Val Ackerman, who steered the Big East out of its toughest period, will retire as the conference’s commissioner Aug. 31, she announced April 20.

Ackerman served as commissioner since 2013, presiding over a period of dramatic change in the Big East and college sports as a whole. She was also a trailblazer, serving as the first president of the WNBA, the first woman to be president of USA Basketball and the first woman to be commissioner of a high-major conference.

Ackerman said she was proud of her leadership of the United States’ premier college basketball conference.

“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,” Ackerman said in a press release.

“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,” she added.

In 2012, the Big East was on the brink. The conference was divided in two — between the small, basketball-focused East Coast Catholic schools that founded the conference, and the large FBS football universities. As this threatened to permanently end the Big East, a group of those basketball-focused schools, appropriately dubbed the Catholic Seven and led by Georgetown University, split off and purchased the conference’s name and rights to play its men’s basketball tournament at Madison Square Garden.

Out of that period, Ackerman emerged as the conference’s leader, following in its history by prioritizing basketball and national television deals.

In that process, Ackerman worked closely with Georgetown President Emeritus John J. DeGioia (CAS ’79, GRD ’95), who was the lead figure driving the push to save the conference. 

Lee Reed, Georgetown’s athletic director, said Ackerman was crucial to saving the Big East.

“Val was instrumental in not only stabilizing the conference during that moment, but in moving it forward with clarity and purpose,” Reed wrote in a statement. “Beyond her accomplishments, Val has been an exceptional partner and leader, working closely with then President DeGioia as they navigated a complex time for the league. She has consistently demonstrated integrity, vision and a deep commitment to both the student-athletes and the values that define the Big East. Working alongside her has been both a learning experience and a privilege.”

Rev. Brian Shanley, O.P., the chair of the Big East board of directors and president of St. John’s University, said he was grateful for Ackerman’s leadership, which was crucial in saving the conference.

“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,” Shanley said in a press release. “We found that visionary leader in Val Ackerman.”

As the Big East makes the first leadership change since its reorganization, the conference now faces the difficult task of navigating new territory for college athletics. As restrictions on transfers and player compensation have fallen by the wayside, student-athletes now move between universities freely.

These changes have shifted the balance of power and money away from universities and toward players, and have sparked lobbying pushes to return to restrictions on player movement and compensation. The Big East, along with every other Division I conference, has endorsed the SCORE Act, a federal bill that would do just that by granting the NCAA immunity from antitrust laws. However, that act has stalled in Congress, and the conferences continue to lobby.

Fans and analysts say the next commissioner must be a capable leader who can advocate for the conference at a federal level and withstand the rapid changes as college football continues to surge in popularity and profitability.

Shanley said he recognized the steep task ahead for the conference. 

“She leaves big shoes to fill,” Shanley said.