Tag Archives: Big East

Report: ACC Tournament could be played at Madison Square Garden

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The ACC Tournament, which has always been held in traditional ACC territory, may be making a move up north to the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden.

Duke last played in Madison Square Garden against Michigan State in 2011, but may soon be playing the ACC Tournament at MSG every year. (Chronicle File Photo)

Duke last played in Madison Square Garden against Michigan State in 2011, but the Blue Devils may soon be playing the ACC Tournament at MSG every year. (Chronicle File Photo)

ESPN New York is reporting that the ACC is “investigating” playing it’s men’s basketball tournament at Madison Square Garden, with one source going so far as to saying that the only thing preventing the tournament’s relocation is legal ramifications.

Madison Square Garden was the home of the Big East Tournament since 1983, but now the former Big East has disintegrated. The new Big East reached a deal with Madison Square Garden to hold it’s tournament in the Big Apple through 2026, but Madison Square Garden can get out of its contract with the new Big East if the league fails to meet certain specifications.

Greensboro, N.C., the home of the 2013 ACC Tournament, will also host the tournament in 2014 and 2015, but after that the location is up for grabs. Madison Square Garden did not apply for the tournament by the official deadline, but there are ways around that formality. In addition to Madison Square Garden, there is a chance the ACC could take its talents to Brooklyn and play in the Barclays Center.

With the addition of northern schools like Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Notre Dame to the ACC next season, the conference is already experimenting with new locations for its conference championships. The conference announced last month that the ACC Tournament for men’s lacrosse will be held at PPL Park in Philadelphia in 2014 and 2015. With a new northern base centered around former Big East powers, a potential move to Madison Square Garden is a prospect that should be taken seriously.

Notre Dame to come to the ACC next year

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According to Sports Illustrated’s Pete Thamel, Notre Dame will leave the Big East to join the ACC next year for basketball.

Earlier in the year, the ACC announced that the Fighting Irish would join the conference for most sports, notably excluding football, where Notre Dame will remain independent. The Fighting Irish will play five football games against ACC schools but will not be a part of the conference.

The move will give the ACC 15 basketball schools next year—Notre Dame, plus Syracuse and Pittsburgh, the latter two of which are also coming over from the Big East. Notre Dame’s basketball coach, Mike Brey, is a former Duke assistant under Mike Krzyzewski.

Maryland is scheduled to depart the ACC for the Big Ten, but that departure is not expected until after the 2013-2014 season. The conference will remain at 15, however, with the addition of Louisville, also from the Big East.

The move will not affect football next year, with the schedules already announced for the 2013 season.

The Big East is going through major changes right now as the “Catholic 7″ schools have moved to create a new Big East conference.

Here is what Thamel writes:

Notre Dame’s basketball teams will play in the ACC next year, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation. The Big East presidents will vote on the issue Tuesday morning, and an announcement is expected sometime after their conference call ends.

“It’s everyone’s intention that this will happen tomorrow,” said the source.

The move doesn’t come as a surprise. The ACC has remained Notre Dame’s desired landing spot since the Big East basketball conference became depleted with the departure of the Catholic Seven. Notre Dame coach Mike Brey has been vocal about his hope to play in the ACC, a league he grew up watching as a Maryland fan and coached in as a long-time assistant at Duke. With the ACC’s basketball schedule yet to be completed for next year, the league was able to accommodate the Irish.

The economics of Notre Dame’s exit will be similar to the departing Catholic Seven basketball schools, meaning it will keep its NCAA basketball units and take a small amount of the Big East reserve fund.

Because Notre Dame left the Big East under a Mutual Commitment Agreement -– the same method as the Catholic Seven -– it was not subject to the traditional exit fee it would have faced if it stayed in the league for 27 months. Notre Dame’s fee will essentially end up forgoing any claims to the estimated $70 million the Big East has stashed away in exit and entry fees. (That number is liquid due to litigation and other factors.)

Q&A with The Pitt News sports editor about moving to the ACC

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This week, Pittsburgh and Syrcause announced they agreed to buyouts with the Big East and will now move to the ACC a year earlier, now for the 2013-2014 academic year. In an effort to gauge the campus pulse on how these new schools will fit into the ACC, Chronicle sports editor Andrew Beaton sat down with RJ Sepich, the sports editor of The Pitt News, the daily student newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh.

The Chronicle: When the news first broke about Pitt and Syrcause coming to the ACC, what was the reaction like on campus to the news?

RJ Sepich: Honestly, it wasn’t that surprising when the announcement was made last fall that Pitt would be leaving the Big East for the ACC. As a member of the Big East since the ’80s, Pitt had been extremely loyal to the conference, but everyone knew Pitt’s administration was getting fed up with the Big East’s lack of attempts to strengthen itself in football, where the real money is made. For mainly football reasons, the feel around campus for awhile was that it was only a matter of time before Pitt left for the Big Ten, ACC or Big 12.

