ACC considering reducing conference basketball schedule to help boost the league's NCAA Tournament profile
The ACC is strongly considering reducing its conference schedule so teams can schedule more marquee nonconference games and improve the league's chances of landing more at-large teams in the NCAA Tournament, CBS Sports has learned.
Commissioner Jim Phillips, the conference's athletics directors and ESPN have been in active discussions to move from 20 conference games to 18 starting with the 2025-26 season, sources told CBS Sports. The expectation among administrators is that the proposal will be approved when the league's administrators meet in May for its annual spring meetings in Florida, sources said.
The ACC declined to comment Monday when reached by CBS Sports.
The 18-game proposal discussed by the ACC's administrators would consist of one game against 16 teams and two games against a permanent rival (home and away) each season, sources said. The league's 20-game schedule last season consisted of two repeat opponents, with new members Cal, SMU and Stanford grouped together as partners.
The ACC is in the midst of one of the worst stretches of its proud history in March Madness. The league placed only four teams in the NCAA Tournament in March, the lowest percentage (22.2%) in its history, and only one team (Duke) advanced beyond the first round. The ACC ranked last among the five high-major conferences in the KenPom.com ratings for the 204-25 season.
2024-25 top conferencesKenPom rankings of major conferences in 2024-25 by NetRtg of team expected to go .500 in conference play.
| Rank | Conference | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | SEC | +22.09 |
| 2 | Big Ten | +19.00 |
| 3 | Big 12 | +17.09 |
| 4 | Big East | +13.58 |
| 5 | ACC | +9.16 |
Efforts to improve the ACC's basketball product are nothing new, and the league considered reducing to 18 conference games in 2024 to allow members to schedule two more non-conference games, potentially boosting the league's standing in metrics such as KenPom and the NET ratings used by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee. The league opted not to change the schedule last spring at its annual meetings, though it continued to study metrics on scheduling and left the door open for changes in 2025-26.
The ACC has been proactive with its broadcast partner, ESPN, regarding the potential cuts to the conference schedule and the programming challenges that might create for the ACC Network next season, sources said.
The ACC conducted extensive statistical analysis with multiple experts and formed a working group of athletics directors and head coaches to examine the basketball product in 2024. Phillips has been outspoken on the issue publicly and has worked extensively with athletic directors and coaches behind the scenes, while also seeking feedback from experts on how to position the league in the future and return to its former glory, sources said.
The ACC had opportunities to improve its resume last season, but the league went 2-14 in the ACC-SEC Challenge, resulting in a significant drop in strength of schedule compared to the SEC, the No. 1 conference in the KenPom rankings.
"As a league, if you don't have a great out-of-conference (record), then mathematically, you can't move up," Miami athletics director Dan Radakovich told CBS Sports. "Your conference is pretty much set once you get to January."
Many Bracketology experts projected only three ACC teams would reach the NCAA Tournament, but North Carolina made the field as the committee's final selection, a controversial decision that ruffled feathers across the country. The Tar Heels entered the tournament with a 1-12 record against Quad 1 teams.
The league has placed five or fewer teams in the NCAA Tournament in four straight seasons, the conference's worst stretch since the early 1980s. Still, five ACC teams have reached the Final Four during that time, making it the only league with semifinal appearances in the last four years.
Coincidence or not, this four-year low for the ACC has also occurred during a slew of retirements and departures, including several current and future Hall of Fame coaches at blue-blood programs responsible for 5,488 career victories: Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams, Jim Boeheim, Mike Brey, Tony Bennett, Jim Larranaga and Leonard Hamilton. The seven coaches accounted for 10 national championships and 30 appearances in the Final Four.
The ACC played an 18-game league schedule as recently as the 2018-19 season and expanded its schedule to 20 games in 2019-20 to fill airtime with the launch of the ACC Network, which launched in the fall of 2019.
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