Legendary college basketball coaches want the ACC and Big East to merge

As March Madness draws near, two of the biggest conferences in college basketball could be thinking about a partnership that would elevate themselves to another level in the sport's landscape.

Legendary head coaches Mike Kryzewski and Rick Pitino have both floated the idea out there, but with the Big East commissioner also entertaining the idea, perhaps a merger between the ACC and Big East is actually closer to happening than some might believe.

Both Mike Krzyzewski and Rick Pitino have suggested a merger between the Big East and ACC.

Big East commissioner Val Ackerman even said she is open to the idea—but it could require unraveling media rights contracts involving ESPN, Fox, NBC, and TNT.

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Both conferences feature historic teams like Connecticut, Duke, Georgetown, North Carolina, St. John's, Syracuse and Villanova, so the concept of combining forces should have college basketball fans extremely excited.

However, actually getting a deal done could be a tricky prospect considering each conference is locked into broadcasting contracts that span across four major networks, including ESPN, Fox, NBC and TNT.

Any potential merger would also have to make sense for all schools from a financial perspective, especially given the fact that while the ACC is an important football conference, the Big East only has one Division 1 football program with the Connecticut Huskies.

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