Philadelphia Big 5

The Philadelphia Big 5's previous logo

The Big 5 was formed in 1955[2] a year after La Salle won the 1954 NCAA basketball tournament. The group showcased Philadelphia's basketball talent and helped pay for the upkeep on the Palestra, on the University of Pennsylvania's campus where the games historically took place. Games were scheduled as double or triple-headers. All schools agreed to split ticket and concessions revenues equally once Penn was paid for upkeep costs on the Palestra. The arrangement promoted already intense intra-city collegiate basketball rivalries dating back three decades or more.

During the heyday of the Big 5, many major college programs, especially in the northeastern United States, were independents. As the Big East and Atlantic 10 conferences expanded to cover most of the Northeast (Villanova joined the Big East, while Temple, Saint Joseph's, and La Salle joined the Atlantic 10, Penn is a member of the Ivy League), and as college basketball became increasingly driven by television and its need to appeal to a broad national audience, the local character of the Big 5 was a liability. The round-robin series ended in 1991.

However, in 1999, the Big 5 round-robin series was revived and continued until the 2022-23 season. Some things have changed from the series' heyday: the schools no longer evenly split the proceeds from the games, and La Salle, Temple, St. Joe's, and Villanova do not always use the Palestra for their home games in the series.

There are intense rivalries inside the Big 5, most notably the rivalry between Villanova and Saint Joseph's, also known as the Holy War. The St. Joe's–Temple rivalry increased in the early 2000s mostly because of the "Goon Gate" incident in 2005 involving former Temple coach John Chaney, who sent in a player to intentionally foul John Bryant. Bryant's arm was fractured. La Salle considers Saint Joseph's to be its biggest rival.

Throughout the Big 5's existence, some suggested adding Drexel. Drexel is a member of the City 6, which is an intra-city intramural competition among the six schools. These talks amplified during the 2006–07 season, as Drexel beat three of the four Big 5 teams it played, but no changes were made.[3]

In December 2022, The Athletic reported that administrators at the Big 5 schools and Drexel were discussing "trying to find a way to resuscitate the Big 5."[4] The meetings came after a sparsely attended Big 5 doubleheader at the Palestra.[4] According to The Athletic, talks about reforms to the Big 5 began prior to the doubleheader as school administrators felt there was a decline in the series due to Villanova's recent dominance and many of the top local recruits opting not to play college basketball in Philadelphia.[4]

The Big 5 announced in April 2023 that the Big 5 would add Drexel.[1] The six teams will be split into two three-team pods, who will play each other in November. On the first Saturday in December, a triple header will be held with a fifth place, third place and championship game being held at the Wells Fargo Center.[1] Some criticized the move as it eliminated the full round-robin nature of the Big 5 and games will no longer be primarily played at the Palestra.[1]

The Liacouras Center on the campus of Temple University

At the Palestra prior to a St. Joe's–Penn basketball game

Hagan Arena on campus home of St. Joe's

The interior of Finneran Pavilion at Villanova

LaSalle hosts Penn at Tom Gola Arena

The Daskalakis Athletic Center is home to Drexel

All Big 5 men's basketball teams play each other once per season for a total of four games per team. Currently La Salle and St. Joe's meet twice per season since they both share a conference. If two or more Big 5 teams do share a conference, the second matchup between the schools is counted toward the Big 5 standings while the first matchup is not. There is no season-ending Big 5 Tournament, so a "champion" of the unofficial athletics group is determined by a round-robin tournament. Since 1956 there have been three instances of a five-way tie among all member schools, which occurred in 1980–81 (2–2 records), 1991–92 (1–1 records), and 1997–98 (1–1 records), though the latter two cases were during the period when there was no round-robin format, so not every team played all four other teams.

• Asterisk (*) denotes shared championship
• Bold denotes all five schools tied