It has been five years since a team currently in the Big East made it to the Final Four. In 2010 and 2011, Butler made back-to-back runs to the National Championship and lost to Duke and Connecticut, respectively, as a member of the Horizon League. Villanova was in the Final Four previous to that in 2009, and after seven years the Wildcats finally made it back.
Villanova returning to the Final Four means more to the new Big East than many might think. Under the new 10-team format, many have said that the conference is “dead,” or will never reach the heights that it did prior to big schools like Syracuse, Louisville and Connecticut leaving.