Philadelphia’s Big 5 Championship Game between Temple & Villanova postponed

Unlike any other city in college basketball, in Philadelphia teams often want to win the Big 5 as much as they do the conference. But the game that will determine whether Villanova wins the outright trophy or has to share it with Temple will at least be postponed thanks to a Covid-19 outbreak in the Owls program.

The game was scheduled for 9:00 p.m. from Finneran Pavilion in Radnor and was to be broadcast on Fox Sports 1. But now it’s delayed, and we might not see the game made up as Big East and Atlantic 10 play comes into focus for both teams.

VU has won seven of the last eight City Series championships outright, with only Penn’s undefeated miracle run in 2018-19 breaking up the streak. No Big 5 title was awarded last season due to Covid-19 as well. If Temple was able to beat Villanova, they’d gain a share of the Philly championship as both teams would sit at 3-1 in Big 5 play this season.

We’ll update here if both schools agree to a new date and time.