The Big East Conference is one of the most iconic conferences in college sports; particularly in NCAA basketball.
Founded in 1979, the Big East currently sponsors over 200 men’s and women’s teams in 22 sports, including 10 men’s and 12 women’s sports. Additionally, the Big East has 11 full-member schools, including Butler, Creighton, DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall, Villanova and Xavier.
With a recognizable logo, the conference has registered more than its share of memorable moments:
- Villanova’s upset of Georgetown to win the NCAA title in 1985.
- Syracuse beat UConn in six overtimes in the 2009 Big East Tournament.
- Kemba Walker scored 130 points in five games of the Big East Tournament including his game-winner over Pittsburgh in the quarterfinals.
Val Ackerman’s Role With Big East Conference
Appearing on today’s episode of the Scoop B Radio Podcast, Big East Commissioner, Val Ackerman discussed a variety of topics including the rich history of the Big East, the passing of St. John’s University coaching icon Lou Carnesecca and her career in a myriad of capacities of basketball including the WNBA, NBA and USA Basketball.
Now in her twelfth year at the helm of the Big East, Ackerman has been quite active in her role as commissioner. Ackerman presided over the rebirth of the conference following the decision in 2012 of seven then-current BIG EAST schools (DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall and Villanova) to separate from the original BIG EAST Conference and align with Butler, Creighton and Xavier to form the present configuration.
Additionally, Ackerman led the relocation of the conference office to its current site in New York City and has managed the BIG EAST’s partnerships with Fox Sports and with Madison Square Garden, which has hosted the conference’s men’s basketball tournament since 1983. She also led the negotiations which resulted in the return to the BIG EAST of the University of Connecticut, one of the conference’s charter members back in 2020.
“I’ve always had great respect for this conference and we’re celebrating our 45th year this year,” Ackerman tells Scoop B Radio.
“The league really does have a proud history and a great track record in basketball. Most of all, we’ve won championships in other sports along the way, but the calling card for this group for the schools over time really has been basketball. We’re proud of our record. The last decade we’ve won eight of the last men’s basketball tournaments played, we’ve won four in the Big East which is hard to do. We’ve got this year I think some teams that will be in the mix come NCAA Tournament time in the end and on the Women’s Basketball side, very proud most of all to have UConn who’s coached by Geno Auriemma who has broken the all-time college coach career wins record a few weeks ago — truly in the category of Greatest of All Time quality coach. So, we’ve had a lot of positive things to talk about and to be proud of over the last 45 years and for me, the last 12 I would say have gone pretty quickly.”
Big East Television On Fox, NBC, TNT
In addition to negotiating television deals with Fox Sports, Ackerman was the muscle in the Big East Conference expanding games on Fox, NBC and TNT. As a result, the conference will see significant increase in revenue under their new six-year media rights deal completed this past summer.
TNT, which airs the NCAA men’s basketball tournament with CBS, are airing at least 65 regular-season games (50 men’s 15 women’s) across TNT, TBS, truTV and Max. It also marks the first time TNT will have a package of games with a college conference. “We’re very excited about our new TV deal,” said Ackerman.
“They brought into the mix NBC, Peacock, Warner Bros., Discovery… so we’ll have those groups of networks with us as well and we’ve been very proud to be in business with FOX Sports. I mean, they took a leap of faith with the “new” Big East that I described earlier on the show back in 2013 — they at the time were launching FS1 to compete in the national sports cable space with ESPN and so they saw in the Big East a quality wintertime programming and that’s certainly been a great relationship for us in terms of the visibility and the exposure and the credibility and the revenue that’s afforded our group of schools. We’ve tried to do some innovative things with FOX around college basketball, around access and some advanced technologies during games and so, I do expect this kind of partnership to be as strong as it’s been to continue with the new deal when that kicks in next year. Our new deal will have more games on streaming than we had up until now. NBC Peacock has leaned in and has a healthy package of games that are going to be on their outlet. The NBC relationship does harken me back to the early days of my tenure at the NBA when the NBA was in business with NBC and David, ever so particular, was a partner in that relationship. So it’s great to be in business with NBC now under Rick Cordella; president of the network who used to play basketball at Providence College which is cool connection and then in TNT Sports we have a company that’s got a long history in producing quality basketball games through their relationship with both the NBA as well as March Madness. So, we think we’re in a great spot, Scoop heading into the future and hopefully we’ll be able to do some innovative things with all these partners when these relationships start in earnest next year.”
