Sport Basketball No. of teams SCM: 12
SCW: 12 | Founded 1987 Country Australia | |
Most recent
champion(s) SCM: Ringwood Hawks (3rd title)
SCW: Hume City Broncos (6th title) Most titles SCM: Tied (3 titles)
SCW: Hume City Broncos (6 titles) | ||
The Big V is a semi-professional basketball league in Victoria, Australia. The league comprises 12 competitions, with its two main ones being the men's (SCM) and women's (SCW) State Championship divisions. Below the SCM and SCW is: Division One Men (D1M), Division One Women (D1W), Division Two Men (D2M), and Division Two Women (D1W). The remaining six competitions are youth divisions, with those being: Victorian Youth Championship Men (VYCM), Victorian Youth Championship Women (VYCW), Youth League One Men (YL1M), Youth League One Women (YL1W), Youth League Two Men (YL2M), and Youth League Two Women (YL2W).
Contents
History
In 1987, a competition called the Victorian Women's Conference was introduced for women's teams from Country Victorian basketball associations. The competition was the brain child of Bruce McDonald from Swan Hill. It quickly grew to include many metropolitan teams, and in 1989, a men's division was introduced and the competition was renamed the Country Victorian Invitation Basketball League (CVIBL). In 1991, control of the CVIBL was shifted from the Basketball Victoria Country Council in order for it to be run by a separate body. The men's and women's competitions were run independently until 2000.
In 2000, the Australian Basketball Association (ABA) introduced the Big V Conference. It became the ABA's fifth conference, joining the South, East, North and Central conferences. As a result, the Big V became Victoria's premier basketball competition for men and women, surpassing the CVIBL (now known as the Victorian Basketball League). In 2004, the member clubs of the league voted to re-brand the entire league structure as Big V going forward, thus dropping the name of Victorian Basketball League for the lower divisions. The ABA ceased operations following the 2008 season, resulting in the Big V becoming independent.