If you're an old-school Syracuse basketball fan like me, maybe you still yearn for the days when the Orange resided in the Big East Conference.
Mike Krzyzewski has floated an idea that could make that a reality - sort of.
On a recent edition of his radio show, the former legendary head coach of Duke stated, "I’d like to see the ACC and the Big East talk and form a mega basketball conference. Imagine if we had the Big East," according to an article from Zach Braziller of the New York Post.
Interesting.
Per Braziller's story, St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino, who was an assistant under the Hall of Fame former Syracuse basketball head coach Jim Boeheim decades ago, likes Krzyzewski's idea.
“I am 100 percent in agreement with him (Krzyzewski),” Pitino said. “The problem with the Big East right now and the [schools’] presidents, is they’re just looking at the bottom line and they don’t want to share the revenue because schools in the Big East don’t have football, and they don’t have money.”
Of course, merging together the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big East wouldn't be easy. The ACC has 18 members in basketball and 17 in football. The Big East has 11 schools in hoops. If the two leagues joined together, 29 teams in one mega-conference seem unrealistic.
Syracuse basketball and the ACC lag behind other conferences this term.
As I noted in a recent column, the ACC isn't faring all that hot in basketball so far in the 2024-25 season, and the ACC was dreadful in football during bowl season, save for the Orange and Louisville.
Krzyzewski alluded to this, saying, “Our conference has been a great one, I think [it] needs to get better. We’re down results-wise in both men’s basketball and football - at least the bowl games."
Amid ongoing conference realignment, the Big Ten Conference and the Southeastern Conference have pulled away from other leagues, buoyed by lucrative television contracts in football. The ACC and the Big 12 Conference are vying for the No. 3 spot.
The Big East, led by two-time defending national champion UConn, is a high-quality league in hoops but doesn't have football. The Huskies are an independent in football and played Syracuse football during the 2024 season, losing by seven points on the road.
As Braziller noted, a basketball league with teams including Connecticut, Duke, Marquette, North Carolina, Villanova and others would prove enticing, but what would happen with the football programs? Would certain schools, potentially including the Orange, get left behind?
“In order for it to be grown to make millions down the road, you have to sacrifice five, six, seven years just like any company would,” Pitino told Braziller. “I’ve been saying it all along, the only way to do that is by expansion. So, if you don’t want to expand, I totally agree with Mike Krzyzewski.”
Krzyzewski, by the way, recently had some choice words for the NCAA amid the ever-changing landscape in college basketball, fueled by NIL, the transfer portal's explosion and other factors.
What do you think, 'Cuse fans? Would you like to see Syracuse basketball and the rest of the ACC unite with the Big East?