NEW YORK -- The BIG EAST Conference today announced that Val Ackerman, who has served as the league’s Commissioner for the past 13 years, will retire from the position, effective August 31, 2026. A national search for her successor will be spearheaded by the BIG EAST Board of Directors and will commence immediately.
“Speaking on behalf of all the BIG EAST Presidents, we announce Commissioner Val Ackerman’s retirement with a tinge of sadness and deep gratitude,” said St. John’s President Rev. Brian J. Shanley, O.P., Chair of the BIG EAST 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 the power football conferences and compete with the country’s best. We found that visionary leader in Val Ackerman. Val has leveraged our partnerships with FOX Sports and Madison Square Garden to create a platform that has produced five basketball national champions (four men’s and one’s women’s) in the past decade, and she has built a strong foundation for future success. She leaves big shoes to fill.”
“It’s been an extraordinary honor for me to serve as the Commissioner of one of the most prestigious and storied organizations in college sports,” said Ackerman. “I want to thank our Presidents for entrusting me with this one-of-a-kind leadership opportunity and for supporting the investments needed to maintain the BIG EAST’s stature and meet our schools’ high competitive and academic standards. I especially want to recognize the Athletics Directors, Senior Woman Administrators, coaches, game officials, athletics and university personnel, BIG EAST staff, NCAA staff, network and business partners, journalists, student-athletes, and others I have worked with along the way for their professionalism, their support of college sports values, and for making my days (and nights) working for the BIG EAST a joy. With our long-term business deals securely in place and knowing we have strong, focused leadership on our campuses, I am confident that the future of the conference, and BIG EAST basketball in particular, is very bright, and I believe the time is right for me to hand off the baton.”
Ackerman, who was named the BIG EAST’s fifth Commissioner on June 26, 2013, has presided over the rebirth of the conference following the decision in 2012 of seven then-current BIG EAST members (DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall, and Villanova) to separate from the original BIG EAST Conference and align with Butler, Creighton, and Xavier to form the present configuration. In 2019, Ackerman led the negotiations that resulted in the return to the BIG EAST of the University of Connecticut, one of the conference’s charter members, starting on July 1, 2020.
Following its return to its basketball-centric heritage, the BIG EAST has maintained its national excellence and position as one of the premier conferences in college basketball, with 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. In 2025, UConn won its 12th national title in women’s basketball, the most of any Division I program. In 2026, both of UConn’s basketball programs appeared in their respective NCAA Final Fours, with the Huskies’ men’s team advancing to the national championship game.
Now in her 38th year in the sports industry, Ackerman will depart from the BIG EAST as one of the most prominent executives in college sports and in the game of basketball. She has enjoyed a long and accomplished career and holds the rare distinction of having held leadership positions in both men’s and women’s sports at the collegiate, professional, national team and international levels. She has been inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame, and the State of New Jersey Hall of Fame and is a past recipient of the Women’s Sports Foundation’s Billie Jean King Award for significant contributions to the development and advancement of women’s sports. In 2025,
Sports Business Journal included her on its list of the “125 Most Influential People in Sports” over the past 25 years. During the past year, she was named to the “Most Powerful Women in Sports” lists for
Forbes and
Adweek and was recognized as a “2026 Changemaker” by CNBC.
In 2014, Ackerman led the relocation of the BIG EAST conference office headquarters from Providence, R.I. to its current home in New York City, most recently to the iconic Empire State Building as part of a seven-year lease that will run through 2032. She has overseen the BIG EAST’s collaborative partnership with FOX Sports, the conference’s lead national media partner, which since 2013 has provided wall-to-wall annual coverage of BIG EAST men’s basketball on FOX, FS1 and FS2 and pioneered a host of broadcast and access innovations with the conference’s support. In 2024, the BIG EAST entered into a successor multi-network media rights agreement that provides continued, broad national coverage of BIG EAST men’s and women’s basketball through 2031 on multiple FOX Sports, NBC/Peacock and TNT Sports platforms. In 2025, the conference also entered into a six-year agreement with ESPN to provide coverage of hundreds of additional BIG EAST competitions on the widely distributed ESPN+ platform.
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. The conference also recently extended its agreement to play its women’s basketball tournament at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. through 2029 and its corporate sales agency agreement with Playfly Sports through 2031.
Conference initiatives launched under Ackerman’s leadership include the BIG EAST Digital Network, which has carried more than 700 live sports contests annually; Be the Change, the BIG EAST’s long-standing social and racial justice platform; the annual BIG EAST Student-Athlete Well-Being Forum, which provides programming on a wide range of student-athlete mental and physical health and wellness matters; the BIG EAST Road Trip, an annual fan mobile tour with stops at all 11 campuses during the basketball season; the BIG EAST Legends recognition program, which celebrates players, coaches and contributors from all 22 men’s and women’s basketball programs; an officiating alliance with the Atlantic Coast Conference and nine other Division I conferences; a conference-wide e-sports initiative; and various academic and student career development programs.
