Big East, MSG announce extension of Big East Tournament through 2028

By ADAM ZAGORIA

The Big East and Madison Square Garden held a joint press conference Sunday morning to announce an extension of the Big East Tournament at the Garden through 2028.

The current Big East contract with the Garden runs through the 2025-26 season, and had an opt-out clause in 2022.

“This is just where we wanted to be,” Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman said. “For us, this is it.”

Val Ackerman announces the @BIGEAST / @TheGarden 10-year extension. pic.twitter.com/X716lx7ubP

— John Fanta (@John_Fanta) December 9, 2018

“It’s just the right thing to do,” St  John’s coach Chris Mullin said. “It’s our home.”

Other major conferences have held their postseason tournaments in New York City in recent years, including the Big Ten at the Garden last year the week before the Big East Tournament, and the ACC at Barclays Center the last two years.

This announcement will solidify the Big East’s role as the central college basketball partner with the Garden, although MSG President Joel Fisher said he’d be open to having the Big Ten or ACC coming in the week before the Big East Tournament.

“The Big East has their traditional week, but we would be very open if the Big Ten or ACC would want to come in the week before,” he said.

The ACC will return to Barclays Center in 2022, and has never played at the Garden.

The A-10, which held its championship at Barclays Center in 2015 and ’16, will return to Barclays Center for three years from 2019-21.

Asked last year if the Big East had to prove anything, Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard bristled at the suggestion.

“I don’t think we have to show anything,” said Willard, whose team on Saturday beat No. 9 Kentucky in a thrilling Garden environment. “We’re established. It’s a tradition now, the Big East Tournament in New York. I got the same people calling me and asking me for tickets Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. We’re part of New York, the Garden has been phenomenal to us.

“Just because the other leagues come in and play, it really doesn’t have an effect on how great the Big East Tournament is and how much history there is in New York and Madison Square Garden. So I don’t really think about it that much about the other conferences coming in. We’re established, we’re proven and we’re going to keep rolling.”

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