Why is the Wells Fargo Center putting itself at the center of the local college hoops scene?

Near the end of the Big 5 Classic tripleheader’s long day and night on Dec. 2, there was a moment that might have slipped by — but will resonate for a while.

As the Big 5 banner headed to the Wells Fargo Center’s rafters, with an addition hailing St. Joseph’s title win attached, public announcer Matt Cord announced that it will stay there year-round.

For all the college basketball the arena has hosted over the years, from Villanova and occasional Temple games to many NCAA Tournament games, a permanent Big 5 marker was something the place had never seen. (It’s gone at the moment, but will be back in a few weeks.)

Was that a message about keeping the City Series alive? Or was it something more, for a place that hosts a lot of basketball and wants to keep doing so?

» READ MORE: The new Big 5 Classic made some new memories. Will it continue in the future?

Yes, and yes.

“We hope that the Classic becomes an annual event, the tripleheader at the Wells Fargo Center,” said Mike Sulkes, the arena’s general manager. “We want to support the schools, support the Big 5 as an entity, and we felt like the banner is just a nice touch to show that it is part of who we are.”

As for the second question, the answer was no surprise.

“We hope the 76ers are here for a long time,” Sulkes said. “They’re very special to us, and they know that. … I do think some of it is coincidental timing, but also, we’re not shy that we’re very good at doing this.”

There are all kinds of layers to the 76ers arena controversy, and we’ll stay away from most of them here. But the last two Saturdays of hoops in South Philly have been a reminder that the 76ers’ current home would like to get a word in.

“I know there’s politics behind another one,” Penn coach Steve Donahue said after his team played at the Wells Fargo Center twice in eight days. “We went through the negotiations a little bit with Wells Fargo and the Big 5, and I sensed that they want these events.”

Compliments didn’t just come from people in power. Eight colleges ran across the Wells Fargo Center’s court over those two Saturdays, and a lot of players said they loved playing in an NBA arena.

» READ MORE: The action on the court made the Big 5 tournament turned out to be a winner | Jonathan Tannenwald

That may sting Big 5 diehards, but many know it’s true. As great as the Palestra is, the pro game is now miles past college hoops for talent and prestige. So of course it’s what young players aspire to.

“Playing in Wells Fargo, playing in the NBA arena, I know Villanova gets to do it all the time, but the rest of us don’t really have that luxury,” said Drexel guard Lucas Monroe, an Abington native who spent four years at Penn, then crossed Market Street to play a graduate season for the Dragons.

For Temple’s Zion Stanford, Philly-born and West Catholic-raised, the Liacouras Center isn’t small-time. But going to the other end of Broad Street was bigger.

“More of our fans came,” he said. “It was a good experience to have more of Philadelphia get to see you play.”

(If you’d be cynical about how that reflects on Temple’s longtime attendance struggles, Stanford is a freshman, and he admitted he has only watched college basketball for about two years. Let him have the innocence of youth.)

La Salle’s Khalil Brantley, whose half-court buzzer-beater stunned Penn in overtime, grew up in the Bronx dreaming of Madison Square Garden. (When he got to Olney Avenue, he didn’t get why the St. Joe’s game was so big until he played in it.) How good was this?

“For my first time to be like, ‘Yo, I hit a game-winner in the Wells Fargo …’” Brantley said. “The final goal is to get to be a professional, but for now, this is one of the highlights of my career as a basketball player and as a person.”

» READ MORE: Why the 76ers should help bring a WNBA team to Philadelphia if they get a new arena | Alex Coffey

When Bruiser Flint came back to town this past weekend, I put all of this to the Philly-born former St. Joe’s guard and Drexel head coach who’s now a Kentucky assistant. He wasn’t surprised.

“I’m a traditionalist, so I like the Palestra, but I mean, all the kids love to play in NBA arenas,” Flint said. “It’s just a different vibe, man. I think, as a college kid, that’s what you want to do — you want to go play where the star players play. … They love not just being on the court, but the locker rooms, all that stuff like that.”

Kentucky being what it is, Flint gets to see a lot of NBA arenas. But he noted that his point isn’t a new one.

“Even when I played, we played at the old Spectrum,” he said. “And we felt good about, ‘Yo, let’s go down, we’re playing at the Spectrum today.’”

How much the dynamic in town is really changing remains to be seen. Not only does the Sixers arena situation have to get figured out, but the Big 5 schools and the Wells Fargo Center have to decide whether they want the Big 5 tripleheader to remain a thing.

Sulkes certainly does.

“What you’re gaining in schedule flexibility, which is a big deal for some of the schools, you’re losing in what could be a marquee home game in some instances,” he said. “We have worked through some of those things already, to move forward. And I think we’re hopefully at the finish line of making this thing move forward.”

That includes, as Sulkes told The Inquirer earlier this month, holding a date open for next season.

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“You have some of the best players in the world coming from the Philadelphia region, and we want to showcase that,” he said. “Obviously, the odds are stacked against these kids for making the NBA — the top 1% of the 1% — but to play for a Big 5 school might be a little more attainable for some of these kids. The fact that if they play for a Big 5 school, they’ll now have the opportunity to play at the Wells Fargo Center, that’s obviously something that we want.”

He’s got a horse in the race, of course. But he didn’t know of the players’ remarks when he spoke.

If you don’t want to take it from him, take it from them — the ones whose work entertains the rest of us.

College basketball’s relevance has long been decreasing, locally and nationally. Here’s something that helped it matter. Maybe that isn’t a bad thing.