue Demons	2005
Georgetown University	Washington, D.C.	1789	Private/Catholic (Jesuit)	Hoyas	1979
Marquette University	Milwaukee, Wisconsin	1881	Private/Catholic (Jesuit)	Golden Eagles	2005
Providence College	Providence, Rhode Island	1917	Private/Catholic (Dominican)	Friars	1979
Saint John'sSt. John's University	New York City, New York	1870	Private/Catholic (Vincentian)	Red Storm	1979
Seton Hall University	South Orange, New Jersey	1856	Private/Catholic (Diocesan)	Pirates	1979
UConn University of Connecticut (UConn)	Storrs, Connecticut	1881	Public	Huskies	1979, 2020^[b]
Villanova University	Villanova, Pennsylvania	1842	Private/Catholic (Augustinian)	Wildcats	1980
Xavier University	Cincinnati, Ohio	1831	Private/Catholic (Jesuit)	Musketeers	2013

↑ Dates are when the schools joined either version of the Big East.
↑ UConn was a charter member of the original Big East in 1979, left in the 2013 conference split, and returned in 2020.

Associate members

The Big East has six "associate members" that play either one or two sports in the conference.

School	Location	Founded	Type (affiliation)	Joined	Sport	Current main conference	Nickname
AkronUniversity of Akron	Akron, Ohio	1870	Public	2023	Men's soccer	MAC	Zips
DenverUniversity of Denver	Denver, Colorado	1864	Private (nonsectarian)	2013 (men) 2016 (women)	Men's and women's lacrosse	The Summit	Pioneers
Liberty University	Lynchburg, Virginia	1971	Private (nondenominational)	2016	Field hockey	C-USA	Lady Flames
Old Dominion University	Norfolk, Virginia	1930	Public	2013	Field hockey	Sun Belt	Monarchs
Quinnipiac University	Hamden, Connecticut	1929	Private (nonsectarian)	2016	Field hockey	MAAC	Bobcats
Temple University	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	1884	Public/private hybrid	2013	Field hockey	American	Owls

Former members

No full member of the Big East has left for another conference. However, eight associate members have left the Big East in one or more sports, with five entirely leaving the Big East.

Two schools that were associate members in the 2013–14 school year left to join conferences that play the sports that they housed in the Big East. Five women's lacrosse members left after the 2017–18 school year when the American Athletic Conference, full-time home to three of those schools, started a women's lacrosse league. Two of these schools, Temple and UConn, stayed in the Big East in field hockey, and UConn returned to the Big East full-time in July 2020. At the same time, Old Dominion moved its women's lacrosse team from the Big East to The American. This kept both conferences at six women's lacrosse members, the number needed to ensure that their conference champions would receive places in the NCAA Division I tournament. ODU is still a Big East member in field hockey.

School	Location	Founded	Type	Joined	Left	Sport(s)	Current main conference	Current conference in former Big East sport(s)	Nickname
LouisvilleUniversity of Louisville	Louisville, Kentucky	1798	Public	2013	2014	Field hockey, women's lacrosse	ACC		Cardinals
Rutgers University	New Brunswick, New Jersey	1766	Public	2013	2014	Field hockey, men's & women's lacrosse	Big Ten		Scarlet Knights
CincinnatiUniversity of Cincinnati	Cincinnati, Ohio	1819	Public	2013	2018	Women's lacrosse	Big 12	TBA^[a]	Bearcats
FloridaUniversity of Florida	Gainesville, Florida	1853	Public	2014	2018	Women's lacrosse	SEC	American	Gators
Temple University	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	1884	Public/private hybrid	2013	2018	Women's lacrosse	American		Owls
UConnUniversity of Connecticut (UConn)	Storrs, Connecticut	1881	Public	2013	2018	Women's lacrosse	Big East^[b]		Huskies
Vanderbilt University	Nashville, Tennessee	1873	Private (nonsectarian)	2014	2018	Women's lacrosse	SEC	American	Commodores
Old Dominion University	Norfolk, Virginia	1930	Public	2018	2020	Women's lacrosse	Sun Belt	American	Monarchs

↑ Cincinnati has not announced its future women's lacrosse home. In July 2023, it left the American Athletic Conference, which sponsors women's lacrosse, for the Big 12 Conference, which does not.
↑ UConn women's lacrosse left in 2018 when The American, then its full-time conference home, started a women's lacrosse league. The Huskies returned to the Big East as a full member in 2020.

Big East Conference Media

Locations of the current Big East Conference member institutions

References

"Big East Conference". bigeast.com. Archived from the original on 2013-03-20. Retrieved 2014-05-29.

[1] Dates are when the schools joined either version of the Big East.

[2] UConn was a charter member of the original Big East in 1979, left in the 2013 conference split, and returned in 2020.

[3] Cincinnati has not announced its future women's lacrosse home. In July 2023, it left the American Athletic Conference, which sponsors women's lacrosse, for the Big 12 Conference, which does not.

[4] UConn women's lacrosse left in 2018 when The American, then its full-time conference home, started a women's lacrosse league. The Huskies returned to the Big East as a full member in 2020.

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