BIG EAST Men's Basketball Tournament Tickets

Big East Men's Basketball Tournament

Each March, basketball fans descend upon New York City and "The World's Most Famous Arena" to get a taste of the madness to come. Since 1983, the Big East Men's Basketball Tournament has been held at Madison Square Garden, which, in addition to being the home of the New York Rangers and Knicks, is the part-time home of the St. John's Red Storm. The fourth and current version of MSG opened in 1968, has been fully renovated twice, and currently seats 19,812 for basketball. The tournament typically takes place over four days in March.

Big East Men's Basketball Tournament History

The foundation of the Big East Conference in 1979 changed the landscape of college sports forever, bringing seven of the East Coast's best college basketball programs together under the umbrella of a single entity, before expanding and adding additional sports. The modern iteration of the Big East began in 2012, with the football-focused programs morphing into the American Athletic Conference, and the "Catholic Seven" that left adding Butler, Creighton and Xavier to create a "new" Big East with the shared history of the American. A total of 22 Big East teams have gone on to appear in the NCAA Men's Division I Final Four, with nine titles coming from Georgetown, Villanova, former members Syracuse and Louisville, and once and future member UConn.

The BIG EAST has remained a dominant force, winning three of the last seven national championships (Villanova 2016 and 2018, UConn in 2023). There have been many exciting moments in Big East tournament history. In 2009, a 3-hour, 46-minute marathon between Syracuse and UConn resulted in a six-overtime classic, with the Orange defeating the Huskies 127 to 117. In 2016, Seton Hall upset Villanova 69-67 before the Wildcats came back to win their second national championship. All 11 teams in the BIG EAST vie for the league's tournament title and automatic berth into the NCAA Championship.