The ACC introduced Tuesday that its 18-team males’s basketball convention goes again to enjoying an 18-game league schedule.
The convention had performed a 20-game league schedule for the reason that 2019-20 season, a transfer that appeared destined to stay following final 12 months’s additions of SMU, Stanford and California. And but, right here we’re.
The place we’re is uncharted territory for the ACC.
Whereas the SEC and the Huge Ten are having fun with report ranges of success, the ACC hasn’t positioned greater than 5 groups in an NCAA Match since 2021. If not for North Carolina’s extremely controversial inclusion within the First 4 on this previous event, the ACC could be coming off a 12 months during which it despatched simply three groups to the Huge Dance for the primary time since 2000.
In a league the place basketball has sometimes been king, lagging behind the opposite 4 energy conferences for greater than a one-off season is trigger for sweeping change.
And so once more, right here we’re.
Essentially the most shocking a part of Tuesday’s announcement wasn’t the reversion, it was the construction of the reversion.
As a substitute of following the format most believed could be adopted — each crew enjoying 16 opponents as soon as and one opponent twice — the ACC introduced that beginning in 2025-26, each crew will play 14 groups as soon as, two groups twice, and one crew in no way.
The house-and-home video games shall be of two completely different varieties. Every crew will play two video games towards a “main companion” each season, and two sport towards a “variable companion” that can change from one season to the following.
The “main companions” listing is as follows:
Boston School-Notre Dame
Clemson-Georgia Tech
California-Stanford
Duke-North Carolina
Florida State-Miami
Louisville-SMU
NC State-Wake Forest
Pitt-Syracuse
Virginia Tech-Virginia
The rationale right here is sound: It offers the league the chance to pit its projected strongest groups towards each other for one additional high quality matchup each season, whereas additionally preserving the sanctity of the convention’s strongest rivalries.
What the ACC hopes to keep away from is a scenario like final 12 months the place a Duke crew that completed 19-1 within the league and a Louisville crew that completed 18-2 performed their solely sport on Dec. 8 to little fanfare. Having two groups — Clemson and Louisville — end 18-2 in league play and earn only a No. 5 and a No. 8 seed, respectively, is one other factor Jim Phillips and firm want to keep away from transferring ahead.
General, the transfer type of looks like treating a quickly spreading virus with ibuprofen. May there be some constructive results? Positive, however this isn’t a response that’s addressing the foundation explanation for the difficulty in any substantive means.
Each ACC crew getting two extra non-conference video games gained’t matter a lot if the league doesn’t cease getting completely obliterated by the opposite energy conferences in November and December.
The ACC’s 18 groups went a collective 331-270 in non-conference play final season, the seventh-best mark out of the 31 leagues in Division-I. The league additionally had a sub-.500 report towards prime 100 opponents for the fourth consecutive season. Maybe most notably, the convention went simply 4-30 in video games towards SEC opponents, together with a humiliating 2-14 efficiency within the annual ACC-SEC Problem.
The shortage of high quality wins mixed with a large number of embarrassing losses left Duke with nearly no margin for error to be a No. 1 seed, and groups like Clemson and Louisville with nearly no margin for error simply to get into the NCAA Match.
A change in scheduling philosophy isn’t going to repair that.
In an period the place funds matter much more than they ever have earlier than, it ought to shock nobody that the 2 leagues with probably the most cash are the 2 presently experiencing probably the most on-court success. The SEC particularly is on its greatest run in historical past because of having the ability to rent (and maintain) among the greatest coaches within the sport, and assemble one of the best rosters within the sport on an annual foundation.
In an effort to attempt to make up floor, a number of ACC packages have introduced in youthful, extra ahead pondering head coaches this offseason. Will Wade will look to rejuvenate NC State, Jai Lucas is already bringing high-level expertise again to Miami, Ryan Odom takes over at Virginia after years of being discusses as one of many “subsequent huge issues” in teaching, and Luke Loucks is trying to convey a contemporary strategy to roster meeting at Florida State.
With all due respect to Phillips and firm, that is the one means again to the highest of the mountain for the ACC. No scheduling rearrangement goes to cover one other sub-par two months of performances earlier than the calendar flips to 2026.
Whereas the trail to the recipe for convention success has modified considerably lately, the recipe itself is static: Nice gamers, nice coaches, stacking wins. Totally different than it’s ever been earlier than. Identical because it ever was.
