Philadelphia Big 5
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- For other uses of the term "Big Five" and its variants, see Big five (disambiguation).
The Philadelphia Big 5 is an informal association of college athletic programs in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is not a conference; indeed the five schools that are members of the Big 5 are members of three separate conferences.
The five universities that are members of the Big 5 are the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, Saint Joseph's University, Villanova University, and La Salle University. Drexel University, the other principal university in Philadelphia with a NCAA Division I basketball team, is not a member of the Big 5. 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.
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, 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 U.S., were independents. As the Big East and Atlantic Ten Conferences expanded to cover most of the Northeast (Villanova joined the Big East, while Temple, St. Joseph's, and La Salle joined the Atlantic Ten), 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 Villanova and Temple do not 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.
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.
