What’s Going on With The ACC This Year?

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For as long as I remember, the №1 college basketball conference is a toss-up between the ACC and Big 10; it’s one of those age-old sports arguments.

This year, there’s no argument if you’re a fan of an ACC school or just the conference in general. As a conference, they’re pedestrian this year, while the Big 10 is absolutely loaded. Yes, this will be flipped in a few years and the debate will roll on, but, for now, ACC folk would be wise to just remain silent.

When looking at the ACC, they rank as the fifth-best conference in the country, according to KenPom. It’s the first time they have been outside of the Top 3 in six years. The last time they were that low on the list, Rasheed Sulaimon was still at Duke and Kyle Guy was a freshman in high school. The year was 2013, for those keeping track.

The two main culprits for the ACC’s slide are Virginia and North Carolina, two teams the conference can normally rely on to be in the Top 10 and competing for the conference title.

North Carolina has the №95 next to their name on KenPom.com, an occurrence that’s straight-up weird. №95 is usually reserved for trendy mid-majors or low-end Pac-12 teams — not UNC! Yet, that’s where they sit, the result of a 3–10 start in conference play and a resume that includes three separate losing streaks of four games or more.

Virginia isn’t quite as bad as North Carolina, and they could make the NCAA Tournament(Joe Lunardi had them as one of his Last Four In on the latest episode of ESPN+’s new bracketology show). Still, defending champions aren’t supposed to be fighting for a bid. Yes, they lost their Big 3 of Guy, Ty Jerome, and De’Andre Hunter, but they entered the season as the №5 team in the KenPom rankings. Through 23 games, they have dropped 46 spots to №51.

Ironically, the two teams will square off this weekend in a game that, despite their struggles, is always fun to watch. I bet the spread will be tiny either way in this one, but won’t know for sure until the college basketball odds at SBD are updated. They usually show up the afternoon before the following day’s games, so plenty of time to review them before UNC hosts the Hoos in ESPN’s primetime Saturday slot (8:00 P.M ET).

Altogether, the ACC has six different teams ranked №90 or less on KenPom. As we mentioned, North Carolina is №95 and they’re joined by Wake Forest (№90), Pitt (№94), Virginia Tech (№97), Miami (№117), and Boston College (№162). At the top, only Duke (№3), Louisville (№8), and Florida State (№20) are in the Top 50. By comparison, the Big 10 has 12 teams in the Top 50…so yeah, it’s not even close.

As it stands now, Duke, Louisville, and FSU will be headed to the Big Dance. Virginia is the one team that can probably sneak in if they finish strong, and that starts on Saturday against the Tar Heels.