Come September, the Big East will have a new commissioner for the first time since The Reformation.
On Monday morning, the league announced that Commissioner Val Ackerman will retire from her position as of August 31, 2026. A national search by the Big East Board of Directors — which is just the presidents of the 11 league members — will result in the selection of a new commissioner before Ackerman steps down.
From Rev. Brian J. Shanley, O.P., the president of St. John’s University and Chair of the Board
of Directors:
“Speaking on behalf of all the BIG EAST Presidents, we announce Commissioner Val Ackerman’s retirement with a tinge of sadness and deep gratitude,” said St. John’s President Rev. Brian J. Shanley, O.P., Chair of the BIG EAST Board of Directors. “When we re-founded the BIG EAST in 2013 as a basketball-centric conference, our first task was to find a commissioner who could provide the strategic vision needed to position us as a basketball peer with the power football conferences and compete with the country’s best. We found that visionary leader in Val Ackerman. Val has leveraged our partnerships with FOX Sports and Madison Square Garden to create a platform that has produced five basketball national champions (four men’s and one’s women’s) in the past decade, and she has built a strong foundation for future success. She leaves big shoes to fill.”
From Ackerman:
“It’s been an extraordinary honor for me to serve as the Commissioner of one of the most prestigious and storied organizations in college sports,” said Ackerman. “I want to thank our Presidents for entrusting me with this one-of-a-kind leadership opportunity and for supporting the investments needed to maintain the BIG EAST’s stature and meet our schools’ high competitive and academic standards. I especially want to recognize the Athletics Directors, Senior Woman Administrators, coaches, game officials, athletics and university personnel, BIG EAST staff, NCAA staff, network and business partners, journalists, student-athletes, and others I have worked with along the way for their professionalism, their support of college sports values, and for making my days (and nights) working for the BIG EAST a joy. With our long-term business deals securely in place and knowing we have strong, focused leadership on our campuses, I am confident that the future of the conference, and BIG EAST basketball in particular, is very bright, and I believe the time is right for me to hand off the baton.”
Let’s be clear about Val Ackerman’s accomplishments as a basketball executive: While her accomplishments with the Big East are impressive, it might not be top three. She was the founding president of the WNBA, a job she held for eight seasons. She was the president of USA Basketball from 2005-08. She had two four year terms as the United States’ representative on FIBA’s Central board. Sure, the run as Big East commissioner is the longest stretch there at 13 years, but those other three are pretty hard to ignore in terms of both national and global impact. You could even argue that Ackerman is in the Naismith Hall of Fame for that impact before you even take her years with the Big East into account.
Still, it’s hard to underestimate the impact that Ackerman has had on the league and on college athletics in general. She has been commissioner of the Big East since before the newly reformed 10 team league had an actual office to call their own, working out of what amounted to a conference room in the offices of Proskauer Rose in New York City. Under Ackerman’s guidance, the Big East fended off an incursion by the Big Ten, as that league attempted to gain access to Madison Square Garden for their men’s basketball conference tournament. Because of the strength of the league in her first few years on the job and the success of the conference tournament at that venue even in the wake of losing ticket buying stalwarts in UConn and Syracuse, MSG had no interest in rupturing their deal with the Big East. That led to the Big Ten deciding they wanted to run MSG anyway and holding their conference tournament a week earlier than normal just to get it done. To the surprise of no one, the Big East recorded sellouts on their dates, and the Big Ten… did not. That MSG deal continues to this day with renewals over the years that will ultimately keep the men’s basketball conference tournament at the World’s Most Famous Arena through 2032, which will be the 50th straight year for the event and venue together.
Ackerman also led the league into its current media deal, which reportedly doubled the yearly payout to the member conferences. That deal with Fox, NBC, Turner Sports, and ESPN runs through 2031, providing long term stability and financial security for the league. It also provides higher visibility for the Big East’s non-men’s basketball sports, as moving the Big East Digital Network from FloSports to ESPN+ is a clear victory for the wider availability of the league’s contests.
On top of the stability and security of the league for the future, the Big East accomplished its primary point under Ackerman’s guidance. The reason why The Reformation happened back in the day is because the seven Catholic schools in the Big East at the time were tired of being yanked around by the whims of college football. They set out, with Creighton, Xavier, and Butler along for the ride, to prove that a basketball-forward conference could succeed anyway, even as football was drawing in ever-increasing amounts of money. With 10 of the 11 men’s basketball members reaching the NCAA tournament at least once in Ackerman’s time as commissioner and eight of those 10 getting in at least one Sweet 16 bid, it’s hard to argue that the re-launch of the league has been anything but a monumental success. That’s before we even note that Villanova and UConn — brought back into the fold by Ackerman starting in July 2020, a move that probably helped the price tag on the media deal double just a few years later — won national championships in the sport along the way.
The Big East presidents and athletic directors at the time took a gamble that this could work. Val Ackerman made it work, maybe even better than anyone expected.
Go read the Big East press release for an even longer rundown of all of Val Ackerman’s accomplishments as commissioner, and go read this USA Today article for even more on Val Ackerman’s personal history — shouts to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, apparently?? — in her clearly historic career.
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