Mike Jensen of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Dana O’Neil of The Athletic, both recently reported that The Philadelphia Big 5 basketball league has decided to change the format of their games and add a sixth team to the mix.
According to Jensen’s Jan. 27 column, the news was leaked from a meeting with athletic directors and other administrators from the league.
Jensen’s source, which he did not name, told him the athletic directors and other administrators held a meeting about a potential City 6 tournament after the group received a “really exciting pitch from the Wells Fargo Center” about hosting a triple header on the final day of the tournament.
Since 1954, five out of the six Division 1 Philadelphia area universities, including St. Joe’s, have competed against each other in a league known as the Big 5. Other schools include Temple University, University of Pennsylvania, La Salle University and Villanova University. Each season, a Big 5 champion is named based off of their respective head-to-head records against each other.
If the rumors are true, The Big 5 would add Drexel University and create two three-team divisions. After the divisions play each other, the winner of each division will play in a championship game at the Wells Fargo Center.
The Hawk reached out to the Big 5 leadership numerous times to confirm the change but did not receive a response. Athletic directors at Drexel and Temple also did not respond.
But St. Joe’s Athletics director Jill Bodensteiner, MBA, said she is looking forward to the change.
“The end goal is to bring more coverage to the league and hopefully allow others to realize the talent the Big 5 offers,” Bodensteiner said.
Matthew Gifford ’06, founder of Hawk Hill Hardwood, a website dedicated to St. Joe’s sports, said he has mixed feelings about the change.
“I think making a change would be beneficial,” Gifford said. “I just don’t know if what they’ve proposed is going to be the way to do it.”
Gifford said there needs to be a balance between honoring the tradition and pleasing fans––and ultimately drawing more attention to the league.
“The thing is, how do we market this in a different manner?” Gifford asked. “And the whole adage about any coverage is good coverage. When’s the last time that anybody talked about the Big 5?”
Many fans of the Big 5 are a part of an older age bracket and have been around for the games when the Big 5 routinely had national coverage. Tom Quigley ’74, a longtime St. Joe’s men’s basketball fan, said he is not sure how to feel about the new format.
“Honestly, I don’t care for it, only because old people typically resist change and because it’s not the Big 5 anymore,” said Quigly, who used to travel every year to the Palestra at UPenn where the championship was played.
This year, Temple and Villanova shared the Big 5 title, with a record of three wins and one loss in Big 5 play. St. Joe’s had two wins and two losses and was third out of the Big 5 schools.
This year’s wins marked Big 5 title number 29 for Villanova and 28 for Temple, keeping both of them at one and two on the leaderboard for the most Big 5 Championships.
