Report: ACC Tournament Not Moving To Madison Square Garden Any Time Soon

According to Brett McMurphy with ESPN.com, the ACC Tournament will not be moving its conference basketball tournament to Madison Square Garden any time soon. ACC Commissioner John Swofford had hinted such a move would be considered when the conference added Syracuse and Pittsburgh in 2011. According to McMurphy, however, MSG isn't pursuing an opportunity to host the tournament. He writes:

The deadline to bid for the 2016-21 ACC's men's basketball tournaments has passed and Madison Square Garden did not submit a bid, sources told ESPN. The 2013-15 ACC men's basketball tournaments will be held in Greensboro, N.C.

A decision for where the 2016-21 ACC tournaments will be held will be made in the coming months. The Barclays Center in Brooklyn also did not submit a bid.

The fact that the ACC would even float the idea was viewed by many as an insult to the Big East when it was first floated, even if that wasn't its intent. It's natural for the ACC to explore more options north of its typical Carolina-centered choices for its tournament (the ACC Championship Game in football has also been most successful in Charlotte). Pittsburgh has reportedly submitted a bid to host the ACC Tournament once its current contract ends after the 2015 tournament. Just spitballing, I could see the tournament reasonably moving north to places like PIttsburgh, or Washington DC/Northern Virginia, or perhaps even New York/Brooklyn one day. But, the desire to move it into MSG always sounded vindictive. Personally, I'm glad to see it won't happen.