![]() ![]() With all these schools being Catholic institutions committed to reclaiming the Big East as a basketball powerhouse, the group became known as the “Catholic Seven.” As part of the founding of the modern Big East, these seven original schools also invited Butler University, Creighton University, and Xavier University to join. ![]() The remaining seven founding schools are DePaul University, Georgetown, Marquette University, Providence, St. The new conference retained the Big East name and their previous agreement with Madison Square Garden to host the basketball conference final. There are 11 schools in the Big East Conference as full-time members. Seven of these schools were members of the original Big East Conference that collectively decided to split from their football-playing conference mates in December 2012 and form a new non-football conference that focused on basketball, the sport for which the Big East was originally known. After several football schools defected to the ACC, the remaining seven Catholic non-football schools left the conference as a group and formed a newly-organized Big East, which emphasized basketball. The previously non-football Big East began competing in football starting in 1991 by adding Rutgers University, Temple University, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia University as affiliates, and the University of Miami as a full-time school. The next twenty years saw instability in the Big East due to the presence of a significant number of both football and non-football schools in the same conference. Penn State was infamously rejected in its membership bid in 1982, losing by one vote and initiating a rivalry between the school and the conference. Villanova University joined the conference in 1980, with the University of Pittsburgh added in 1982. John's University, Georgetown University, Syracuse University, Seton Hall University, the University of Connecticut, and Boston College. The Big East Conference was founded in May of 1979 thanks to the organizing efforts of Dave Gavitt, who was the athletic director and men’s basketball coach at Providence College at the time. Gavitt allied with six other Catholic colleges to form the original Big East Conference, consisting of the following schools: Providence College, St. ![]()
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