Rick Pitino adamant Big East will miss the boat…
STORRS, Conn. — Rick Pitino is again calling on the Big East to make adjustments and increase to a tremendous basketball convention.
In an interview on SiriusXM with legendary former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, Pitino reiterated his stance that the league must act.
A month in the past, Coach Ok recommended that the ACC and Big East merge to type one huge league, as conferences like the Big 12, SEC and Big Ten have bulked up.
Pitino agreed with Krzyzewski, and the two introduced it up again on Friday.
“I’ve been trying to get [the Big East on board], 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,” Pitino mentioned. “And get up to 18 teams, 16 teams. Eleven is just not enough. And right now, a little bit like the ACC, we are not typical of the Big East of the past that was getting eight or nine, 10 teams in the NCAA tournament. So I think we are missing the boat if we don’t expand.”
Head coach Rick Pitino of the St. John’s Red Storm reacts on the baseline during the second half when the St. John’s Red Storm defeated the Providence Friars on February 1, 2025 at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, NY. Robert Sabo for NY Post
It ought to be famous that the present iteration of the Big East inked a new six-year media rights deal with FOX, NBC, and TNT Sports final summer time that will average practically $80 million per yr.
It is an enchancment on the present deal with FOX and CBS that expires at the finish of this season.
That was a 12-year contract that averaged $41.67 million per yr.
It, nonetheless, will not be similar to different energy conferences.
The SEC, for example, has a deal with Disney and ESPN that pays it $300 million yearly.
The Big Ten’s media rights contract totals $7 billion over seven years.
Pitino has additionally recommended including colleges like Dayton and Saint Louis of the Atlantic 10 and Memphis of the AAC.
Now, that will reduce the quantity of money every faculty pulls in from the present tv deal.
St. John’s Red Storm head coach Rick Pitino talking to the workforce during a follow at Madison Square Garden. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
“Now the presidents, most of the presidents and probably including mine, who’s a very knowledgeable basketball fan, they think about money, they think about the bottom line,” Pitino mentioned. “And it’s like a company like Uber starting out and they’re losing, you know, $500 million a year, but they understand 10 years down the road they’re gonna be making a billion dollars. 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.”
“The coaches I think are in favor of a super league,” he added, “and I just think the presidents are against it.”
As for a potential ACC-Big East merger, there are issues.
The Big East at present sits at 11 groups and the ACC has 18. A 29-team convention isn’t possible.
But a convention fronted by Duke, North Carolina, Connecticut, Marquette and Villanova would clearly have a lot of appeal.
The leagues mixed to ship simply eight groups to the NCAA Tournament a yr in the past and should not prime that determine this March.
Such an alliance would additionally give UConn’s soccer workforce a home.
The Huskies have flirted with becoming a member of the Big 12 a number of instances lately, however the convention’s presidents have declined so as to add them.
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