As Super Leagues are established around the country, Mike Krzyzewski has a solution for the Big East and ACC.
Join each other.
Hold a large basketball conference.
“I think our conference was great.” [it] We need to get better,” Coach K said on the ACC radio show this week. “Both men's basketball and football are underperforming, at least in bowl games.
“I'd like to see the ACC and the Big East talk and form a mega basketball conference. Imagine if we had a Big East.”
This makes sense considering that the SEC and Big Ten expanded in size by adding a number of elite teams after the Pac-12 disbanded. This year, the SEC added Oklahoma State and Texas, while the Big Ten added UCLA, USC, Oregon State and Washington State. The Big 12 now includes Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah.
The Big East and ACC, on the other hand, are struggling due to overwhelmingly poor non-conference performance. Most experts currently project these two teams to make the NCAA Tournament as a total of eight teams (five from the ACC and three from the Big East).
St. John's coach Rick Pitino likes Coach K's idea.
“I agree with him 100 percent,” Pitino said Friday. “The problems the Big East is having right now, [schools’] Presidents, I think they only care about profits and don't want to share the revenue because the Big East schools don't have football and they don't have money. ”
Combining the Big East and ACC isn't always easy. There are currently 11 teams in the Big East and 18 in the ACC. A 29-team conference is not realistic.
But a league led by Duke, North Carolina, Connecticut, Villanova and Marquette could be attractive.
Additionally, the partnership will give UConn football a home. The Huskies were eager to join the Big 12 because of their football, but conference presidents have been hesitant to include them.
Check out the latest Big East standings and St. Louis. John's statistics
This summer, the Big East signed new six-year media rights deals with FOX, NBC and TNT Sports averaging nearly $80 million annually.
This is an improvement over FOX's current contract with CBS, which expires at the end of this season. His 12-year contract averaged $41.67 million per year.
It still pales in comparison to Major League Baseball. For example, the SEC has contracts with Disney and ESPN that pay them $300 million a year. The Big Ten's media rights deal totals $7 billion over seven years.
“Just like any other company, you have to sacrifice five, six, seven years to grow to the point where you're making millions of dollars in the future,” Pitino said. “As I've said all along, the only way to do that is to expand. So if you don't want to expand, I completely agree with Mike Krzyzewski.”
This is certainly an unconventional idea. There are many problems that need to be solved. Some schools may need to be left behind. But the Big East and ACC could use some help. Maybe they are answers to each other.
