There’s a press event in South Philly today to announce this:

PHILADELPHIA (April 11, 2023) – Today, the Big 5 officially welcomed Drexel University and revealed details of a new series format where the Big 5 champion will be determined during a same-day, Big 5 triple-header at the New Wells Fargo Center on Saturday, December 2, 2023. The announcement was made on the court at Wells Fargo Center which has been home to numerous NCAA Tournament games, and has featured all of the Big 5 teams in action during its more than 25-year history. 

For the new series, the six schools will be separated into three-team pods: Pod 1: Temple, La Salle, and Drexel; Pod 2: Villanova, St. Joseph’s, and Penn. Each team will play the other two teams from their pod at their individual on-campus arenas. All teams will participate in the Big 5 Classic triple-header at the New Wells Fargo Center on December 2 with the first seed in each pod competing for the Big 5 championship, the second place teams in each pod competing for second place, and the third seeds competing for third place in the Big 5.

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The Big 5 Classic is the latest event hosted by Spectacor Events and Entertainment (SEE), which finds or builds exciting events for the city of Philadelphia at the Wells Fargo Center and beyond.  SEE spent the past 6 months working to bring the Big 5 Classic to the Wells Fargo Center and will promote the event of behalf of the schools. 

Thoughts? I have none because the Big 5/City 6 this past season had less juice than a desiccated orange.

When you look at how little interest/attendance there was for those Palestra games earlier this year, I think we were at least in agreement that the local hoops scene needed some kind of shot in the arm, really ANY kind of shot in the arm, so while doing two pods and playing a triple-header at the WFC may or may not the be the solution, it’s good to try SOMETHING different… right? We’ll see what Pagan and other local alums have to say about this. Not sure if the new pod format, which has Temple and Villanova on opposite sides, means the possibility of them not playing at all. We’ll see if they clear that up in the presser.

And honestly, no issue with Drexel being included permanently in this. It does feel goofy to have a “Big 5” with six teams, but that’s how shit works these days. The Big 12 only has 10 teams and the Big 10 has 14 teams, so there are examples of this all over the place at the college level.