Men’s Basketball: Big Ten, Big East announce Gavitt Tipoff Games series

Alex Putterman, Sports Editor

The Big East and Big Ten have launched a new partnership, the conferences announced Monday.

Teams from the two leagues will match up in an annual early-season basketball event, the Gavitt Tipoff Games, beginning in 2015 and lasting through 2022.

The series is named for Dave Gavitt, the former Providence College coach and founder of the Big East conference, who died in 2011.

“We are excited to honor Dave Gavitt and his contributions to the sport of basketball through the establishment of the Gavitt Tipoff Games,” Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said in a statement. “I think he would approve of our effort to start a new tipoff tradition, grow the game and serve the best interests of the student-athletes and coaches in these two great conferences.”

The event will take place over four days during the first full week of the college basketball season in November. Each conference will host four games each year, and every Big Ten school is guaranteed at least four appearances in the series.

The partnership is part of an ongoing effort to market the Big Ten to the East Coast. Maryland and Rutgers will officially join the conference July 1 and the Big Ten will soon open a second office in New York.

In addition to the Gavitt Tipoff Games, the Big Ten will remain engaged in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, the schedule for which was released last week. In the 2014 iteration of the challenge, Northwestern will host Georgia Tech on Dec. 3.

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