Coach K thinks that an expansion of the ACC is something that really needs to happen. I can understand the sentiment, but I cannot understand the idea that the ACC can just find people and make it happen. I know what Coach K wants, but I don’t know if it’s going to be that easy. Let’s see what he had to say:
“I think you have to continue to explore. Is 14 the right number? Will 16 be? I don’t know if I’m in the minority, majority — I don’t talk to anybody about this — but (it) seems to me that if you’re going to go 14, then you should go 16.”
“You’ve always got to maintain your brand of a conference and not get caught up with, ‘Oh, what about my rivalry with this one school?’ Although we should always have the rivalry with Duke and (North) Carolina. Don’t get me wrong on that. But when you’re expanding, you’ve got to develop rivalries with everybody.”
I think what Coach K wants is a rivalry with everybody in the Big East. Ultimately, I think he wants to Big East feel with some teams from the Big East, but that’s not going to happen. The expansion would have to balance basketball and football teams. So, you’ll have to get a couple of each. That means you might get one good rival, but you’re not going to get a few more after that. Just the one should be enough.
When taking a basketball heavy conference and putting in extra teams, you have to do something for the football side so that TV dollars and BCS money can go farther. However, that’s hard to do.
So, we need to see if Coach K gets his wish. Then, we need to see if the ACC can actually get the right schools to make it worth it.
