The Atlantic Coast Conference has been fairly mediocre over the past couple of seasons in terms of getting teams into the NCAA Tournament, but Joe Lunardi's recent Bracketology proves that the ACC is back. Across the last few years, ACC teams have made runs and had tournament success, but the sheer lack of teams that have actually gotten into the field has put a damper on what was once considered potentially the best basketball conference in the nation. Several ACC schools have revamped their programs with new coaches and overhauled rosters, and the conference now has four squads ranked in the most recent Associated Press Top 25.
The ACC hasn't gotten more than five teams in the NCAA Tournament field since 2021, and hasn't had more than two top-four seeds in the same year since 2019. However, there's a ton of freshman talent around the conference, and several schools that have been dealing with a rough patch are very well on their way back to relevancy.
Latest ESPN Bracketology proves the ACC is back
In Joe Lunardi's latest Bracketology update, he put five ACC teams in the field: Duke (1-seed), Louisville (2-seed), North Carolina (5-seed), NC State (7-seed), and Virginia (9-seed). Although this is the same number of programs that the ACC has gotten in each of the past three seasons, there's much more potential in 2025-26 for several programs to make a push.
Two more ACC schools are included in Lunardi's First Four Out and Next Four Out: Clemson and SMU. Aside from the Tigers and Mustangs, schools like Miami, Georgia Tech, and Syracuse have all shown flashes of being tournament-caliber teams.
The ACC went back to an 18-game conference schedule this season for the first time since 2018-19, and the thinking behind that move was to have more opportunities for more teams to get into the NCAA Tournament. This is likely the best depth the conference has had in any of the last four seasons, and if the ACC is going to get back to being one of the top basketball conferences in the country, this is the year to get it done.
Duke and Louisville are the clear top teams in the ACC thus far, but as conference play rolls along, there will be plenty of opportunities for teams to collect quality Quad 1 or 2 wins and make a push at the tournament field.