The dawn of the rising power that is the New ACC Basketball conference
By Phillip Murray
Today kicks off the Sweet 16, but this year’s March Madness has already been filled with records being set and broken. From brackets being busted on day 1, to a 15 seed beating a 2 seed, March Madness has already lived up to its name. The most talked about topic going into this weekend however, is a conference that is dominating the tournament. That is the ACC.
One year after tying the record for most teams in the sweet 16 with 5, the ACC one upped the record this year by 1 setting a NCAA record for 6 teams in the Sweet 16. This year North Carolina, Duke, Virginia, Miami, Notre Dame and Syracuse have all advanced to the Sweet Sixteen. Also don’t forget that Louisville was disqualified from tournament play, so that could have been another team to play in the sweet 16. The record of 5 teams in the sweet 16 was set by the Big East in 2009. Even though most of the teams were mid to low seeds, the ACC went on an insane 12-1 record last weekend. Another record the ACC set was the amount of revenue earned for advancing and playing in the sweet 16. The ACC is set to earn a whopping 30.3 million over a six year payout. The league will earn even more if any of the 6 teams advance further this weekend.
In recent and distant memory, the Big East had been dubbed one of, if not the best, power conference in NCAA Mens College Basketball. However with the addition and realignment of Louisville, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame and Syracuse, the ACC is making a legitimate case to be a consistent top ranked basketball conference for years to come.
As for the tournament, the ACC could continue to roll. With games scheduled for Thursday and Friday featuring ACC schools, the ACC teams will not face each other in the Sweet 16. It is possible that six of the elite 8 and the entire final 4 could all be teams from the ACC. In case you were wondering, that would be another unprecedented record set by the league. The most teams a conference has ever placed into the Final Four was 3 back in 1985 and that was from the Big East. St Johns, Georgetown( runner up), and Villanova(National Champion) all made the Final Four within a few years of the formation of the Big East Conference. No conference has placed three or more teams into the Final Four since then. The ACC could turn next weekend into a defacto ACC Tournament with the country watching.
With Revenue increasing and prestige continuing to rise throughout the conference, could the ACC be setting the trend to be the SEC Football version of Men’s Basketball in terms of power, championships, parity, and a developing bias? Will people begin to look at the ACC as the unstoppable juggernaut in the the field? The Atlantic Coast Conference already has the defending Men’s Champion in Duke, who in a supposed “down” year, has two NBA Prospects in their starting lineup in Grayson Allen and Brandon Ingram and look as if they have just as good of a chance to make it to the Final Four as any of the other schools in the Sweet Sixteen. Virginia is a #1 seed in the Midwest and with #2 Seed Michigan State’s upset by Middle Tennesse State, looks to have a clear path to the Final Four. #1 seed in the East North Carolina was the preseason #1 in almost every poll and has won both their tourney games by an average of 17.5 points so far. And these are just the “heavyweights”. Syracuse, Miami and Notre Dame all have attributes that make them favorites to make the Final Four themselves.
Major media outlets and Basketball analysts have North Carolina(who looks unstoppable displaying dominant performances game after game) versus the field in terms of being at the National championship. While anything could happen being March Madness, even a statistic professional can’t ignore the odds of at least one ACC team appearing in the championship game. If another school from the league wins the championship again there would be validity in calling them “Best Basketball Conference” considering that over the past 15 years out if all the NCAA tournament champions…..8 were schools that were or are now apart of the ACC.
