UCF v Duke
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The biggest moves in this era of college athletics and realignment have paid the biggest dividends. Literally, in some cases. 

Some of the biggest moves, so far, include:

Texas and Oklahoma exiting the Big 12 for greener pastures in the SEC

Cincinnati, Houston, UCF, Houston and BYU leaving for the Big 12. 

USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington ducking out of the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten. 

Each domino falling required equal parts foresight and opportunistic thinking to position teams and conferences best into the future.

And it's why former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who spoke this week in an exclusive interview with Jon Rothstein on the Inside College Basketball podcast, reiterated his belief that for the future health of the ACC, the league must consider merging with the Big East.

"It's worth looking at," Krzyzewski said. "People would be naive to think all conferences will look the same five years from now. Once certain milestones pass, it becomes less expensive to move, and the ACC is a terrific conference. Why not do something unbelievable in basketball?

"It could also give UConn an opportunity," he said. "They're playing football -- and they'd love to be in a conference where every school plays football. It would be an amazing league with a huge footprint stretching into the Midwest."

How a merged ACC, Big East would work

The winds of change in realignment have blown toward the ACC like every other major conference: In recent years it added Cal, Stanford and SMU. It seems an acknowledgment of something must be done to keep pace with the shifting landscape. A merger between the ACC and Big East would check both boxes of foresight and opportunistic thinking and could also be the best long-term path to viability for both leagues.

Here's a look at what that map would look like. 

  

This isn't the first time Coach K has floated the idea. Probably won't be the last. And that's because many seem to agree.

Fellow Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino, who now coaches in the Big East for reigning league-winner St. John's, said this summer he's all for it. 

"I'm in total agreement with Coach K," Pitino said in August on Inside College Basketball. "When I started 51 years ago, college football and college basketball were on the same plane. The NFL and NBA were on the same plane. Today, football is here [as he gestures up near his face] and basketball [as he gestures lower, near his chest] is here. So in order for the Big East and ACC to survive this football mania -- because a bad college football game will surpass an NBA playoff game as far as viewership. If we want to survive basketball-wise with the ACC and the Big East, combining it into a mega-conference would be an awesome thing.

"Unfortunately," Pitino added. "Outside of coach and myself, I don't think there's a lot of feelings that way. I don't think the NCAA is very proactive. I don't think the ACC and Big East is very proactive. I don't think they think outside the box."

Coach K's West Point roots

That strikes at the heart of Coach K's long-running grievance about the sport writ large. And, fittingly, it requires Krzyzewski to harken back to his time at West Point, where he will be on Tuesday as Duke faces Army at West Point on CBS Sports Network (Channel finder or via CBS Sports App) on Veterans Day. 

"At West Point," Krzyzewski said, "they taught pinpoint responsibility. This is your show -- you're responsible. But with college basketball, who do you talk to? Who is responsible? I don't know.

"College football has leadership. Basketball needs to morph into something similar. The Power 4 conferences along with the Big East need to form a coalition, have a commissioner, and run it like a business," Krzyzewski said. "Because it is a business. People are getting paid and deserve to be, but now let's run it properly."

Whether that happens or not remains to be seen. And whether the ACC and Big East ignite talks at some point to feel each other out about the idea also remains to be seen. 

But what seems abundantly imminent is what Krzyzewski nailed: conferences will not look the same in five years as they do right now. Perhaps the idea of being bold, as Krzyzewski challenges ACC and Big East leaders to consider, is the best path forward for all.