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Big 5 announces its men’s matchups for 2025, and with it, the Villanova-St. Joseph’s rivalry could end

Unless the Wildcats and Hawks meet in the Big 5 Classic's title or third-place game, it would be the first time in 27 years that the two didn't tip off in a City Series contest.

St. Joseph's will look to go for a three-peat as Big 5 Classic champion, but first it will need to outlast Drexel and Penn in pod play.
St. Joseph's will look to go for a three-peat as Big 5 Classic champion, but first it will need to outlast Drexel and Penn in pod play. Read moreCharles Fox / Staff Photographer

It could take a meeting in the Big 5 men’s basketball championship game for Villanova and St. Joseph’s to extend a 27-year tradition of playing in the regular season.

News that the longtime rivals would not be in the same pod during the 2025 Big 5 Classic tournament format broke during the previous event in December. On Wednesday, the Big 5 announced the pods and preliminary matchups for this year’s event as well as a Dec. 6 date for the Big 5 Classic tripleheader.

St. Joe’s is in Pod 1 with Drexel and Penn, and Villanova is in Pod 2 with La Salle and Temple. Villanova and Drexel essentially swapped spots from the previous two seasons.

The pod schedules are as follows:

Pod 1:

  1. Drexel at St. Joe’s, Nov. 8

  2. St. Joe’s at Penn, Nov. 17

  3. Penn at Drexel, Nov. 21.

Pod 2:

  1. La Salle at Temple, Nov. 11

  2. Villanova at La Salle, Nov. 19

  3. Temple at Villanova, Dec. 1.

One would have to track back to the 1997-98 season for the last time Villanova and St. Joe’s didn’t meet. The Hawks beat Villanova in each of the last two seasons — reversing a recent trend that had made the rivalry somewhat one-sided — which allowed them to play for and win consecutive Big 5 Classic titles.

St. Joe’s beat Temple in the inaugural event in 2023-24 and topped La Salle last season. St. Joe’s and Villanova likely will have the best teams in the city, but the new format already has produced a few surprise results along the way. The championship isn’t the only place they could meet. If both finish second in their respective pods, for example, they would play in the third-place game at Wells Fargo Center on Dec. 6.