In a recent interview conversation between St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino and former Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski, the pair weighed the option of combining the ACC and the Big East into a Super League.
The pair discussed the possibility as a win-win for both parties as it would expand membership, bringing in more revenue and support for the pair of conferences.
“I’ve been trying to get them, and obviously, I jumped on your bandwagon with the suggestion that you had about combining with the ACC because I’ve been trying to get them to start a Super League, basketball league, and get up to 18 teams, 16 teams,” Pitino said. “Eleven is just not enough. And right now, a little bit like the ACC, we’re not typical of the Big East of the past that’s getting eight or nine, 10 teams in the NCAA Tournament. So I think we are missing the boat if we don’t expand.”
To Pitino’s credit, both the ACC and the Big East are having down seasons in 2024-25. In the latest tournament projection from ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, both the ACC and the Big East were listed with four teams in the tournament field each, including Duke (ACC), Clemson (ACC), Louisville (ACC), Wake Forest (ACC), St. John’s (Big East), Creighton (Big East), Marquette (Big East), and UConn (Big East).
“Now, the presidents, most of the presidents – probably including mine, who’s a very knowledgable basketball fan – they think about money. They think about the bottom line. It’s like a company like Uber starting out and they’re losing $500 million a year, but they understand 10 years down the road, they’re going to be making $1 billion. We just can’t see that.”
“We can’t see that there’s a lot of money to be made down the road if we form a Super League. Because we all don’t have football, we’re basically all Catholic schools with the exception of UConn. The bottom line is there. They’re just thinking of today. I wish they would add Dayton, Memphis, and combine with the ACC and just have a super basketball league.”
