The Big East and the Big Ten will play an eight game annual tip off series beginning in 2015-16. The event is set to be formally announced on Monday afternoon during a press conference at Madison Square Garden. Kevin McNamara first reported the news, which was confirmed by the Big Ten.
Two of the most prestigious conferences in the nation, the Big East and the Big Ten, have announced the establishment of the Gavitt Tipoff Games, an annual early-season series of eight men’s basketball games played between the two conferences and named in honor of Dave Gavitt, founder of the Big East and basketball visionary.
The Gavitt Tipoff Games will be played on four consecutive days in the first full week of the college basketball season. The series begins at the start of the 2015-16 season and will span eight years, with games played at home sites.
The series will feature four home contests each for Big East and Big Ten schools on an annual basis from 2015 through 2022. Two games will be played on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in the first full week of each season. Each Big East team will participate a minimum of six times over the eight years, while Big Ten programs will participate a minimum of four times.
Television coverage of the Gavitt Tipoff Games will be controlled by the conference of the home team. Big East home games will be telecast by FOX Sports 1, while Big Ten home matchups will appear on BTN or ESPN.
Teams from both conferences already meet in some traditional rivalry games, and those matchups will continue during the 2014-15 season.
Greenstein reports that Fox Sports 1 will televise the Big East home games with ESPN and BTN televising the Big Ten home games. Geographical rivalries and competitiveness will both be used to create the matchups. Matchups like Maryland-Georgetown, Nebraska-Creighton, Wisconsin-Marquette, Rutgers-Seton Hall and Northwestern-DePaul all provide geographical intrigue.
