Big 5 to add women’s triple-header to 2024-25 season; men’s event returning to Wells Fargo Center

The 46th season of Big 5 women’s basketball competition will have a new wrinkle.

Last year brought change to the men’s side, the local schools finally welcoming Drexel into the fold with a round-robin tournament that finished with St. Joseph’s as the champion, its win over Temple capping off a triple-header at the Wells Fargo Center.

Thursday morning at Villanova, officials will announce plans for the women’s teams to use the same two-pod, round-robin format with Villanova’s Finneran Pavilion hosting the three-game finale at a date to be announced, sources confirmed. Women’s basketball writer Mel Greenberg first reported the news early Tuesday morning.

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The women’s pods will look the same as last season’s men’s pods: Penn, St. Joe’s, and Villanova in one; Drexel, La Salle, and Temple in the other. The top two teams will meet in the championship game to finish off the triple-header at Villanova.

Details for the 2024-25 version of the men’s event are still being finalized, but sources say the event will return to the Wells Fargo Center, likely in early December once again.

While the St. Joe’s men won the new event last season, the school’s women’s team swept its Big 5 foes 4-0 — Drexel was not yet involved — to win the Big 5 for the first time in a decade.

It’d be fair to call both of them favorites in this year’s events. The men’s team is expected to be among the top teams in the Atlantic 10 with star guard Erik Reynolds II leading the way. And the women’s team, which went 28-6 and lost just three A-10 games, was the only school in the Big 5 to not lose any players to the transfer portal.

While officials will announce the women’s event at Thursday morning’s news conference, they’re also expected to announce “leadership updates to the Big 5,” according to a press release.