The Guru Report: Big Five Women’s Competition Changes Being Revealed Thursday

Gurus’ note: This coming season, content here is being shared with Aaron Bracy’s big5hoops.com. Please visit there for exclusive local men’s coverage.

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — The long-awaited plans for the revised Big Five women’s competition, including the final two-part embrace of Drexel into the overall fold, will be revealed Thursday morning at a press conference at Villanova’s Fineran Pavilion.

Last season the local men, with the addition of Drexel, underwent a structure change from the annual City Series round-robin, and went into an in-season tournament format with two sets of three-team pods and finishing with a triple-header for 5th, 3rd, and 1st place, the latter of which Saint Joseph’s beat Temple for the title, the triple header played last December at the Wells Fargo Center.

The women continued without Drexel for one more year with a round-robin won by Saint Joseph’s with a 4-0 sweep, the key topping Villanova on Hawk Hill.

The Wildcats later got revenge in the postseason in the brand-new NCAA-organized Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament, winning at home in the third-round over the Hawks and advancing two rounds to the title game, losing to Illinois at Butler’s Hinkley Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Based on conversations during last season with the Big Five women working on this year’s plan, the two pods will consist of Saint Joseph’s, Villanova, and Penn on one side, Temple, Drexel and La Salle on the other, with the placement tripleheader based on recent conversations, at Villanova.

Though Temple and Saint Joseph’s could only meet in a crossover game, the two scheduled a potential second game, beyond the structure, both sides deciding it would be a good schedule strength game.

This season will be the 45th anniversary of formal Big 5 women’s competition, though in 2020-21 due to disruptions from COVID-19, there was no complete City Series, but postseason awards within the Big Five schools were presented through a voting procedure.

Big Five women’s competition began in 1979-80 after it was discovered by chance everyone was on everyone else’s schedule for that season, thus no adjustment needed, and so stakeholders met at Doc Watson’s Pub, a popular center city hangout at the time, to organize.

There was some pushback initially from the men’s side but that quickly dissipated.

The pieces of the pod puzzle for the 2024-25 evolved in that Saint Joseph’s and Villanova wanted to keep their popular seasonal draw; Drexel and Villanova, with the longtime friendship of Wildcats coach Denise Dillon and Drexel’s Amy Mallon’s from their long-running time with the Dragons, did not wish to meet unless the pod results forced the event.

La Salle and Saint Joseph’s now meet twice annually as Atlantic 10 natural rivals, though that can change in the future.

Big Five leadership updates are also on the agenda.

Speakers on Thursday, according to the invitation, will be Villanova athletic director Mark Jackson, a recent appointee to the NCAA tournament men’s basketball committee, Dan Hilferty, Chairman @ CEO Comcast Spectacor; Saint Josephs women’s coach Cindy Griffin, who will begin her 24th season at her Alma mater, and Mallon, the newbie of the group by structure  but a former Hawks star and member of the Big Five Hall of Fame.

On the women’s side, Villanova SWA Lynn Tighe and Saint Joseph’s athletic director Jill Bodensteiner have been serving terms on the NCAA tournament committee.

While Griffin has become the Dean of Big Five women’s coaches after longtime Villanova coach Harry Perretta retired after 2020, Penn’s Mike McLaughlin is now the Dean of Ivy women’s coaches after Cornell’s Dayna Smith ended a long run following last season.

The men’s Big Five change last season was run successfully, though there was disappointment among longtime followers that there was no annual postseason awards event last month, nor the 2024 Class of Big Five Hall of Fame inductees was not offered a chance to make acceptance speeches last December.

In conversations last winter, the women expressed reluctance to play at the large Wells Fargo Center, fearing attendance would not be a good look, and favored either The Palestra at Penn or at Villanova for 2024-25.

Women’s Basketball, nationally, had its greatest season, and momentum is expected to continue into 2024-25 with sponsorship and TV opportunities at a new high.

Locally, the WNBA has Philadelphia on a list of potential expansion cities to consider the next several years.

Saint Joseph’s had its greatest season in the Griffin era at her alma mater, though falling just short of the NCAA, as did Villanova, but Temple was an in-season co-champion of the American Athletic Conference, and Drexel stunned from a seventh seed to win four straight and claim the Coastal Athletic Association tournament crown.

In the new age, La Salle and Villanova were rocked by transfer defections, the most prominent, the Wildcats’ Lucy Olsen, Big Five women’s player of the year, heading to Iowa to fill the roster spot of national player of the year Caitlin Clark, the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft.

Everyone else had portal additions and subtractions except Saint Joseph’s, which didn’t lose anyone.

Next season will also see a major change in Power 5 memberships, which included the demise of the PAC-12, reduced to just the football programs of Washington State and Oregon State preserving the conference identity for the moment.