ACC Tournament To NYC -- The New Recurring Discussion We Need To Read About

With conference realignment seemingly over for the foreseeable future (I said seemingly), Syracuse's new athletic home, the Atlantic Coast Conference, can focus on other things, like forming its own TV network or reconfiguring bowl ties with the new college football playoffs.

Though, those two topics will pop up every now and then, there will be one topic we will hear about a lot until it actually happens -- the ACC men's basketball tournament moving to New York City.

Over the past week at the ACC Spring meetings in Florida, Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim, along with a slew of other former Big East Conference coaches, continued to pitch the idea of moving, possibly now, the best college basketball tournament to the Big Apple; either to Madison Square Garden or the fancy new Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Whether Coach K or Roy Williams like it or not, this move will eventually happen because, just like conference realignment, the money and ego boosting is too big to pass up. Plus, the hurdles to make it happen aren't that hard to jump.

Sources on Wednesday said the conference is "thoroughly investigating" playing its tournament at the Garden, with one source adamant that it eventually would be held in the World's Most Famous Arena, which would take it out of traditional ACC country for the first time.

"We'll be playing there," a source said. "It's just a matter of getting all the legal ramifications worked out."

That's because in March, the new Big East Conference and Madison Square Garden announced a 12-year deal through 2026. However, MSG executive vice president Joel Fisher was noncommittal about the ACC playing there.

"I don't want to speculate about (the ACC)," Fisher said in March.

Sources said MSG can get out of its deal before 2026 if the new Big East doesn't reach certain benchmarks. That would open the door for the ACC, which is holding its spring meetings in Amelia Island.

Besides Madison Square Garden, the ACC also has had discussions with the Barclays Center about holding its tournament in Brooklyn, a source said.

Sure, ACC traditionalists can preach tradition, but lets face the facts: the Big East is no longer the Big East and the ACC is no longer the ACC. So, it is time to start a new tradition -- and boy what a tradition it would be. Imagine a ACC Final Four in New York City featuring Syracuse, Louisville, Duke and North Carolina?

The thought of that is just too much to ignore, and is why this topic will not go away until it happens. I am sure all of us here at TNIAAM are hoping all the talk eventually leads to some action. Until then, we will just need to endure the rumors and speculation.