The ACC is Weak

A lot of people argued for an eighth ACC team before the brackets came out. The conference ended up with seven bids and in hindsight, maybe that was five too many.

So far the ACC is 3-5 with five teams (assuming Maryland can't erase a 20 point deficit against Memphis) bounced. Only Duke and UNC have represented the conference well. Wake was soundly beaten by a 13 seed, Clemson and BC went down to 10 seeds and FSU lost to a 12. None of their performances were particularly inspiring, especially BC's.

BC chokes every year no matter where they are seeded and it is safe to say that FSU gagged last night. Wake was simply out played while Clemson lost in a close game where they had a chance to tie it at the buzzer.

This is supposed to be one of the top two conferences in college ball yet they are playing more like the A10. Meanwhile, the Big 12 and the Big East have only lost a team each so far. We knew the Big East was good but who expected this out of the Big 12?

So what happened? Was the ACC overrated all year long or did everybody just choke come tourney time? Probably a combination of the two because there is some real talent in the league top to bottom. Games in conference always turn into dog fights and there were few blowouts all season. Their record out of conference is respectable as well. They dominate the Big Ten every single season in the ACC/BigTen Challenge and the seven teams that got into the dance this year won over 90% of their out of conference games.

At the end of the day, only one team can win it all and at this point, the ACC has just a good a shot of producing the national champ as the Big East does. Should UNC win it all, the conference's awful showing will be largely forgotten but hopefully the selection committee is paying close attention. Next year, let's not just rubber stamp six, seven or eight teams solely because of the ACC's reputation.