St. John’s got nearly everything it had hoped for when the Big East released the conference schedule for the 2025-26 season on Thursday afternoon.
As Newsday first reported, coach Rick Pitino, athletic director Ed Kull and the school administration had pushed to play all 10 Big East home games at Madison Square Garden and was able to schedule nine of them at The World’s Most Famous Arena.
They’d hoped for the massive spotlight of a Friday night game for the contests against Connecticut and they got one on Feb. 6 at the Garden. The other date with the Huskies currently is scheduled for Feb. 25 in Hartford.
The annual Dec. 31 game this season will be on the road against Georgetown in Washington, D.C.
St. John’s, the defending Big East regular-season and tournament champion, will play 12 regular-season games at MSG (plus an exhibition game), matching the 1951-52 team for most games played there when it was in a different location. The nine Big East games at MSG is a record for the Red Storm.
There might have been an opportunity to get the 10th conference game into the building, but Kull told Newsday that chance was extinguished when St. John’s accepted the invitation to play Kentucky in the Dec. 20 CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta.
“MSG has been an amazing partner — all-in,” Kull said. “We all know the Knicks and Rangers are their highest priority, but they treated us like a priority, too. They wanted every game and were willing to do whatever it takes.”
“I played at the Garden my freshman year at Texas . . . and my sophomore year,” Cincinnati transfer Dillon Mitchell said at a team appearance in July. “I can’t imagine putting on the St John’s uniform and playing in front of some fans like that. I’m super-excited to play at MSG.”
St. John’s Big East opener against DePaul on Dec. 16 will be the lone conference game at Carnesecca Arena. The on-campus home of the Red Storm has undergone seating upgrades that have reduced its capacity from 5,602 by more than 300 seats. It will host the first regular-season game against Quinnipiac on Nov. 3.
Kull said season-ticket sales have been brisk. Between the more than 8,000 that have been sold and the student sections, the Garden’s entire lower bowl is sold out. He added that the release of the full schedule could spark additional season-ticket sales.
“There have been a lot of inquiries from people who wanted to know when the full schedule would be out,” he said.
The Red Storm already were playing a very ambitious non-conference schedule with Garden games against Alabama (Nov. 8) and Ole Miss (Dec. 6), Players Era Tournament games against Iowa State, Baylor and a third opponent to be determined (Nov. 24-26) and Kentucky in Atlanta.
The conference schedule has a couple of measuring-stick stretches — one in mid-January and another in late February.
In the eight days from Jan. 10-17, St. John’s has road games against Creighton and Villanova around a home game with Marquette. In the 12 days from Feb. 14-25, it has road games at Providence, Marquette and UConn broken up with a home game against Marquette.
St. John’s finishes the regular season with three of its less challenging games: Villanova at the Garden (Feb. 28), Georgetown at the Garden (March 3) and on the road at Seton Hall on March 6.
Start times for the Big East games have not been announced.
St. John’s will play two exhibition games before the regular-season opener against Quinnipiac. It will host Towson at Carnesecca Arena on Oct. 18 at 2 p.m. and meet Michigan at the Garden at 7 p.m. on Oct. 25. Kull said there is a possibility that the Michigan exhibition, a possible matchup of Top 10 teams, will be televised.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.