The winner receives the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship.

Madison Square Garden has a contract with the Big East Conference to host the tournament through 2028.

On March 12, 2020, the 2020 tournament was cancelled during halftime of a first-round game due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[3] The conference received an insurance payout of $10.5 million as a result of the tournament's cancellation.

[4] In 2021, Georgetown won four games in four days as an underdog in each contest, to win its record eighth title.

The first- and second-place finishers in each division (a total of four teams) received the #1 and #2 divisional seeds and a bye into the quarterfinal round.

Two teams — the seventh-place finishers in each division, after the application of any necessary tiebreaking criteria — did not qualify for the tournament.

From 2004 to 2008, after the Big East again eliminated its division structure, schools again were seeded based on conference record and tiebreakers.

The Big East's membership varied between 13 and 16 schools during these years, but only the teams which finished 12th or higher in the conference after the application as necessary of tiebreaking criteria qualified for the tournament.

Current members Butler and DePaul have yet to make an appearance in the Big East Championship Game.

Former members Miami, Notre Dame, Rutgers, South Florida, and Virginia Tech did not appear in the championship game during their respective conference tenures.

NOTE: From 2001 through 2003, the teams which finished in last place in the East and West Divisions did not qualify for the tournament.