Val Ackerman transformed basketball and the Big East. Now the conference faces a critical juncture
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| Big East commissioner Val Ackerman speaks in October during a college basketball roundtable in New York. Porter Binks/Getty Images |
In 2013, Val Ackerman was teaching a leadership course at Columbia University as the Big East scraped its way back to existence after being left for roadkill amid college football realignment.
Fascinated by the moxie shown by the remaining seven Catholic schools, Ackerman used the league's plan as a case study for her students.
Six months later, she was named the league's commissioner.Since then, Ackerman, who announced she will retire in August, has presided over what might arguably be the greatest start-up business in college athletics history. In its early days, the Big East had no office, borrowing space in a Manhattan-based law firm. It had no benefits packages to offer to employees and no email accounts. Ackerman used his personal Gmail for correspondence.
The Big East has steadied its membership, since the conference's revival, by adding Butler, Creighton and Xavier, bringing UConn back to its rightful home, winning four men's basketball national championships, four women's hoops titles and now operating out of the Empire State Building.
Related articleYet, Ackerman leaves as the Big East faces another critical juncture in its existence. Revenue sharing has highlighted the line between those with and without football money. The Big East's expected draw – that it could put all of its money into basketball – has proven more difficult to actually pull off. Largely because, while its member schools can put cash behind hoops, it has fewer funds to offer. It is no coincidence that the three schools that spent the most money – St. John’s, UConn and Villanova – finished 1-2-3 in the conference for men’s basketball.
Furthermore, the league's hold on UConn, while stronger than tenuous, is less than airtight. The Huskies are always a dangling goalpost away from a jump to save football.
And while college basketball is coming off of its best NCAA Tournament viewership in more than 30 years, football continues to siphon all it can from the coffers. Calls to expand the tournament are largely fueled by football-first conferences looking not just to get more teams into the dance but also to earn more units from March Madness payouts.
McGlade also leaves a massive void
With the departure of Ackerman – coupled with the retirement of Atlantic 10 commissioner Bernadette McGlade – hoops is losing not just two powerful women, but two champions of their game. Both Jersey girlscame up similarly: star players who pivoted into administration.McGlade, a UNC graduate, first coached before heading into conference leadership and, like Ackerman, deftly and delicately shepherded the Atlantic 10 through its own vulnerability via thoughtful expansion. The A10 found a basketball steward in new commissioner, Dan Leibovitz, who cut his teeth as John Chaney's assistant at Temple before charting his own path through coaching and on to admin.
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| Atlantic 10 commissioner Bernadette McGlade attends a tournament game in Pittsburgh last month. Charles LeClaire/Imagn Images/Reuters |
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| Val Ackerman, as WNBA president, announces the Phoenix Mercury as the winner of the league's draft lottery in 2003. Jennifer Pottheiser/NBAE/Getty Images |
