Big East Roundup: Top-Heavy Through Non-Conference Slate

With college basketball on pause during the holiday break and conference play commenced for each of the 11 teams in the Big East, it’s time to take stock of Villanova’s place in the conference through the first eight weeks of the 2025-26 season.

The Big East’s teams have thrown most preseason projections out the window, with teams expected to put together a run at a top tournament seed like St. John’s struggling mightily and sleeper picks like Creighton, Georgetown and Marquette well outside of the bracket. Conversely, the Seton Hall Pirates managed to jumpstart their rebuild and race out to an 11-2 record after most picked them to finish at the bottom of the conference once again… and even Villanova, who the conference’s coaches picked to finish seventh after the preseason, currently holds the No. 2 spot.

UConn once again looks like a national title contender, sitting in the top ten in most ranking systems even though they’ve spent time without major contributors like Tarris Reed Jr. and Solo Ball. After that, the Big East starts to table off. Many pundits have accused the conference of having a down year after slow starts from the Red Storm, the Blue Jays and the Golden Eagles, and ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi has listed as few as two (or as many as five) programs as expected to earn a tournament bid.

Just one or two games into conference play, however, there’s plenty of time for the situation to stabilize. Here are the conference standings amidst the Christmas break.

Big East Standings on Dec. 27, 2026