Lou Carnesecca’s legacy at St. John’s University
Last month, legendary St. John’s University basketball coach Lou Carnesecca died at the age of 99.
Beloved by the Red Storm community on the school’s campus in the New York City borough of Queens, Carnesecca coached St. John’s for 24 seasons. During his career, he finished with a 562-200 overall record.
“He really did represent the golden era for the Big East,” Val Ackerman tells Scoop B Radio.
“He really was as consequential a figure in the Big East as anybody. He was there when the league was formed.
“I was at the funeral which was recently and it was very well done. It was clear he had tremendous respect and admiration from so many that he touched; not only because of the kind of coach he was but because of the kind of person that he was.”
Carneseca guided many young men who would become NBA players including Chris Mullin, Mark Jackson, Malik Sealy, Jayson Williams and Bill Wennington.
WNBA’s Early Days, Golden State Valkyries, Toronto Tempo
Prior to her role as Commissioner of the Big East, Val Ackerman was the first President of the WNBA. In her role as founding President from 1996-2005, Ackerman played a key role in launching the league, which was made possible by the success of the U.S. women’s national basketball team and the emergence of women’s professional leagues.
Years later, The W is continuing to grow. The 2024 WNBA season was the most-watched regular season in 24 years, with the highest attendance in 22 years, and records for digital consumption and merchandise sales.
The WNBA also has two new expansion teams arriving in the next two years with the addition of the Golden State Valkyries and the Toronto Tempo coming to an arena near you by 2026. “We started with eight and it grew very quickly because of the interest of NBA owners,” recounts Val Ackerman.
“I’m VERY excited they have a team in San Francisco; we could never get that to happen while I was there. We did have a team in Portland that didn’t make it but I know basketball has gotten to be a very big sport in Canada so, to have a WNBA team in Toronto is very exciting and it sounds like there’s other cities that are lined up now and the league will have a good choice to make there. You have to think about expansions strategically and thoughtfully. You have to make sure that the player pull supports the additional roster spots and etcetera and if the business model holds up because you’re cutting additional teams in the distributions; but it’s exciting to see it and there’s certainly is a history with not just the NBA but other sports in terms of how leagues grow. Sometimes it doesn’t work out and you have to retrace a little bit but the fact they seem to be on a growth trend right now in the WNBA and the NWSL as well in soccer is a good story for sure.”
Caitlin Clark & Angel Reese
The WNBA has also benefited from the popularity and the solid play of newcomers Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. Some experts have compared Clark and Reese’s impact on the WNBA to Magic Johnson and Larry Bird’s impact on the NBA during their prime. Johnson has echoed that sentiment on social media when he shared that the two women have the potential to do what they he and Bird did back in the 1980’s.
Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman shared similar sentiments: “I like it,” she shared on Scoop B Selects.
“I do. I mean, why not? Rivalries are good. You got Martina [Navratilova] and Chris [Evert], right? In any sport, you know? [Muhammad] Ali and Joe Frazier. It just brings fans, you know? There’s people that love Angel and there’s people that love Catlin Clark but both of them together are powerful. And Kamilla Cardoso. There’s a lot of young people that are coming into the game that we saw playing against each other in college and now they’re doing it on the professional level.”
Add Val Ackerman to that growing list: “I think those analogies are frankly good ones,” the former WNBA President shared while on the Scoop B Radio Podcast.
“I think they really are very appropriate. You have these two rookies coming in and they’ve played against each other in college. They were both generating interest for different reasons in each of their own ways. They were both playing for the big markets — Boston vs. L.A.? It doesn’t get much bigger than that in the NBA… maybe New York vs. L.A. might be the next best thing but, having been there at the league when all that was unfolding and seeing what they did for the NBA; what Michael Jordan who came after them did for the NBA; with the Dream Team in ‘92 did for the NBA because the league had been around for decades at that point but they really propelled it… that sequencing. And so, it seems like if history is any guide that is kind of what’s happening now with the WNBA. The WNBA has always had stars. Has always had great players. Has always had great teams — I mean, we launched with a dynasty with the Houston Comets winning the first four championships? So it’s not like we’ve not seen that, but it does feel different now. I think society’s changed. Society’s more embracing of women’s athletes particularly in team sports and so, there’s a whole confluence of factors here that are coming together that are really exciting and positive way that I think bode well for the future of not only women’s basketball, but other women’s sports like soccer, volleyball and ice hockey. I think you’re going to see a bit of a seat change in the coming years.”
A Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, Val Ackerman is a basketball lifer. In addition to her time with the WNBA, Ackerman also discussed her time serving on the board of directors of USA Basketball and her role as a staff attorney for the NBA and as special assistant to former NBA Commissioner David Stern before being promoted to vice-president of business affairs.
“It was an honor for me to spend 16 years at the NBA League Office,” she said.
“The first eight were on the men’s side. I started out as a staff attorney working for now NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. Back when I started in the league he was the general counsel of the NBA; I think I was the fourth lawyer including Gary in the department — I was the first woman lawyer hired by the league. It was a dream job to work there! It was something I aspired to after I got out of law school was to work in sports and that opportunity came true in 1988. So, I spent my early years there working on the men’s side, beginning in around ‘93-’94 the NBA through David Stern started to take an interest in Women’s Basketball and because of our partnership with USA Basketball which runs the Olympic Team and National Team Program we kind of had a way to begin supporting the USA Basketball Women’s Team in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and I was basically running point in that relationship (men and women) and together with our Deputy Commissioner Russ Granik and we had an opportunity now almost 30 years ago to support USA Women’s programs in a big way leading into the Atlanta Olympics; the team did a 10-month tour before the games where we were basically able to gauge level of media sponsor fan interest in women’s basketball — we had great players on that team, you know? Hall of Famers: Sheryll Swoopes, Lisa Leslie, Rebecca Lobo and many others were part of that group and that really laid the foundation for the WNBA which I give all the credit in the world to David Stern. He was the guy that needed to greenlight that in order for that to happen and he did, but he was the one to convince NBA owners at that time that this was an investment that the league needed to make to solidify its control if you will, its stature, its contributions to the game of basketball. And so, it’s a long story Scoop, of how the league started but I was on the ground floor of that; I was named President of the league right after the Atlanta Games and those first couple of years really were… it was extraordinary to be part of this new property if you will, that had the NBA name embedded in it so the very high and the aspirations were big and we had great years early on averaging more than 10,000 fans per game and in our second year, lots and lots of interest at that time and then things did sort of level off and so, for me to see — I’ve been gone a while, but for me to see what the league has done over the last couple of years in particular and how people are so respectful now and really following women’s basketball so much more closely than they did say… about 10 years ago or 5 years ago is a great feeling to know that the foundation that we laid now 28 years ago is you know… kind of mixing analogies here but, bearing fruit [laughing] in some really powerful ways. So hopefully the league is gonna be on an even stronger faster upward trajectory at this point.”
David Stern’s Global Expansion & NBA All Star Weekend
Ackerman Credits former NBA Commissioner, David Stern for turning the NBA All Star Game experience into an NBA All Star Weekend experience and for morphing the NBA game into an international game. “You felt like you were on the ground floor of so many exciting initiatives,” she recounted.
“When I started in ‘88, the league was kind of beginning to sort of gain traction and looking around, you know? David was looking around to see what areas he could get investment and he was brilliant! He could look around corners and just… know that international was gonna be a thing. That technology was gonna be a thing. That women in basketball was going to be a thing. And so, to be part of the launch of the WNBA, the Dream Team; what David was doing with NBA TV and games that were being made with network relationships; what he saw in the terms of importance of community service and engagement with community and important causes; the development of the NBA All-Star Weekend — it was a game for god sakes! It was the All-Star Game and then all of the sudden it became the All-Star Weekend and all these bells and whistles got thrown at it and now it’s as important as it comes for the league because so much goes on in those five days or so. I mean, we were all part of that and David was the ringleader. He was the strategist for everything and he built an incredible staff of people who I’m still good friends with because of those memories of working together in that environment. The league grew dramatically after I started. When I was there, we were at less than 100 people and then it just doubled and tripled in size over the next decade as business started to boom and David convinced the owners that additional investment was needed to keep that going and he was right. So I made a lot of friends, you know? We did a lot of important work I think in terms of developing the sport and Adam Silver had done a terrific job in keeping the league going and growing over the last 10-plus years since David retired.”
Commissioner Ackerman discussed a ton on this week’s episode of the Scoop B Radio Podcast including the history of the Big East logo. You can LISTEN to this week’s episode by clicking here. You can also WATCH the FULL episode of Commissioner Ackerman and Scoop B by clicking here.
