Val Ackerman transformed basketball and the Big East. Now the conference faces a critical juncture

In 2013, Val Ackerman was teaching a leadership course at Columbia University as the Big East scraped its way back to existence after being left for roadkill amid college football realignment.

Fascinated by the moxie shown by the remaining seven Catholic schools, Ackerman used the league’s plan as a case study for her students.

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Six months later, she was named the league’s commissioner.

Since then, Ackerman, who announced she will retire in August, has presided over what might arguably be the greatest start-up business in college athletics history. In its early days, the Big East had no office, borrowing space in a Manhattan-based law firm. It had no benefits packages to offer to employees and no email accounts. Ackerman used her personal Gmail for correspondence.

The Big East has steadied its membership, since the conference’s revival, by adding Butler, Creighton and Xavier, luring UConn back to its rightful home, winning four men’s basketball national championships, four women’s hoops titles and now operating out of the Empire State Building.

Above all else, the Big East cleared space for college basketball in a world increasingly run roughshod by the pigskin.

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Yet, Ackerman leaves as the Big East faces another critical juncture in its existence. Revenue sharing has underscored the line between those with and without football money. The Big East’s expected draw – that it could put all of its money into basketball – has proven more difficult to actually pull off. Largely because, while its member schools can put cash behind hoops, it has fewer funds to offer. It is no coincidence that the three schools that spent the most money – St. John’s, UConn and Villanova – finished 1-2-3 in the conference for men’s basketball.

Furthermore, the league’s hold on UConn, while stronger than tenuous, is less than airtight. The Huskies are always a dangling goalpost away from a jump to save football.

And while college basketball is coming off of…

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Publish date : 2026-04-21 10:30:00

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