The biggest moves in the era of athletics and college realignment have paid the biggest dividends. Literally in some cases.
Some of the biggest steps so far include:
Texas And Oklahoma leaving the Big 12 for greener pastures in the SEC
Cincinnati, Houston, UKFHouston and BYU care For Big 12.
USC, UCLA, Oregon And Washington shying away from the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten.
Each domino fall required equal parts foresight and opportunistic thinking to best position teams and conferences for the future.
And that's why the ex Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who gave an exclusive interview to Jon Rothstein this week on Podcast “Inside College Basketball”reiterated his belief that for the future health of the ACC, the league should consider merging with the Big East.
“It’s worth a look,” Krzyzewski said. “People would be naive to think that in five years all conferences will look the same. Once certain milestones are passed, it becomes less expensive to move and the ACC is an amazing conference. Why not do something incredible in basketball?
“It could also give University of California, Connecticut opportunity,” he said. “They play football – and they would love to be in a conference where every school plays football. It would be an amazing league with a huge presence in the Midwest.”
How a merged ACC, Big East will work
The winds of change in the reorganization were blowing in the ACC's direction, as in every other major conference: in recent years, Cal, Stanford And SMU. It looks like something needs to be done to keep up with the changing landscape. A merger between the ACC and Big East would compromise both forward thinking and opportunistic thinking, and could also be the best long-term path to viability for both leagues.
Here's a look at what this map will look like.
This isn't the first time Coach K has floated this idea. Probably won't be the last. And that's because many seem to agree.
Fellow Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino, who now coaches the defending league champion in the Big East. St. John'ssaid this summer that he's all for it.
“I completely agree with Coach K,” Pitino said in August at Inside College Basketball. “When I started 51 years ago, college football and college basketball were on the same plane. NFL And NBA were on the same plane. Football is here today [as he gestures up near his face] and basketball [as he gestures lower, near his chest] Here. So in order for the Big East and ACC to survive this football mania because a bad college football game will surpass an NBA playoff game in viewership. If we want to survive in ACC and Big East basketball, combining it into a mega conference would be great.
“Unfortunately,” Pitino added. “Except for the coach and myself, I don’t think there’s a lot of feeling about it. I don't think the NCAA is very active. I don't think the ACC and Big East are very active. I don’t think they’re thinking outside the box.”
Coach K's West Point Roots
This gets to the heart of Coach K's long-standing frustration with the sport in general. And, fittingly, Krzyzewski should remember his time at West Point, where he will be when Duke faces Duke on Tuesday. Army at West Point on CBS Sports Network (Search channels or through CBS Sports App) on Veterans Day.
“At West Point,” Krzyzewski said, “they taught clear responsibility. It's your show – you're in charge. But when it comes to college basketball, who are you talking to? Who is responsible? I don't know.
“College football has leadership. Basketball needs to become something like this. The Power 4 conferences, along with the Big East, need to form a coalition, have a commissioner and run it like a business,” Krzyzewski said. “Because it's a business. People get paid and they deserve it, but now let's manage it properly.”
Whether this will happen or not remains to be seen. And it remains to be seen whether the ACC and Big East will begin talks at some point to test each other out on the idea.
But what seems entirely inevitable is what Krzyzewski has achieved: in five years, conferences will not look the same as they do now. Perhaps the idea of courage that Krzyzewski encourages ACC and Big East leaders to think about is the best path forward for everyone.
