The Atlantic Coast Conference is reducing its 20-game men’s basketball schedule to 18, giving teams two more spots for marquee nonconference games in a bid to boost a league getting a dwindling haul of NCAA Tournament bids, a person familiar with the decision said Wednesday.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the ACC hasn’t officially announced the move, which was first reported by CBS Sports.
The change for this fall comes after commissioner Jim Phillips has been vocal about spending the past two seasons examining the conundrum of the ACC getting fewer bids – down to four this year, its lowest haul since 2013 – despite having teams regularly playing deep into March. Going to 18 games could make room for schools to add quality nonconference matchups to help their schedule strength – and therefore the ACC’s stature, provided of course the league wins its share of measuring-stick games, unlike last year.
The league moved to a 20-game slate for the 2019-20 season with its ESPN-partnered launch of the ACC Network. At the time, the ACC was coming off a fourth straight season with at least seven NCAA bids – including a record nine in 2018 and 2019 – while having three No. 1 seeds in 2019 and winning three of five national titles (Duke in 2015, North Carolina in 2017 and Virginia in 2019).
Things have been tougher since the COVID-19 pandemic, coinciding with the retirement of big-name coaches like UNC’s Roy Williams, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim. Or last year with the unexpected departure of Virginia’s Tony Bennett weeks before tipoff.
The league had seven bids during the bubbled 2021 tournament in Indiana, then fell to five for three straight seasons before sliding to four this year, its first as an expanded 18-team basketball conference. By comparison, the ACC had just 12 teams the last time it got just four bids in 2013.
And yet, the league also had both UNC and Duke in the Final Four in 2022, Miami there in 2023, N.C. State in 2024 and Duke again in April.
The ACC’s move comes after a similar change for the Big 12, which announced in March that it would drop from 20 games to 18 after its coaches had expressed concerns about a grinding schedule with no time for rest. The SEC, which got a record 14 bids from its 16 teams last year, plays 18 games while the Big Ten plays 20.
