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The battle for fourth place in the ACC means a lot this season.
Finishing fourth in one of the Power 6 basketball conferences is usually good enough to ensure an NCAA Tournament bid.
But not so fast, ACC!
It looks right now like first place will be decided in Durham when Duke and Carolina have their rematch. It is highly likely that the winner on March 9 will claim the prestigious ACC regular season championship. Both are safely in the Big Dance and will probably be among the top four seeds in one of the regions.
Virginia (11-5) is third and in some danger of falling to fifth and losing a double bye into Thursday’s ACC tournament quarterfinals, but seems in more jeopardy of falling onto the NCAA bubble by dropping two of its last three games going into the Carolina home date Saturday at 4 p.m. and with a trip to Duke also left.
Thus, fourth place is shaping up as a battle between bubble teams, a result of the ACC still being rated the No. 4 conference after climbing from sixth earlier this season, still low for the traditionally rich league.
After Wake Forest’s easy win over Pitt Tuesday night, the Deacons moved into fourth place with a 9-6 record, but both still have losable games left on their schedules and are hanging onto the NCAA bubble for dear life.
N.C. State is probably headed to the NIT after losing its sixth home game of the season to Syracuse, and at 8-7 has visits to Carolina, FSU and Pitt, plus a home game with Duke, remaining. The Wolfpack began the night with a 75 NET ranking but will surely fall into the 80s.
Clemson (27), Wake (40), Pitt (47) and Virginia (50) are all on the crowded NCAA bubble and need good showings down the stretch and in the ACC Tournament in Washington, DC, to determine the fourth ACC team to make the Dance as an at-large entry.
The close games and plethora of upsets make the ACC look like a competitive league, and it is – just not competing for an NCAA berth by most of its 15 members.
That is also due as much to the destabilizing transfer portal and NIL that has made the biggest names and leagues in college hoops not quite so big. That is why competing for fourth place in the ACC is far more important than it has been in past years when the conference was considered among the best.
Featured image via Todd Melet
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
It’s not the NIL that is the ACCs problem. It is the NET rankings that are broken. Supposedly the ACC is down this year and was also down the previous 2 years. However the ACC has the best winning ratio in the NCAA tournament of all major conferences in that same 2 year down period. The ACC got a total of 10 bids over the 2 years the 5th of all conferences, yet won 21 games the 2nd most only the Big 12 had more, 22 but they had 13 bids. Yeah the ACC is down just like the last two years.
The ACC bubble teams in this article would have winning records in head to head play against the bottom teams that are projected to get bids from other conferences.
Maybe the ACC will learn from the BIG 12 on how to manipulate the NET rating and the bottom half of the ACC will schedule cupcakes for their early non conference games. Then the ACC could get 10 teams in and will still probably have the best winning ratio in the tournament.