Seth Greenberg: ACC, Big East basketball merger is 'no brainer'

Seth Greenberg is clamoring for a major change in the college sports landscape. The ESPN analyst believes the ACC and the Big East need to merge their conferences, separating football from basketball and creating a super-conference for the sport.

The question has come up after conference realignment was centered around the football season, putting basketball on the back-burner. Greenberg believes if the ACC and Big East merge, the two conferences can compete with the best of the best, and create must-see events throughout the entirety of the college basketball season.

“I think it’s a no-brainer,” Greenberg stated, regarding the potential merger. “Here’s the thing, I think what should happen, and this is just big picture, I do think they should come together. I do think that football needs to be separated. Chip Kelly said that a long time ago. I’ve had conversations with the ACC and said, ‘Why wouldn’t you investigate this? This is a common-sense move.’ It creates great rivalries. Creates events. I mean, college basketball especially — you’ve got to create events.

“Everyone says, ‘Well, the season doesn’t start until the NCAA Tournament. The season doesn’t start until the Super Bowl is over, or the College Football Playoff is over,’ but when you can have a St. John’s–Duke [game] at Madison Square Garden. North Carolina and UConn at Madison Square Garden. When you can create those normal old school rivals and bring them back into the conversation, it’s an absolute home run.”

Even though it sounds good on paper, it’s evident there will be some elements to hammer out, like where the conference tournament will be held, and how the schedule will work. Still, Greenberg believes college basketball needs to be regionalized, and this would be the first step towards accomplishing that.

“Now, when you talk about the tournaments, the schedule will be an issue, there’s no doubt about it. But we need to regionalize basketball. There’s no doubt about it. And the non-revenue sports,” Greenberg added. “The idea that the ACC has Stanford and Cal and not Connecticut and someone else in the Big East, it doesn’t make any sense. It’s not fair to the student-athletes. It’s not fair to the good of the enterprise.

“The other part of this is the ACC has got to make a decision. They’ve got to invest in their programs. NIL, coaches, infrastructure and everything that surrounds it. Right now, there’s no level playing field in the ACC. It’s kind of Duke, Carolina and a couple others. Everyone else, like [Boston College], they’re playing from behind.”

Alas, a potential ACC-Big East merger is an exciting proposition, but will it ever come to fruition? Stranger things have happened, but Seth Greenberg is certainly pushing for it. We’ll see if the idea picks up some steam, or if it ends up in the void over the next couple of years.