Big East And Big Ten Set To Square Off In Inaugural Dave Gavitt Tipoff Games

Both the Big East and Big Ten conferences have experienced amazing success in the last two years in college basketball. With major realignment occurring throughout college sports, both conferences has reinvented themselves and came out the other side better than before. For the Big East, major changes such the addition of two new teams, has made the Big East conference one of the top places to play basketball in the country. The Big Ten, while many think about it as a group of football schools, has started making their mark in basketball.

With major moves being made by these two power conferences, it was announced this week that the Big East and the Big Ten will engage in an annual battle for conference supremacy. The games will be part of The Dave Gavitt Tipoff Games, a new series of games that will feature teams from both conferences, including games between local foes such as Rutgers and St Johns. Eight of the teams in the inaugural event advanced to the 2015 NCAA Tournament and won at least 20 games last season. The Big East home games will be shown on FOX Sports 1 while Big Ten home games will air on the Big Ten Network or on the ESPN family of networks.

“Our family is excited about the Big Ten and BIG EAST launching this new series, which honors the memory of Dave Gavitt and his passion for college basketball,” said Dan Gavitt, NCAA Vice President of Men’s Basketball Championships. “He would be most pleased that the student-athletes, coaches and supporters of these historic college basketball programs can look forward to annual competition at the highest level to help open the college season with a bang. We are thankful to the two great conferences for recognizing the Gavitt legacy with the intra-conference games featuring new and old rivalries and intriguing match-ups.”

The games are named for Gavitt, the man who was almost single-handedly behind creating the Big East in 1979. He was the conference commissioner from 1979 to 1990 and was instrumental behind getting the upstart conference on ESPN in the early stages of both the Big East and the network. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.

The series will run until 2022 and will be contested on four straight days during the early part of the college basketball season. Each Big East team will play a minimum of six games and Big Ten teams will play in at least four games. Here is the slate of this fall’s games for The Dave Gavitt Tipoff Games with start times and networks to be announced at a later date.

Tuesday, Nov. 17

Georgetown at Maryland

First meeting since 2008-09

DePaul at Penn State

First meeting since 1984-85

Nebraska at Villanova

First meeting since 1998-99

Wednesday, Nov. 18

Illinois at Providence

First meeting since 2003-04

Thursday, Nov. 19

Creighton at Indiana

First meeting since 1974-75

Iowa at Marquette

First meeting since 1982-83

Rutgers at St. John’s

First meeting since 2012-13

Friday, Nov. 20

Xavier at Michigan

First meeting since 1988-89