Before diving into Providence’s viewership numbers on Fox Sports 1 over the last 3 seasons, I think it’s important to take a jaunt down memory lane to regain some perspective on how the Big East began. I’d also like to remind people where Providence stood within the Big East conference 5 long years ago in May of 2011 as compared to where they stand after 3 short years in the current Big East. Recall that the Big East conference in May of 2011 consisted of 16 teams bloated by the focus on football. Many of the schools making up the 16 didn’t exactly fit the mold of what Dave Gavitt cooked up in the late 1970’s.

Gavitt envisioned East coast basketball schools coming together for each other’s benefit and that came to fruition in 1979 when Boston College, Connecticut (at the time, not a football school), Georgetown, Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall and Syracuse got together to form the original membership. Villanova joined a year later and then Pittsburgh was added in 1982. Georgetown won the Big East’s first national championship in 1984 but it was in 1985 that the little league of East coast schools announced itself as big time with 3 schools from the Big East making the Final 4. Georgetown beat St. John’s to advance to their second straight national title game but it would be Villanova winning in upset fashion over the vaunted Hoyas. Ah, those were the days.

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