As Pitt fans tend to have a fanbase that worries a lot and can be pessimistic, some people had a negative reaction to the announcement, fearing that Pitt would become the next Boston College in the ACC and fade into obscurity. But overall, the sports fans around campus are excited about the challenges moving to the ACC will bring, as well as the prospect of hosting schools like Florida State and Clemson in football and Duke and North Carolina in basketball.

TC: Do you think Pitt sees itself as being legitimately able to compete at the top of the conference in both football and basketball? The Panthers have certainly had years where their football and basketball programs are as competitive as any in the country–do you think the move helps or hurts them more in either of the two major sports?

RJS: I would say there’s an optimism here that both programs can be competitive and perhaps even win an ACC title at some point. Despite last season’s struggles and excluding the numerous early tournament exits, the basketball program has been as solid as any in the country over the last decade and recruiting is only improving, while the football team produced some of the best football players in the game and consistently challenged for Big East titles. Fitzgerald, McCoy and Revis, the best receiver, running back and corner back in the NFL, respectively, all played for Pitt in the past decade.

Personally, I don’t think Pitt’s transition to the ACC will be as bad as Boston College’s and not as good as Virginia Tech’s, but somewhere in between. If Pitt can consistently perform well enough in its new conference to earn a top four seed in the NCAA tournament and qualify for a bowl game every year, I think a lot of people around here will be pleased and feel like the move was justified.

TC: Is there any disappointment in leaving a conference with rivalries and history though? And on the same token, are there any specific matchups that people are looking forward to on a regular basis?

RJS: I think the level of disappointment varies from person to person. The only real rivalry we are losing is the West Virginia Backyard Brawl game, and many Pitt fans might be secretly glad the Panthers won’t play WVU anymore because it frankly can be a scary experience for Pitt fans travelling to Morgantown. Down the road, Pitt will likely still play either Notre Dame or Penn State in football every year, and rivalries in basketball like Duquesne and Robert Morris will surely continue.

As for the new matchups, it’ll be interesting to see if we develop a rivalry with Maryland at all. And like I mentioned earlier, in football a lot of people are excited for home games against Florida State, Clemson and Virginia Tech. In basketball, obviously North Carolina and Duke will be the marquee games because they are the faces of ACC baskeball, and a lot of Pitt fans still talk fondly about the victory over Duke at MSG a few years ago when Levance Fields hit the 3-pointer in overtime to win it.

TC: Definitely. And the coverage with these conference changes always focuses on men’s basketball and football, but do you see it making a significant impact on Pitt in any of the non-revenue sports? For ACC fans who may not know, which of the Olympic sports does Pitt regularly do best in?

RJS: I think it could be huge in the long run for the non-revenue sports, especially baseball, softball and both soccer teams because Pitt just built an awesome brand new on-campus complex for those sports, and the recruiting and level of play is already noticeably improving and will only continue to get better when the ACC move happens.

And Pitt’s best sport besides football and basketball recently has been wrestling. The team finished 15th at last year’s NCAA championships and had two wrestlers finish in the top five of their weight class, and the program is still on the rise. Most of the other sports have been middle-of-the-pack in the Big East, although baseball, softball and women’s volleyball all have good recruiting classes coming in.

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Pitt, Syracuse officially join ACC

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College basketball fans could now be treated to a Final Four of Duke, North Carolina, Pittsburgh and Syracuse—in just the ACC tournament.

 

The ACC Council of Presidents has unanimously approved the addition of Pittsburgh and Syracuse as the 13th and 14th members of the ACC.

 

“At a time of instability in college athletics, the foresight of the ACC presidents has secured the conference’s future,” Duke vice president and director of athletics Kevin White said in a release. “To be sure, from the Duke perspective, we are ecstatic about the addition of these extraordinary institutions. Pittsburgh and Syracuse provide the best fit – at the right time – for the ACC.”

 

It was first reported that both schools had submitted application letters earlier this weekend. The Big East requires its member schools to provide 27 months of notice before leaving the conference, on top of a $5 million buyout, so the timetable for the transition period of both universities is unclear.

 

The addition of two prestigious academic institutions such as the University of Pittsburgh and Syracuse University,” Duke head men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski said in a statement, “coupled with their great tradition in athletics, is a real coup for the ACC.”

 

Throughout an uncertain national conference landscape, the ACC had, before this weekend, taken a backseat to the public overtures of the SEC, Big 12 and Pac-12. A week ago, though, ACC schools voted to increase the buyout from $12 to $14 million to $20 million in order to strengthen the position of current members. While nothing appears to be imminent, ACC commissioner John Swofford did not deny the possibility of expanding the conference to 16 teams.

 

“We’re very comfortable with this 14,” he said. “The only thing I would add to that is we are not philosophically opposed to 16. But for now we’re very pleased with this 14. We think it’s an excellent group.”