Championship Blues: No Nova = No Good for Big 5 Classic Event 

As we rev up for year two of the Wells Fargo Center’s Big 5 Classic event, here’s what we know now about the highly-anticipated sequel. 

1. St. Joe’s has locked in their spot in the Championship. 
2. Villanova will once again miss out on playing for a banner in the championship game.
3. Wells Fargo promoters and executives are probably not too happy about #2. 

A Big 5 event without Villanova as the marquee headliner can seem to many fans, most notably the many Villanova fans, as not much of an event at all. It’s like being promised the Stones but no Mick Jagger. It’s like buying tickets to a Sixers game only to find out Embiid isn’t playi… oh wait – no need to put salt in the Wells’ wounds.

You have to imagine everyone involved in this promotion scribbled V’s with their sharpies across any Big 5 bracket projections from 2023 to 3033 – and why wouldn’t they have? It’s so unbelievably unfortunate for them and probably funny to others that Nova has had two unparalleled stinkers for seasons in exact unison with the advent of this promotion.

I just imagine some poor schmuck, now totally vindicated, in the Wells Fargo Center boardroom mustering up the courage to provide some pushback to everyone forecasting the profits on hot dogs and beer courtesy of Nova Nation. 

“Uhh, Mr. Fargo,” he says timidly. “Just playing Devil’s advocate here, but what if Villanova doesn’t make it to the final?”

The committee then bursts out in laughter, comically slaps their knees, and fires that guy for peddling conspiracies and ludicrous hypotheticals. 

The Big 5 Classic is a good event on paper. The old guys will hate it because it’s not at the Palestra – as they’re entitled to – but it’s still something new that creates a buzz and sense of professionalism and pageantry that the year-old tradition desperately lacks.

The irony in this whole thing? While Villanova being bad (even if only for a short stint) may hurt numbers for the Classic, it at the same time has opened the door for something the Big 5 has not had in a long time, parody. It seems like anybody can really beat anybody this year, except for Penn (sorry Penn fans – if it’s any consolation, I’ll trade my mid major fandom privileges for your degree any day). 

Now, I think St. Joe’s will repeat and therefore re-hang that illustrious banner in the Wells Fargo Center (they should make multiple banners lord knows there is room there), but in absolutely no way are they a lock. We don’t say that word. We don’t even know who they’re playing yet, but it doesn’t matter. You simply never know what St. Joe’s you’ll get and Temple and La Salle both seem to be cooking with a little gas right now. Jamal Mashburn Jr is a certified stud, Fran’s got the Explorers playing with a major chip on their shoulder, Drexel is .. doing Drexel things. Because of all that, I am excited for the event. There should be three really good matchups taking place starting with a lowkey interesting pillow fight, moving on to yet another “must-win” (been a lot of those) Nova matchup against the loser of TU/LAS, and finally the chip. 

The Big 5 Classic triple-header is on Saturday, December 7th. I’ll be there in good spirits trying to help the WFC recoup on the aforementioned hot dog and beer sales.