Fans of Philadelphia’s famed city basketball series, the Big 5, can now purchase tickets for the 2024 Toyota Big 5 Classic men’s championship. The college basketball tripleheader is scheduled for Dec. 7 at the Wells Fargo Center.
This is how the Classic works.
Philadelphia’s six basketball teams are divided into two groups of three teams: Drexel, La Salle and Temple are in one group, and the University of Pennsylvania, Saint Joseph’s and Villanova are in the second group.
Each school will compete in the on-campus arena by Dec. 7. All six teams will play at the Wells Fargo Center on Dec. 7, with the top-seeded team in each pod advancing to the Big 5 championship. The second-place teams will play for third place, and the third-place teams will play for fifth place.
The Big 5 — a name coined by Philadelphia Inquirer sportswriter Herb Good — officially formed in 1954, and the schools began playing round-robin games in 1955 to gain bragging rights to the “City Series.” The first game was 69 years ago, when Saint Joseph’s defeated Villanova 83-70 on Dec. 14, 1955, before 2,636 fans at the Palestra.
