The Big East Conference is an NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletics conference that includes 17 colleges and universities from 13 states situated in the northeast, southeast, and midwest of the United States. Those schools, and their varsity teams, are:

• University of Cincinnati (Cincinnati Bearcats)
• University of Connecticut (Connecticut Huskies)
• DePaul University (DePaul Blue Demons)
• Georgetown University (Georgetown Hoyas)
• University of Louisville (Louisville Cardinals)
• Marquette University (Marquette Golden Eagles)
• University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame Fighting Irish)
• University of Pittsburgh (Pitt Panthers)
• Providence College (Providence Friars)
• Rutgers University (Rutgers Scarlet Knights)
• St. John's University (St. John's Red Storm)
• Seton Hall University (Seton Hall Pirates)
• University of South Florida (USF Bulls)
• Syracuse University (Syracuse Orange)
• Villanova University (Villanova Wildcats)
• West Virginia University (West Virginia Mountaineers)

7 of the Big East schools are public school, 9 private, and 8 of them are Catholic schools.

The Big East Conference was formed in 1979 when four universities (St. John's, Syracuse, Providence, and Georgetown) invited three others (Boston College, UConn, and Seton Hall) to start a new NCAA conference.

Football:

Big East football started during the 1991-1992 season with the addition of Miami. Miami gave the league a sense of immediate legitimacy, but other schools have emerged as powerhouses as well. In the early years, the University of Miami dominated, but Virginia Tech also fared well. The conference experienced a reconstruction in 2004 when Miami and Virginia Tech left for the ACC, followed by Boston College. Louisville, USF, Connecticut and Cincinnati replaced these teams.

Cincinnati is the reigning Big East champion with a division record of 6-1, their only loss against Connecticut. Overall, the team achieved an 11-3 record and a #17 rank in the AP and Coaches polls.

Basketball:

Penn State, not having a basketball team at the time, was rejected entry when it applied to join the Big East in 1982. But 10 years after the conference's founding, four more schools - Miami, WVU, Virginia Tech, and Temple - joined when the Big East became as serious about football as it already was about basketball. Notre Dame joined in 1995. Eventually, after much litigious contention and not all at once, the Atlantic Coast Conference wooed B.C., Virginia Tech, Miami, and Temple away from the Big East. In 2005, Conference USA schools - Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville, Marquette, and South Florida - switched over to the Big East.

In the '80s, Georgetown, led by coach John Thompson, dominated the conference, including a 1984 NCAA championship win (beating Conference USA's University of Houston Cougars), the Big East's first. In 1985, three Big East teams - St. John's, Georgetown, and Villanova) all make it to the Final Four, with the latter (the Wildcats) claiming that year's NCAA crown.

UConn, under Jim Calhoun, has dominated the Big East since the '90s, winning the NCAA championship in 1999 and 2004 as well as multiple Big East tournament titles and regular season titles alike. Louisville is the reigning champion as of 2008 after beating Syracuse in the Big East tournament.

Big East conference schools are increasingly taking over the NCAA record books. Come here for all your Big East tickets and experience all the excitement these teams bring to every game they play.