Expect to see changes in the Big 5 Classic group pairings next season

After the first two years of the group-stage-and-final Big 5 Classic tournament format, the arrangement of the groups will change next year.

Penn women’s coach Mike McLaughlin hinted at it during Friday night’s women’s tripleheader, Drexel men’s coach Zach Spiker hinted at it during Saturday’s men’s tripleheader, and another source confirmed it to The Inquirer after that.

Villanova, Temple, and La Salle will be in one pod, and St. Joseph’s, Penn, and Drexel will be in the other. The current format of each team playing one home game will continue, with each matchup alternating venues each year.

The current pods have Villanova, St. Joe’s, and Penn in one pod, and Temple, La Salle, and Drexel in the other. So in short, Villanova and Drexel have been flipped.

» READ MORE: Villanova is finding a groove as Big East play nears. Time will tell if its early hole was too deep.

As evidenced by who has discussed it, the change will apply to both the men’s and women’s City Series. It’s unknown when the change will be officially announced, but enough people know across the six schools.

The change means that for the first time since the 1997-98 season, the Villanova and St. Joe’s men’s teams won’t have a set meeting to contest the Big 5′s most famous rivalry.

Back then, the Big 5 schedule was a half-round-robin, with each team playing two games. The full round robin disappeared in 1991, then lived again from 1999-2023. Villanova and Temple split the last round-robin title with 3-1 records.

The women’s teams have met every season since being added during the 1979-80 season. They kept the round-robin through last season, starting the new format this season. Temple won the first title under the new format on Friday, beating Villanova 76-62 on the Main Line.

» READ MORE: Temple seizes the stage with an emphatic women’s Big 5 title game triumph

The theory, obviously, is that if the Hawks and Wildcats if win their groups, they’ll meet for the city title in the biggest game of all. If Temple and St. Joe’s win their groups, as happened last season, that classic rivalry will get to the title game stage. And if Penn or Drexel beats the Hawks, the title game will have a first-timer.

A lesser loss is that both of the Big 5′s most famous programs, Villanova and Temple, won’t visit the Palestra for as long as the new groups stay in place. The clear decline in attendance across the programs in recent years means only the history buffs will care about that, but there are enough of them to be heard.