Val Ackerman retiring

[muskieman]

Val Ackerman will retire as the BIG EAST Conference Commissioner on August 31, 2026. She has served in this role for the past 13 years, leading the conference through significant changes and achievements, including the return of UConn and the promotion of basketball as a central focus of the conference.

a national search for her successor will start immediately and be led by the conference's Board of Directors.

"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 our football counterparts and compete with the country’s best. We found that visionary leader in Val Ackerman," said St. John’s President Rev. Brian J. Shanley, O.P., Chair of the Big East Board of Directors. "She leaves big shoes to fill."

The league is thriving with competitive teams and armed with a new media rights agreement with FOX, NBC Sports and TNT Sports through the 2030-31 season. 10 of the league’s 11 men’s basketball programs receiving NCAA tournament bids during Ackerman’s tenure. BIG EAST schools have won four men’s basketball national titles in the past decade (Villanova in 2016 and 2018 and UConn in 2023 and 2024), more than any other Division I conference during that span.

Ackerman also led the negotiations that resulted in two extensions of the conference’s venue licensing agreement with Madison Square Garden, the home of the BIG EAST men’s basketball tournament since 1983. The event has remained one of New York City’s most popular annual sports events, and the 2026 edition brought in record revenue for the conference. The most recent extension in 2024 ensures that the Garden will remain the home of the tournament through 2032, which will represent the event’s 50th anniversary at The World’s Most Famous Arena.