Mike Krzyzewski calls for ACC, Big East to form 'mega' conference

Legendary Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski acknowledges that the SEC and Big Ten are in front of other conferences in football and basketball at the moment. He believes that the ACC should get creative in an effort to close the gap.

Mike Krzyzewski appeared on College Sports on Sirius XM recently and pitched the idea of the ACC and Big East coming together to form a “mega” conference. He believes that the combined league would be extremely competitive in basketball in particular.

“The two power conferences that are ahead are the SEC and the Big Ten,” Mike Krzyzewski said. “So 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. 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.”

The idea from Krzyzewski is certainly an interesting one. If the two conferences did join together, you would have schools like Duke, North Carolina and Syracuse competing in a league with teams such as UConn, Villanova and St. John’s.

There would without a doubt be some historically great programs in the league who have won national titles recently.

“People are talking about a mega football conference eventually. I mean imagine if we had the Big East,” Mike Krzyzewski said. “And you know what, Connecticut would have the opportunity to play football in our league.”

Krzyzewski is unsure if the idea is really possible or not, but he would like to see the ACC be creative as it looks to improve as a conference.

“At least talk about stuff like that, you know,” Mike Krzyzewski said. “But imagine our footprint, come on. And the quality of basketball, to go along with the tradition of basketball in our conference.”

The ACC currently has only one team ranked in the AP Top 25 in No. 3 Duke, which appears to be a true national title contender. A couple of other ACC teams are receiving votes in Louisville and Clemson. The league struggled in nonconference action this season, including losing the SEC vs. ACC challenge 14-2.

Perhaps combining with the Big East, as Mike Krzyzewski suggested, could help the league get back to being an elite basketball conference.