The inter-conference series will be no more after next season
A heavy blow has been dealt to St. John’s men’s basketball and the rest of the Big East’s non-conference schedules after next season. The Big East-Big 12 Battle will end after the 2024-25 season, according to Jon Rothstein.
The series started in the 2019-20 season and was originally planned as a four-season series. In August 2022, both conferences announced a two-year extension that ends after next season.
The Big East-Big 12 Battle guaranteed St. John’s a game against a high-major opponent on their annual non-conference schedule without dealing with the logistical headaches of scheduling a home-and-home series with an opponent. The conclusion of the series means non-conference scheduling will become more irksome.
St. John’s is 2-2 in the series history, with both wins coming against West Virginia in 2019 and 2023. In the latest meeting, the Red Storm defeated the Mountaineers in Morgantown, 79-73. St. John’s opponent for the final iteration of the Big East-Big 12 Battle has yet to be announced.
This was not the only inter-conference series involving the Big East to come to an end. Before the start of the 2023-24 season, it was reported that the Gavitt Games, the inter-conference showdown between Big East and Big Ten teams, will not be played in the 2024-25 season and may be discontinued. The Big Ten is slated to add four new teams in the summer of 2024 — USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington — and the league’s potential conference schedule expansion to 22 games likely contributed to the discontinuation of the Gavitt Games.