Can the Big 5 Survive? Villanova’s Kevin Willard Says Change is Needed

With the advent of Name, Image and Likeness deals and the landmark House v. NCAA decision which paved the way for colleges to pay their athletes directly, revenue matters more than ever in the modern world of college athletics. Villanova Men’s Basketball head coach Kevin Willard knows that as well as anybody, which is why he hinted at a major change to the Wildcats’ schedule approach during a recent podcast appearance with analyst Andy Katz: further alterations to the Philadelphia Big 5 schedule.

The Big 5 dates back to 1955, and for much of its first seven decades of existence, each of the five member schools — Villanova, Temple, St. Joseph’s, La Salle and Penn — played each other once a season: Drexel joined the group ahead of the 2023-24 campaign. However, with a 20-game Big East schedule, the Wildcats have limited opportunities for out-of-conference games to boost their NCAA Tournament résumé, forcing Villanova’s administration to choose between mid-major rivalry games that do little to help their tournament case, and higher echelon matchups that would wipe out a critical piece of college basketball history.

The Big 5 went to a three-game series the same year Drexel joined, including one home and away game each in order to determine the championship game matchups at XFinity Mobile Arena, formerly known as the Wells Fargo Center.

With college athletics changing fundamentally on a year-to-year basis as a result of the fallout of NIL, can a critical piece of basketball history like the Big 5 survive?

During his discussion with Katz, Willard suggested that the current format won’t work for Villanova either. Here’s his answer in full.

Kevin Willard Speaks Out

“The fact that we have to play an away game, like I think we’re at La Salle this year, and then you have, you lose another home game where you play a neutral site in Wells Fargo. I think in the future, we’re going to have to see how it can benefit everybody a little bit better, just because from a financial standpoint, losing either two home games or an opportunity for a Quad 1, is going to be really, really big,” Willard said.

“So I think it’s important. I think the Big Five is important. I just think we have to find a way to either make it better and get back to playing all five and doing something more of a round robin where financially it makes sense for everybody, because I just don’t know how losing two opportunities for a home game is financial in today’s world. It’s so much different. You know, you spend $6 million on a roster, revenue is really important. So I think it’s something that’s going to have to evolve a little bit.”