"I've been trying to get them to expand": Rick Pitino on potential Big East-ACC merger as larger conferences dominate March Madness field

St. John's coach Rick Pitino has always been an advocate of the Big East expanding to become a super basketball conference, and he made another call for the conference to merge with the ACC on Monday on "The Pat McAfee Show."

When asked why the Southeastern Conference had a record-breaking season in terms of NCAA Tournament bids (14 out of 16 members), Pitino, who just led St. John's to its first Big East title in more than two decades, said:

“Well, obviously, they have more teams than just about anyone, the Big 12, Big 10. Now they've all expanded, where the Big East has not expanded.

“I've been trying to get them to expand now for two years. I think that even combining, like Coach K (Mike Krzyzewski) said, 'The ACC with the Big East in basketball would be a wonderful thing.' So larger is better, certainly."

This Big East last set the record for NCAA Tournament bids from a conference in 2011, when it had 11 of its 16 teams in the bracket.

In the 2025 field, the Big Ten is second with eight teams, while the Big 12 has seven and the Big East has five.

The ACC and the Mountain West each have four teams, while the West Coast has the least number of teams (two).

Rick Pitino insists his triumph with St John’s is not a redemption story

On "The Pat McAfee Show," Rick Pitino reminded anyone who cared to listen that his success with the Red Storms was not to redeem himself.

The coach was fired by Louisville in 2017 while he was being investigated for fraud and corruption. He insisted that he was innocent and was eventually cleared by the Independent Accountability Resolution Process in 2022.

“I really don’t believe in the word ‘redemption’ because those who judge you really don’t know the facts,” Pitino said. “They really don’t know either way, innocent or guilty. They don’t know it.”