ACC Basketball: League faces mid-major problems in conference play

It’s time for conference play and ACC Basketball finds itself in an unfamiliar and peculiar spot after what many considered an underwhelming performance as a whole. The Duke Blue Devils are the clear class of the conference, but after that, grab your set of Fat Cat darts and head to the pub and take your best shot at hitting on the second-best team in the conference.

Duke 10-1 in non-conference play, a mark that was only matched by the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest. But that mark is more than likely a product of the 319th strongest non-conference schedule, and every other team in the conference suffered at least three losses prior to league play. Miami is another surprise team near the top of the standings after an 8-3 record, but like Wake Forest, the Hurricanes schedule was not the best with their top win coming against Penn State.

Remember how every season about this time we get excited about the possibility of mid-major conferences being multi-bid leagues for the NCAA Tournament? Well, the things that ultimately befall those conferences come March, look like it could be a major obstacle to their usual 6+ bids this season.

Rightly or wrongly power-5 teams have the cushion of their conference schedule to help boost their resumes, such is the nature of the beast in college basketball. But, for the first time in a long, long time a prominent conference in the sport will get to feel what it’s like to be a mid-major conference trying to earn multiple bids.