By Brian Murphy, WRAL

The ACC’s lack of NCAA Tournament berths over the past four years and its overall struggles this season have led to a variety of ideas about how to improve the historically dominant basketball league.

Among the most popular: A collaboration with the Big East.

The ACC raided the league multiple times over the last two decades as it stretched its footprint up and down the East Coast. Current ACC members Miami (2004), Virginia Tech (2004), Boston College (2005), Pittsburgh (2013), Syracuse (2013), Notre Dame (2013) and Louisville (2014) all came from the Big East.

Rather than break the northeast-based conference, the 2013 moves allowed the Big East to jettison its football-playing members and refashion itself as a basketball league. UConn, which went with the football schools to the American Athletic Conference, returned to the Big East in basketball in 2020.

And the Huskies have won the last two national championships. The 11-member Big East earned five bids into the NCAA Tournament this season.

The ACC has received 19 NCAA Tournament bids over the last four years. The league got four bids this year (down from five in each of the previous three years), and North Carolina played in the First Four.

Ideas, even wild ones, are welcome.

“It’s really important to talk about all these things because the sustainability of getting … four teams in, but three into the main field initially, it’s concerning,” said Duke coach Jon Scheyer.

The Blue Devils went 22-1 in ACC play this season, including their three-game run to the ACC Tournament title, and earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. But those victories were devalued by some.

“What ends up happening is a lot of the wins that we’ve gotten in the ACC this year — we’re not alone, it’s anybody in the ACC — a lot of it’s discredited,” Scheyer said.

The 16-team SEC, which went 30-4 against the ACC during the regular season, got 14 teams into the tournament.

“You get into a league, you really can’t go wrong with some of the games, even if you lose, you’re not hurt by it necessarily, so there’s only upside in a lot of respects,” Scheyer siad. “Where in our league once the ACC started, for the most part, it’s downside.”

Former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski suggested earlier this season that the ACC and Big East form a “mega conference.” He is not alone. St. John’s coach Rick Pitino, whose team earned a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, is also in favor of a merger.

Maybe it’s not a full-on merger, but more of an alliance or a scheduling arrangement.

UConn coach Dan Hurley said he has talked with Krzyzewski and people in the Big East about the idea. UConn football, which plays as an independent, would be the biggest beneficiary of such a move. But, as Hurley noted, some of the former Big East basketball schools could get a massive boost.

And play games at New York City’s famed Madison Square Garden, the longtime home of the Big East tournament. TV might be interested in some of the compelling matchups and renewed rivalries.

UConn head coach Dan Hurley calls out to his team during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Villanova at the Big East basketball tournament Thursday, March 13, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

“The basketball programs in the ACC could really use that,” Hurley said Thursday in Raleigh where the Huskies take on Oklahoma in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday. “I think Syracuse has been hurt by losing the Garden, and Pitt’s been hurt by losing the Garden. It’s harder for them. BC. Obviously there’s been major advantages from a football standpoint.

“I hope I’m not speaking out of turn for those folks, but how cool would it be to find a way to get Syracuse back in some type of ACC-Big East consortium tournament. I don’t know if that’s a catchy name.”

The Big East has 11 schools: Butler, UConn, Creighton, DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall, Villanova and Xavier. The ACC has 18 members for basketball.

When the Big East formed in 1979, its members were Boston College, Connecticut, Georgetown, Providence, St. John’s, Seton hall, Syracuse with Villanova (1980) and Pittsburgh (1982) joining soon thereafter. It wasn’t until 1991 that the conference began to sponsor football.

Source: wralsportsfan.com