COLUMN: Like it or not, Big 5 will keep 'Nova

Scott Miller, Commentary Since the 1991-92 season, Villanova has played only two Big 5 games each year. It was their decision which took the then-36-year-old round-robin tradition and cut it in half. While the other four schools, Penn, La Salle, St. Joseph's and Temple, continue the round-robin City Series without the official seal of the Big 5, Villanova has been criticized, and suggestions have been made to the point of dropping the Wildcats from the unofficial league to make room for Drexel. But even though the Quakers got a thorough thrashing at the Palestra Tuesday night, the game proved that like it or not, the Villanova Wildcats are still deeply imbedded in Big 5 tradition. Consider these factors: · The Palestra was nearly sold out for the first time this season. While Towson State and Lehigh are certainly not top-drawing teams, a Villanova game alone would not have sold all of the seats without the Big 5 title surrounding the contest. The City Series emblem and hype draws in more alumni and local fans on history alone. · Over the past seven years, Tuesday night was only the second time Villanova won an opening Big 5 game. All of the criticism surrounding the Wildcats semi-departure from the Big 5 was focused on a cop-out. People believed that Villanova was trying to avoid playing better teams and replacing them with cupcakes. If this was the case, the Cats would have quickly dropped the league altogether because of their consistent losses. · Villanova has a game on Saturday at the CoreStates Spectrum against Duke, the No. 14 team in the nation, yet filled about one-third of the Palestra stands. Villanova is a good half-hour away from Penn. To fill about 2,750 seats is impressive. And despite the fact Villanova is No. 4 in the nation, almost 3,000 people would not make the trek to watch them simply roll over a lesser team. Look at the Penn-Michigan game two years ago. Penn students had their tickets upgraded in Ann Arbor, because not many Michigan people showed up to watch their Wolverines on their home court. · Even a good, old-fashioned Big 5 mascot brawl broke out. Where else in the nation can you watch such a demonstration of school spirit? Only in the Big 5. If you look at the Big 5's purpose, the results are different. The Big 5 was started in 1954 with the sole purpose of marketing five basketball programs in the Philadelphia area. All five teams needed it. All five teams benefited tremendously from it. Meanwhile, crowning a city champion became a cherished prize and an historic tradition. But if the Big 5 still defines itself as a marketing mechanism, then Villanova has served its course, and Drexel should be admitted. Penn, La Salle, St. Joseph's and even Temple still benefit from the City Series, both in ticket sales and recruiting. The advent of the collegiate sporting conferences, such as the Big East, has created another, more effective marketing scheme which has put Villanova over the top, but La Salle, St. Joseph's and Temple, who are all in the less-hyped Atlantic-10 conference, are not at the level Villanova has been playing at consistently for a few years now. But don't believe for a moment that the Big 5 is still the marketing ploy it was years ago -- Paul Rubincam and the Big 5 office pride themselves on all of the history and tradition that go along with the City Series. From the famed double-headers to the streamer-throwing fans to the "Palestra-filled" Palestra, the Big 5 has built up too much history to simply ignore it. And Villanova will not ignore that either. And that is exactly why Villanova will remain one-fifth of the definition of Philadelphia basketball.