The Atlantic Coast Conference has been the laughingstock of power leagues in college basketball over the last few seasons, but that's all changing in 2025-26. Joe Lunardi recently updated his 2026 NCAA Tournament Bracketology, and an astounding eight squads out of the ACC were featured. Several programs are beginning to establish themselves as true contenders within the ACC this year, with a few surprise teams that are making some noise that wasn't originally anticipated. Duke remains as the cream of the crop in the ACC, but after the Blue Devils completely obliterated the lackluster conference in 2024, going 19-1 in conference play en route to an ACC regular season title and ACC Tournament Championship, they might have some legitimate competition now.
Duke, Louisville, and North Carolina have established themselves as legitimate Final Four contenders. Still, other teams have already picked up some quality wins. Eight programs out of the ACC are currently ranked inside the top 50 of the NET with a combined 9-9 record in Quadrant 1.
ESPN's latest Bracketology shows the ACC is arising from the depths of mediocrity
The ACC's eight projected teams in the field are tied for the third-most of any conference, and it would be the most bids from the ACC since 2018. The conference hasn't gotten more than five teams in the field since 2021.
ACC projected NCAA Tournament teams per ESPN's latest Bracketology:
Duke: 1 seed
Louisville: 4 seed
North Carolina: 4 seed
Virginia: 6 seed
SMU: 7 seed
Clemson: 8 seed
Miami: 9 seed
NC State: 10 seed
The ACC hasn't secured three or more top-four seeds in the big dance since 2019, but did so in each tournament from 2014 up to 2019.
ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips switched back to an 18-game conference slate this year for the first time since the 2018-19 season for the sake of giving teams the opportunity to schedule more marquee non-conference games in order to give them better chances of receiving an at-large bid. The point of the move was to get more ACC programs back in the NCAA Tournament, and as of now, it's working like a charm.
The conference saw four of its programs ranked in this week's AP Poll, tied for the most teams ranked in one poll from the ACC this season.