Roger Rubin: How the Big East can make sure its down year isn't a recurring theme
St. John's head coach Rick Pitino gestures during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Georgetown on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, in Washington. Credit: AP/Nick Wass
Is the once-mighty Big East having a down year?
It’s the question that’s been asked — directly and indirectly — since Big East teams began to conclude the non-conference part of their schedules. It’s been framed many ways. How many Big East teams will make the NCAA Tournament? Can it keep up with basketball programs in the so-called “Power Four” football conferences?
No coach wants to say it explicitly, so we will here: The Big East is weak this season.
No. 3 Connecticut (22-1, 12-0) and No. 22 St. John’s (17-5, 10-1), which faced off Friday night at Madison Square Garden, are — as expected — the top performers in the 11-team conference. Villanova's Kevin Willard probably is the frontrunner for Big East Coach of the Year with the Wildcats at 17-5 overall, 8-3 in conference play and 32 in the NET rankings heading into the weekend.
Those probably are the only three teams in the conference that will make the 68-team draw unless one team gets much hotter than it’s been or comes out of nowhere to win the Big East Tournament. It’s a three-bid conference. Any of the other eight teams could finish fourth and still would be a long shot to make The Big Dance.
Consider the math. Big East teams play 20 conference games and produce 110 victories and 110 losses. UConn, St. John’s and Villanova already have 30 of the first 65 wins and there are 45 games left. The Huskies are on track to win 18 to 20 Big East games and the Red Storm to win 16 to 18 of theirs. If the Wildcats win 13 or 14, those three teams could finish with approximately 50 of the 110 victories.
That leaves 60 wins for the other eight teams (an average of 7.5 out of 20 games), and they already have a combined 35. It’s hard to envision any of them finishing with 12 conference wins. It's more likely that the fourth-place team will be 11-9 or 10-10, and that’s not getting a program into the NCAA Tournament.
St. John’s coach Rick Pitino this week floated to CBS college basketball analyst Jon Rothstein the idea that to keep up with the conferences that benefit from football revenue, the Big East should require every program to invest a minimum of $9 million of NIL money in their rosters.
Asked about it again on Thursday, Pitino said, “That's not going to happen. I said that if I was the commissioner, that's what I would do. But I'm not the commissioner.”
And no commissioner is going to make demands about how schools spend their money.
But the quality of coaching in the Big East unquestionably is good, and Pitino pointed out, “If you give [Seton Hall's] Shaheen Holloway $10 million and you give [Xavier’s Richard Pitino, Rick's son] $10 million? . . . Georgetown and Providence probably [already] have that, but if you give Butler and DePaul $10 million? Their coaches are good enough to really be [outstanding], have outstanding players.”
UConn coach Dan Hurley was asked Thursday about Pitino’s concept and said, “I like it, but . . . listen: You could spend a lot of money and not have a very good team. When you give the wrong people money, they're going to be a worse version of themselves. So spending the money on the team can’t guarantee that you're going to win.”
He also added that programs that don’t adequately finance their basketball programs could produce noncompetitive teams and that “you should be committing to compete for NCAA bids.” He added that if a school doesn’t, “is it going to drag the league down?”
The Big 12 has 12 teams with a NET of at least 75 entering the weekend. The Big Ten has 13 and the SEC 12. Any road game against a team with a NET of 75 or better is an opportunity for a much-valued Quad 1 win. Any home game against a team with a 76 NET ranking or worse is a chance for a damaging Quad 3 loss
Now that Creighton has tumbled to an 81 NET ranking, only five of 11 Big East programs are 75 or better.
It’s why Hurley was a big endorser of having only 18 conference games on the schedule. It provides the flexibility to schedule more high-profile non-conference games.
“Everyone's got to do their part in the non-conference,” he said. “Coming in [to Big East play] with big non-conference wins . . . is going to move the needle so that everyone's coming in with the best possible NET so we’re not screwing each other's [metrics] over. Playing Quad 3s and Quad 4s in conference is just brutal.”
The Big East has a great history of being a powerhouse, but it’s weak this season. It’s in the hands of the schools whether they want to keep it that way.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
