The Villanova Wildcats have made it to their second Final Four in the past three years, and coach Jay Wright’s squad is a heavy favorite to earn its third NCAA title. The Big East champions have rolled through the first two weeks of this year’s tournament, beating each of their opponents by at least a dozen points leading up to Saturday’s national semifinal showdown with Kansas.
Villanova: Where is it located and 7 other things to know
Villanova is a) near Philadelphia b) just obscenely expensive.
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But while the Wildcats have become a staple of college basketball’s biggest games, it doesn’t have the built-in geographic indicators of a Kansas, or Michigan, or a Loyola-Chicago. So just where is Villanova, anyway?
Villanova is right near the home of the Declaration of Independence, the Marine Corps, and Boyz II Men
Villanova is located in Villanova, Pennsylvania — a suburb 17 miles northwest of Philadelphia. It’s one of six Division I basketball programs located in the Philadelphia region, including Temple, Drexel, Saint Joseph’s, La Salle, and the University of Pennsylvania. All those programs, minus Drexel, make up the city’s Big 5, an annual non-conference round robin that crowns Philly’s top basketball program each year.
Unsurprisingly, ‘Nova has taken that crown 26 times and in each of the past five years — though it trails Temple (27 wins) in the historic Big 5 standings.
Other useful facts about Villanova:
- It was born from the ashes of the Augustinian College of Villanova. After that campus burned to the ground, Villanova College rose in 1846. It remained a college until 1953 before adding the programs necessary to earn university status.
- Like all but one of the other Big East schools (Butler was founded by the christian church, but always non-sectarian), it has a religious affiliation — Roman Catholic.
- It used to be home to the first replacement for the cracked Liberty Bell, but it was destroyed during the Nativist Riots of 1844. It was recast afterward — only way smaller. It now resides in the Saint Thomas of Villanova Monastery on Villanova’s campus.
- Villanova’s music program helped shape both Jim Croce and Don McLean, making it a go-to destination for whiny white guys with guitars.
- Though the men’s basketball team typically gets all the headlines, the women’s cross country team is the most successful sport in university history. The Wildcats have earned nine national titles since 1989.
- When World War II brought declining enrollment, Villanova was nearly forced to close its doors — until the Navy’s ROTC program selected the university as the institution for its V-12 officers program and boosted its numbers.
- The estimated cost of attendance for a freshman next fall is — good lord — $67,328.
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