Everyone is making fun of the ACC, including St. John’s men’s basketball head coach Rick Pitino.
Pitino coached Louisville from 2001-17 — which joined the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in his final three seasons — but that was when the conference geographically made some more sense than it does now, apparently.
In reaction to the conference adding Stanford, Cal and SMU, Pitino tweeted, “I hear the Big East is looking to add teams from Panathinaikos & Olympiacos,” referencing two of Greece’s most storied basketball teams.
“It’s only a nine-hour flight,” he concluded with a shrug and two laughing emoji.
Pitino coached Panathinaikos from 2018-20 and the Greek National Team from 2019-21 before taking the job at Iona.
The ACC, which initially represented teams on or near the Atlantic Coast, will now add two teams for California and another in SMU, which hails from Dallas.
It means you’ll see teams from Florida take on teams from California and teams from New York and Boston flying down to Texas — all in one conference.
The ACC is set to welcome the new teams for the 2024 football season, expanding the conference to 18 teams, 17 of whom will compete in football.
Notre Dame will remain independent on the gridiron.
As Stanford and Cal leave the Pac-12 Conference, it continues to outline an uncertain future for the orgnanization out west.
The Pac-12 is set to lose Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah to the Big 12 next season.
Also departing are USC, UCLA, Washington and Oregon for the Big Ten, and the aforementioned Cal and Stanford for the ACC, all next summer.
Remaining are only Oregon State and Washington State as full-time members.