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Kim English PHOTO: PC Rick Pitino: PC, Dan Hurley, GoLocal

There were big hopes for the Big East men’s basketball in 2025-26.

In the NCAA preseason poll for college basketball, the Big East held three positions in the top 25 and two in the top 5.

UConn was pre-season ranked #4, St. John’s # 5, and Creighton #23.

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Now, just five weeks later, through the November 24th Associated Press poll, UConn holds the #5 position, but St. John’s has fallen to #14, and no other Big East team is in the top 25. 

Basketball is big business for the Big East, the non-profit that generated $90,722,481 in revenue according to its 2024 filing.

 

Not Wanting to Repeat 2024

In 2024, the Big East Conference called foul and said it is “very disappointed” over the conference’s historically low number of schools selected for the NCAA tournament.

The Big East received just three tournament bids — its lowest total since 1993. The selection committee snubbed a trio of 20-win teams in St. John’s, Seton Hall, and Providence.

“We have great respect for the NCAA men’s basketball committee and the time and effort that goes into selecting and seeding the teams for the NCAA tournament,” the Big East said as part of its statement. “It is a very challenging job, and we have been advised that this year’s upsets added to the complexity and contributed to the committee’s final bracket selections. Given the high level of play in our league, we are understandably very disappointed that some worthy Big East teams were not selected to participate.”

St. John’s coach Rick Pitino said about the snubs.

 

 

I believe in getting better not bitter. I totally believe that six teams from the Big East belonged in the field. I know our players along with Providence are totally disappointed with the decisions made. But not having Seton Hall at 13-7 in BE play with wins over the top teams…

— Rick Pitino (@RealPitino) March 18, 2024

 

 

2025-2026, No Complaints

This season, there is more bad news — a slew of other Big East teams that were supposed to be top performers have struggled.

According to KenPom ranking, other than UConn and St. John’s, no other Big East team is in the top 40.

St. John’s is now just 4-3 with losses to Alabama, Iowa St., and Auburn — all in the top 25, but Auburn and Alabama are ranked lower than the Red Storm.

 

Underperformed or Overrated?

Teams like Marquette, Creighton, and Providence have underperformed.

Providence was selected 4th in the Big East preseason poll and now sits at 4-4. Of the remaining three out-of-conference games, only the University of Rhode Island is ranked in the top 100 on KenPom — it is #98.

Fairleigh Dickinson is ranked #360, and Brown is #258.

After those three games, all the rest of the Friars’ games are conference games. The Big East conference will then begin eating its own.

Creighton and Providence were mega spenders for this season. Estimates are that the Blue Jars and the Friars are in the $8 million-plus range.

KenPom has Creighton ranked 56th and Providence 74th.

Marquette is now ranked 80th.

The way the season is rolling out, the Big East may only realize four NCAA selections. A lot of top-tier programs that have made big investments may be looking in from the outside on Selection Sunday.

 

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