The Big East Conference was a collegiate athletics conference that consisted of as many as 16 universities in the eastern half of the United States from 1979 to 2013. The conference's members participated in 24 NCAA sports. Three members had football programs but were not Big East football schools: Notre Dame football was independent while Georgetown and Villanova competed in the Football Championship Subdivision. Another five schools—DePaul, Marquette, Seton Hall, St. John's, and Providence—discontinued or did not have football programs.