Activities conducted during the week of the BIG EAST men’s basketball tournament have now expanded to include a career networking event for students from all BIG EAST schools; meetings of member school provosts and admissions and development officers; the BIG EAST Investment Summit, which gathers finance professionals and institutional investors to discuss trends in the public and private markets; and the BIG EAST Research Poster Symposium, an undergraduate academic competition.
Other notable BIG EAST athletics accomplishments since the conference’s 2012 reconfiguration include national titles for Providence in women’s cross country in 2013, the University of Denver (an affiliate member) in men’s lacrosse in 2015, and Georgetown in men’s soccer in 2019. BIG EAST schools have also maintained high levels of academic performance over the past decade, consistently producing student-athlete graduation rates that are among the highest in Division I.
The BIG EAST under Ackerman has also proven to be training ground for other college sports leaders, as three former BIG EAST employees during Ackerman’s tenure are now serving as NCAA Division I Commissioners: Joe D’Antonio (Coastal Athletic Association), Stu Jackson (West Coast Conference), and Dan Leibovitz (Atlantic 10 Conference).
Ackerman is currently a member of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Oversight Committee and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame Board of Directors and is a Life Trustee of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2013, she issued a widely publicized white paper detailing growth strategies for women’s college basketball, several of which were subsequently adopted by the NCAA. She also served on the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics from 2005-17 and the NCAA Men’s Basketball Oversight Committee from 2014-19. In 2019, she was appointed co-chair of the NCAA Federal and State Legislation Working Group, which marked the NCAA’s first association-wide attempt to examine rules relating to student-athlete name, image and likeness. The working group’s efforts led to a comprehensive report in 2020 recommending groundbreaking new NIL opportunities. Ackerman currently serves as a mentor in the U.S. State Department’s Global Sports Mentoring Program, which supports the professional development of international women’s sports executives, and she is an advisor to the Vatican’s Sport at the Service of Humanity initiative, which aims to use sports to build bridges and promote positive social change.
Ackerman was the founding President of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), where she guided the league to a much-heralded launch in 1997 and headed its day-to-day operations for its first eight seasons. In 2005, she was elected President of USA Basketball for the 2005-08 term, leading the organization to an overall competitive record of 222-23 and gold medal performances by the U.S. men's and women's basketball teams at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Ackerman also served two four-year terms as the U.S. representative for men's and women's basketball on the Central Board of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), the sport's world governing body. In 2013, she was named the recipient of USA Basketball's Edward S. Steitz Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions in international basketball.
Ackerman attended the University of Virginia as one of the school's first female student-athlete scholarship recipients in the early years of Title IX. She was a four-year starter, three-time captain, and two-time Academic All-American for the Cavaliers’ women’s basketball team and the first 1,000-point scorer in the program's history. She graduated with high distinction with a degree in political and social thought in 1981 and played one year of professional basketball in France before earning a law degree from UCLA in 1985. She received an honorary doctor of laws from Providence College in 2021.
Ackerman started her legal career as a corporate and banking associate at the New York law firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and joined the National Basketball Association as a staff attorney in 1988. She was a lawyer and then executive at the NBA for eight years, serving as Special Assistant to NBA Commissioner David Stern and Director and later Vice President of Business Affairs before being named the WNBA's first President in 1996.
Ackerman’s accomplishments in the sports industry have earned her numerous awards, including the University of Virginia’s Distinguished Alumna Award; the March of Dimes Sports Achievement Award; induction into the GTE Academic All-America Hall of Fame; the Girls Scouts of America National Women of Distinction Juliette Award; the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund Equal Opportunity Award; inclusion on the Atlantic Coast Conference’s 50th Anniversary Women’s Basketball team; induction into the International Scholar-Athlete Hall of Fame; the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association President’s Citation; the NCAA Silver Anniversary Award; the International Olympic Committee Women and Sport Achievement Diploma; the
Sports Business Journal Champions in Sports Business Award; inclusion as a Women’s Sports Foundation/ESPNW 40 for 40 Honoree; induction into the National Consortium for Academics and Sports Hall of Fame; the Women in Sports and Events (WISE) 20th Anniversary Women of Distinction Award; the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health Sports Ball Award; the Marquette School of Law Master of the Game Award; the Emily Couric Leadership Award; the Women Leaders in College Sports Conference Administrator of the Year Award; Coaches for Cancer Annual Benefit Honoree; the Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership Servant-Leader Exemplar Award; the Omicron Delta Kappa Pillars of Leadership Award; and the Sports Lawyers Association Michael Weiner Award of Excellence.
Ackerman is married to Charlie Rappaport, a retired tax partner of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. They have two daughters, Emily and Sally Rappaport, and a daughter-in-law, Sunday Helmerich.