Val Ackerman on ACC-Big East merger: ‘We’ve got some related ideas’

Remember how Coach K and Rick Pitino were talking recently about a possible ACC-Big East merger? Now we have Val Ackerman, the Big East commissioner, and 1981 UVA alum, addressing the idea out loud.

“I’m not sure I can opine right now what that sort of combination would look like, but we’ve got some related ideas that we’re hatching here about alliances, about who we should be working with as we look to secure, not only the future of the Big East, but the future of college basketball,” Ackerman said during an interview with Puck sports correspondent John Ourand for Ourand’s “The Varsity” podcast.

To be clear here: it was Ourand who brought the topic up for conversation, and he did so by referencing the discussion on Coach K’s podcast from last month.

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ICYMI

• ACC Basketball Notebook: Exploring the idea of a merger between the ACC, Big East

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Krzyzewski and Pitino, for their part, were clearly just spitballin’ when they brought up the very general idea of some sort of ACC-Big East relationship.

Ackerman, the founding president of the WNBA, who has been the commissioner of the Big East since it reorganized as a basketball-first conference in 2013, clearly paid attention to what the coaches had to say on the topic.

“When you’ve got two Hall of Famers opining about, not only the history of college basketball but the future of college basketball, you have to listen. I take very seriously any idea around the future of college basketball, what it means for the Big East, what the Big East should be doing,” Ackerman said.

To the particulars: let’s just say it now, there’s no way we’re going to see a merger of the ACC, which has 18 members, and Big East, which has 11.

AFP staff writer Scott German has suggested a scenario that would involve the heavy hitters in each – starting with Duke, UNC, UVA, Louisville, UConn, St. John’s, Villanova – coming together to form a new entity.

But that would involve a lot – breaking up existing TV contracts being the biggest obstacle.

To be blunt, the existing TV contracts are the biggest obstacle to whatever it is that Coach K and Pitino were thinking aloud could be possible.

Which makes me wonder if Ackerman was just humoring Ourand – and possibly Krzyzewski and Pitino – when she said “there’s been some conversations about what we could all be doing together.”

It’s hard to imagine ESPN and Fox even allowing a return of the classic ACC-Big East Challenge from a generation ago, given the contractual realities.