Big East Conference (1979–2013)

Big East Conference (Big East)
Established	May 31, 1979
Dissolved	July 1, 2013 (reorganized as The Big East Conference and The American Athletic Conference)
Association	NCAA
Division	Division I
Members	7–16 full members
Sports fielded	24 (men's: 11; women's: 13)
Region	Northeast South Atlantic Midwest Southeast
Headquarters	Providence, Rhode Island
Commissioner	Dave Gavitt (first) Michael Aresco (last)
Locations

The Big East Conference was a collegiate athletics conference that consisted of as many as 16 universities in the eastern half of the United States from 1979 to 2013. The conference's members participated in 24 NCAA sports. Three members had football programs but were not Big East football schools: Notre Dame football was independent while Georgetown and Villanova competed in the Football Championship Subdivision. Another five schools—DePaul, Marquette, Seton Hall, St. John's, and Providence—discontinued or did not have football programs.

In football, the Big East had all eight members play in bowl games since the 2005 realignment and had seven of eight teams ranked in the Top 25 since 2003. In that time, the Big East saw the emergence of new national players with West Virginia rising to as high as No. 1 and was ranked in the Top 10 for three-straight years (2005, 2006, 2007), South Florida rising as high as No. 2, Cincinnati and Louisville both as high as No. 3, Rutgers as high as No. 6, Pittsburgh as high as No. 9, and Connecticut as high as No. 13 in BCS standings. Also, Big East football saw an increase in attendance and enjoyed a new $250 million plus television package that lasted through 2013.

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