A chapter of the Big East Conference is closing, and a new one is about to begin.
Val Ackerman, 66, announced she was retiring as commissioner of the Big East Conference on Monday. It marks the end of a 13-year tenure in the role after being appointed in 2013. Ackerman will officially step down on Aug. 31, when a new commissioner assumes the role. A search for the conference’s next commissioner has begun.
During her time as the fifth Big East commissioner, Ackerman navigated the conference through a difficult era and turned the newly restructured conference in2to a powerhouse from almost nothing. The conference used to share workspace with a Manhattan-based law firm, and now it occupies 7,882 square feet in the Empire State Building.
“Speaking on behalf of all the Big East Presidents, we announce Commissioner Val Ackerman’s retirement with a tinge of sadness and deep gratitude,” St. John’s President Rev. Brian J. Shanley, O.P., Chair of the BIG EAST Board of Directors said in a statement. “When we re-founded the BIG EAST in 2013 as a basketball-centric conference, our first task was to find a commissioner who could provide the strategic vision needed to position us as a basketball peer with the power football conferences and compete with the country’s best. We found that visionary leader in Val Ackerman.”
Ackerman’s work drove her to become one of the most notable women in sports. Over her 38-year professional career, she was the founding president of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), the president of USA Basketball, and the U.S. representative for men’s and women’s basketball on the Central Board of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA).
Ackerman took over the role of commissioner at the beginning of an uncertain future for the Big East. The conference had just been realigned due to football reasons. Historic Big East programs like Cincinnati, the University of Connecticut, Louisville, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and West Virginia all split and joined separate conferences. While those schools went to chase football money, it directly affected the success of their basketball programs.
Except for an outlier in UConn, which won back-to-back national titles.
During an era when Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) completely changed college athletics, especially for smaller schools in the Big East, which had long relied on coaching and facilities for recruitment rather than money, Ackerman kept the Big East on track. In the last decade, the conference has won four men’s basketball titles – Villanova (2016, 2018) and UConn (2023, 2024) – and one from the UConn women’s team (2025), while competing against conferences with large budgets and football money.
“Val’s leadership in guiding the Big East through the challenges of conference realignment and into a vibrant new era has long earned my respect,” Eric Rodel, Villanova’s Vice President and Director of Athletics, said in a statement to The Villanovan. “Since returning to Villanova last year, I’ve gained an even deeper appreciation for her vision, steady stewardship and unwavering commitment to the success of the Big East and our student-athletes. Her impact has strengthened and elevated the Big East’s standing across college athletics during a pivotal time. Val’s legacy will endure for years to come, and we are all better for her remarkable service.”
While those four trophies shine in hindsight, a basketball-centric conference was dismissed as unserious just a decade ago. Ackerman was able to pull it off and guide the Big East to where it is now as she prepares to depart the conference.
“She’s extremely impressive, everything about Val,” Villanova women’s basketball head coach Denise Dillon. “You read through all of the accolades and well-deserved recognition. I think what people don’t realize is how accessible she is. With our young women, for them to have had the opportunity to actually know the commissioner of a prominent league, the head of the Big East, and to know her just on speaking terms. She was an everyday person, and just her humility was there, but she always wanted to grow the game and help any of us as much as she could. But her presence, accessibility, I would say, was a major key in the growth of the Big East, the women’s side, the game itself, sports in general.”
Ackerman secured Madison Square Garden as the home of the Big East Men’s Basketball Tournament, while others competed to try to put their conference tournaments in the venue. She led the negotiations that resulted in two extensions of the conference’s venue licensing agreement with the Garden. The most recent extension in 2024 ensures that the venue will remain the home of the tournament through 2032.
On top of that, Ackerman has played a role in the Big East’s partnership with FOX Sports, the conference’s media partner, as well as working to strike a six-year agreement with ESPN to provide coverage of hundreds of additional Big East events.
“I think when you’re in these jobs, you’re not in them forever,” Ackerman told USA Today when reflecting on retirement. “That’s just the nature of the beast. Everyone is working a shift at the end of the day. And I think your hope is that when it was your turn, when the baton got passed to you, you ran a good race. I’ve climbed the mountains. Every mountain that I ever wanted to climb, I’ve climbed it. If there’s a legacy piece, I hope it’s at least about what I’ve done for women and the game of basketball.”
Ackerman, despite pressure from across collegiate athletics, kept the Big East close to its roots, holding the league at 11 teams to keep its small but powerful identity. With money becoming a large part of how conferences operate, a sports-minded commissioner like Ackerman could become a thing of the past.
