The Philadelphia Big 5 is an informal association of college athletic programs in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It is not a conference; indeed the five schools that are members of the Big 5 are members of three separate conferences: the Atlantic 10, the Big East, and the Ivy League.

The five universities that compose the Big 5 are the University of Pennsylvania, La Salle University, Saint Joseph's University, Temple University, and Villanova University. Four of the Philadelphia Big 5 schools are within (or mostly within) the city limits (the campus of Saint Joseph's University straddles the city's border). The fifth, Villanova, is located in a nearby Main Line suburb.

History

The Big 5 was formed in 1955 in order to showcase the rich basketball talent in the city and help pay for the upkeep on the Palestra, where the games historically took place. All schools agreed to split ticket and concessions revenues equally once Penn was paid for upkeep costs on the Palestra. The intense rivalries between the teams and the proximity of the schools and their fans make the Big 5 a unique tradition in college basketball.

Historically, games were played as double or tripleheaders. However, it has been argued that changes in the structure of college basketball in the last quarter of the 20th century caused the Big 5 to lose much of its significance. During the heyday of the Big 5, many major college programs, especially in the northeastern United States, were independents. As the Big East and Atlantic 10 Conferences expanded to cover most of the Northeast (Villanova joined the Big East, while Temple, St. Joseph's, and La Salle joined the Atlantic 10, and as college basketball became increasingly driven by television and its need to appeal to a broad national audience, the local character of the Big 5 was a liability. The round-robin series ended in 1991.

In 1999, the Big 5 round-robin series was revived, and has continued to this day. Some things have changed from the series' heyday: the schools no longer evenly split the proceeds from the games, and La Salle, Temple, and Villanova do not always use the Palestra for their home games in the series. Nonetheless, the revival of the Big 5 provides a living link to the past of college basketball.

Each year the Herb Good Basketball Club selects All-Big 5 teams, as well as a coach of the year and the most outstanding player receives the Robert V. Geasey Trophy.

The Big 5 creed reads, "They say there is no real prize for winning the Big Five. They must not be from Philly."

There are a few intense rivalries inside the Big 5, most notably the rivalry between Villanova and Saint Joseph's, also known as the Holy War. The rivalry between Saint Joseph's and Temple has increased in intensity in recent years, mostly because of the "Goon Gate" incident in 2005 involving former Temple coach John Chaney where he sent in a player to intentionally foul an SJU player which led to John Bryant's fractured arm. La Salle considers Saint Joseph's to be its biggest rival.

As of 2009, at least one team from the Big 5 had made it into the NCAA Tournament for 32 consecutive years.

Future

Recently there has been talk of officially including Drexel in the Big 5. These talks amplified during the 2006–07 season, as Drexel beat three of the four Big 5 teams it played, all away from Drexel's home court (Drexel did not play La Salle). Many sportswriters have called for Drexel's inclusion, and coaches of Big 5 teams have agreed. Regardless of Drexel's absence in the Big 5, it is a member of the City 6, which includes every Big 5 school plus Drexel.

Annual winners

All Big 5 men's basketball teams play each other once per season for a total of four games per team. There is no season-ending Big 5 Tournament, so a "champion" of the unoffical athletics conference is determined by a round-robin tournament. Since 1956 there have been three instances of a five-way tie among all member schools, which occurred in 1980–81 (2–2 records), 1991–92 (1–1 records) and 1997–98 (1–1 records).

Key
	Outright Big 5 title winner
	Shared Big 5 title winners
Team (#)	Denotes the total number of titles for that school at that point

Season	Champion(s)	Record
1955–56	Saint Joseph's (1)	4–0
1956–57	La Salle (1) Saint Joseph's (2) Temple (1)	3–1
1957–58	Temple (2)	4–0
1958–59	Saint Joseph's (3)	4–0
1959–60	Saint Joseph's (4) Villanova (1)	3–1
1960–61	Saint Joseph's (5)	4–0
1961–62	Villanova (2)	4–0
1962–63	Pennsylvania (1) Villanova (3)	3–1
1963–64	La Salle (2)	3–1
1964–65	Saint Joseph's (6)	4–0
1965–66	Saint Joseph's (7)	4–0
1966–67	Villanova (4)	4–0
1967–68	Saint Joseph's (8)	3–1
1968–69	La Salle (3)	4–0
1969–70	Pennsylvania (2)	4–0
1970–71	Pennsylvania (3)	4–0
1971–72	Pennsylvania (4) Temple (3)	3–1
1972–73	Pennsylvania (5)	4-0
1973–74	Pennsylvania (6)	4–0
1974–75	La Salle (4)	4–0
1975–76	Saint Joseph's (9) Villanova (5)	3–1
1976–77	Pennsylvania (7) Temple (4)	3-1
1977–78	Temple (5) Villanova (6)	3–1
1978–79	Pennsylvania (8) Temple (6)	3–1
1979–80	Saint Joseph's (10)	4–0
1980–81	La Salle (5) Pennsylvania (9) St. Joseph's (11) Temple (7) Villanova (7)	2–2
1981–82	Saint Joseph's (12) Temple (8)	3–1
1982–83	Villanova (8)	3–1
1983–84	La Salle (6) Temple (9)	3–1
1984–85	Villanova (9)	4–0
1985–86	Saint Joseph's (13) Temple (10)	3–1
1986–87	Temple (11)	4–0
1987–88	Temple (12)	4–0
1988–89	La Salle (7) Temple (13)	3–1
1989–90	La Salle (8)	4–0
1990–91	Saint Joseph's (14) Temple (14)	3–1
1991–92	La Salle (9) Pennsylvania (10) Saint Joseph's (15) Temple (15) Villanova (10)	1–1
1992–93	Temple (16)	2–0
1993–94	Pennsylvania (11) Temple (17)	2–0
1994–95	Saint Joseph's (16) Temple (18)	2–0
1995–96	Temple (19)	2–0
1996–97	Temple (20) Villanova (11)	2–0
1997–98	La Salle (10) Pennsylvania (12) Saint Joseph's (17) Temple (21) Villanova (12)	1–1
1998–99	Villanova (13)	2–0
1999–00	Temple (22) Villanova (14)	3–1
2000–01	Villanova (15)	4–0
2001–02	Pennsylvania (13)	4–0
2002–03	Saint Joseph's (18)	4–0
2003–04	Saint Joseph's (19)	4–0
2004–05	Temple (23) Villanova (16)	3–1
2005–06	Villanova (17)	4–0
2006–07	Villanova (18)	4–0
2007–08	Temple (24) Villanova (19)	3–1
2008–09	Villanova (20)	4–0

References

1. University of Pennsylvania University Archives and Records Center

External links

• Official site of the Philadelphia Big 5