A Basketball Czar and an ACC-Big East merger, says Coach K
Former Duke men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski speaks with authority, at least with his feelings about college basketball today
Now that the 2024-2025 college football season has punted, passed, and kicked for most of us while others live and die on its every word year-round (the 2025-26 season opens Thursday, August 28), it’s time to delve into the semi-professional sport of college basketball.
We keep hearing there remains a lot of roundball to be played this season but actually not. As of this writing, all of the teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference have played just a game or two shy of half of their 20-game league schedule, but that’s gonna change quickly as we approach the end of the month, January.
Instead of writing about how certain teams are doing or not doing this season, it’s the peripheral such as talk from former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, the game’s elder statesman—he’ll turn 78 on February 13—of hoops today, and his ideas to make college basketball—especially the ACC— better. We must peruse his words, if you like that sort of thing.
First, forgive me, but I do not seek at any time to listen to Krzyzewski—Coach K as he is fondly known by the walk-in step Duke fans and the media who hang on his every word—when he speaks with or without sternness. When speaking with a calmness while projecting authority.
He has his opinions, most of which is to try to boost college basketball away from the ginormous industrial complex of college football, the massive money-generating sport of all of intercollegiate athletics. More so than college basketball ever thought it could gather.
Coach K—forgive me for the short moniker as I am tired of trying to correctly spell his last name though after all these years I can do so in my sleep—may not be the current coach of the Blue Devils, but when he speaks a tree does make a sound when it falls to the ground in an uninhabited (Duke) forest. It’s just that no one is there to listen except those aforementioned Dookies and a few others who might stumble upon his espousing.
I’m one of the latter, stumbling and bumbling to hear him speak. There are times when I make out his distinct nasal generated voice on one of the SiriusXM stations, championing everything from this to that to whatever strikes his fancy with his authoritarian approach.
Hey Coach K, say what you believe, and believe what you say. When he and Nick Saban, late of Alabama football and current of ESPN Football Game Day, get together, it’s fun to hear them try to out “here’s how we did it at Alabama/Duke” each other.
Coach K is very quick to tell us the way he did it as coach at semi-professional Duke or as coach of the fully-professional USA Olympic team, nothing that’s the wrong way. It’s just annoying to listen to anyone boost Duke, though from watching the Blue Devils thus far this season, Duke is my odds on favorite to win the ACC regular season, the ACC Tournament, and the six-game playoff that crowns the NCAA title holder.
I predict right now there will not be another five-game or even a four-game run to the ACC Title as NC State amazingly did last season.
Coach K, no doubt, has the respect of the basketball world and his thoughts are to build a better place in the universe for college basketball, but sometime his ideas seem a bit off key or incomplete. However, and I hate to admit it, as God’s gift to basketball coaching he deserves some respect. The amount is up to those who listen.
In the “good for the game” arena, he suggests the need for a college basketball Czar, an individual with the power to dictate how the sport is organized and played. He claims he’s not interested in that position, but surely if the NCAA decided to go that route, he would be a first choice just long enough to make his post-coaching mark on the sport. He’d be a lot better than Jay Bilas.
Coach K believes the stature of college basketball can be increased to the point that every morning the general public turns to the middle of the country and praises James Naismith for inventing the game. (Actually Coach K did, didn’t he? Or was it John Wooden or Dean Smith?)
Anyway, a Czar would need special authority and a knack for bargaining national and regional television contracts. Otherwise, I can’t see the use.
In the “what were you thinking” or “what are you smoking” category, K suggests the ACC and the Big East form a partnership or merge, creating a powerhouse basketball league. Would it be called The Big ACC East, even with Cal-Berkley and Stanford in the mix? Both the ACC and the Big East are very serious about basketball which needs traction, thank you Coach K.
Here’s what former-Coach K said on SiriusXM: “Our conference (the ACC) 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. I’d like to see something innovative, like I’d like to see the ACC and the Big East talk and form a mega basketball conference.”
Note about ACC basketball and football this season:
The Southeastern Conference dominated the ACC in the ACC/SEC Men’s Basketball Challenge, 14-2, with only Clemson and Duke winning games for the ACC.
In post-season bowl games for the 2024-2025 season, ACC schools were 2-11 with only Syracuse and Louisville winning games.
Back to basketball and K’s idea to merge the ACC with the Big East which currently is made up of these 11 schools: Butler, Connecticut, Creighton, DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall, Villanova, and Xavier. Of those, only UConn plays football.
With those 11 added to the ACC’s 18 teams—Boston College, Cal-Berkley, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina, NC State, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, SMU, Stanford, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest—a mega conference of 29 is a bit big but a little intriguing if not mind-boggling and over the top to think about.
It’s easy to come up with the idea, but Coach K needs to translate his thoughts to paper, to tell us how he would handle scheduling, an issue right up front, to say the least. What is the value of such a league outside the eastern part of the United States? It’s easy to suggest with a broad stroke; it’s difficult to work through the details.
For the Big East, there’s the issue of losing their identity, one college sports aficionado texted me. There’s the constant issue of how to split revenue. And, with scheduling, do the Big East teams—St. John’s, Villanova, Georgetown, Seton Hall for instance—that strive on basketball care about games with Florida State and Clemson, the aficionado asked?
So, Coach K, you can make all the suggestions you want but please put pen (or pencil with an eraser) to paper and outline your ideas: a Czar and an ACC merger with the Big East. We want to hear more.
My idea, not K’s, for a 29-team basketball conference:
First add one more team for 30 teams in the conference
Divide the 30 into three 10-team sub-leagues which are:
SOUTH: Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina, NC State, Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest.
NORTHEAST: Boston College, Connecticut, Georgetown, Pittsburgh, Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall, Syracuse, Villanova, and Xavier.
MIDWEST/WEST: Butler, Cal-Berkley, Creighton, DePaul, Louisville, Marquette, Notre Dame, SMU, Stanford, and one more to be named.
Each team plays the other nine in its sub-league twice, 18 games.
Each team plays two teams from each of the other two leagues once; that’s four games and now that’s 22 regular season games.
The remaining games allowed are against whoever the teams wish.
For the annual conference tournament, well, let’s get through the regular season first.
This model could be used for other sports, creating more regional rivalries and improving travel expenses.
Let’s face it: The Big East in basketball is good because there are just 11 teams. The ACC was at its best when there were eight teams, maybe two or three more. The 30-team conference divided into three 10-team sub-leagues gives basketball a chance to flourish in the South, Northeast, and Midwest/West.
In summary…
At least one Big East coach who once coached in the ACC is all in for the idea of merging the two leagues. For what it’s worth, here’s what he has said:
I am 100 percent in agreement with him. 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.
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. 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.
Who said that? That would be Rick Pitino, currently head coach at St. John’s and former head coach at Louisville, 2001-2017. The Cardinals joined the ACC in 2014. With Coach K creating the idea and Pitino agreeing with it, maybe it’s not a very good idea. Hah! Or maybe it is.
Your thoughts?
NOTE: Quotes for this story from Krzyzewski and Pitino were pulled from a story on dukebasketballreport.com.