Big East Tournament tickets went on sale on following the start of conference play Tuesday. The Big East Conference Championship is a four-round tournament that takes place from March 11-14. The winner will be guaranteed a spot in the NCAA tournament. This is especially helpful to teams who are “on the bubble” of making it into the tournament and need more recognition or exposure to be selected for a bid.
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The tournament will be held in Madison Square Garden and the format will take place over four separate rounds. Each team is seeded depending on their record in conference play. The first round pits the lowest four seeds against each other. For example, No. 8 faces No. 9 and No. 7 plays No. 10. The top six teams all receive a first round bye. In the second round, the winner of the eight vs. nine-game plays the top seed, and the winner of the seven vs. 10 game plays the second seed. The 4th and 5th seeds face each other, and the 3rd and 6th seeds also play against each other. The winners of these four games play in the semifinals. The two teams that advance from the semifinals then play in a championship game. All games are single elimination.
The Big East Conference was created in 1979 with seven accomplished “basketball” schools came together from the East Coast and New England including Syracuse, Georgetown and UConn. A year after that Villanova joined the conference.
In 2013 the NCAA shook up the conferences and made the Big East a non-football conference. UConn was sent to the American conference and Syracuse left for the ACC. Xavier, Creighton and Butler were the newest members added in 2013.
Last year Villanova won the tournament defeating Seton Hall in the final game, 74-72. Georgetown and UConn are tied for the most Big East Tournament Championships with 7.
While the odds for the Big East Tournament haven’t been released yet, these are the odds for the regular season conference champion, according to FanDuel:
1. Villanova Odds to Win Big East: (+150)
2. Xavier Odds to Win Big East: (+550)
3. Marquette Odds to Win Big East: (+700)
4. Creighton Odds to Win Big East: (+1000)
5. Butler Odds to Win Big East: (+1300)
6. Providence Odds to Win Big East: (+1300)
7. Georgetown Odds to Win Big East: (+1500)
8. St. John’s Odds to Win Big East: (+4000)
9. DePaul Odds to Win Big East: (+5000)
10. Seton Hall Odds to Win Big East: (N/A)
