The Atlantic Coast Conference reduces its 20-year-old male basketball calendar, giving teams for two other places for brand non-conference matches in order to stimulate a league A drop in transportation of NCAA tournament offersA person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press Wednesday.
The person spoke under the cover of anonymity because the ACC did not officially announce this decision, which was first reported by CBS Sports.
The change for this fall comes after Commissioner Jim Phillips has been expressed over the last two seasons to examine the enigma of the ACC to obtain fewer offers – four this year, its lowest transport since 2013 – despite the teams Playing regularly in March. Going to 18 games could make room for schools to add quality clashes without conference to help their schedule – and therefore the stature of ACC, provided that the league wins its share of measuring stick games, Unlike last year.
The Mustangs SMU were one of the teams that could have potentially benefited from another big match or two on the calendar.
SMU came close to the end of what is now a drought of the eight -year NCAA tournament last season. The Mustangs finished equally in the fourth row of ACC, their first year of the League, despite their choice to finish 13th in pre-season. They exceeded all the expectations of the first year under the new head coach Andy Enfield.
But while during a sequence of five consecutive victories firmly on the bubble with a month to play, SMU lost its starting point guard and the top scorer Boopie Miller for a foot injury for five games. The Mustangs went 2-3 in the section without him and finished their 3-4 season despite the start of 19-5.
Throughout the regular season, SMU could not ensure a quadruple victory, which is defined as beating a team ranked 1-30 at home, 1-50 on a neutral site and 1-75 on the road. The victories of this caliber are generally necessary so that the teams can make the NCAA tournament as a selection of wide.
The Mustangs went 0-4 in their quad 1 games in the regular season, but once again had the opportunity in the ACC tournament in Charlotte, in North Carolina, to ensure some quality victories and plead for the committee for why they should be.
After defeating Syracuse 14th seeded, SMU finally fell 57-54 in Clemson, third seeded, in his second conference tournament game, obtaining his nit fate for the fourth time in the last five seasons.
The ACC went to a 20-game slate for the 2019-20 season with its ACC Network Espn-Partned launch, although the teams played less in 2020-21 in the middle of the COVVI-19 pandemic. At the time, the ACC came out of a fourth consecutive season with at least seven NCAA offers – including a record of nine in 2018 and 2019 – while having three heads n ° 1 in 2019 and winning three of the five national titles (Duke in 2015, in North Carolina in 2017 and Virginia in 2019).
Things are more difficult from the pandemic, coinciding with The retreat of major coaches Like Roy Williams of the UNC, Mike Krzyzewski from Duke and Jim Boeheim from Syracuse. Or last year With the unexpected departure of Virginie Tony Bennett weeks before the Tipoff.
The League had seven offers during the bubbling tournament in 2021 in Indiana, then fell to five for three consecutive seasons before slipping at four this year, its first as an enlarged basketball conference of 18 teams. In comparison, the ACC had only 12 teams the last time it only obtained four offers in 2013.
And yet, the League also had both UNC and Duke in the Final Four in 2022, Miami there in 2023, NC State in 2024 and Duke again in April.
AC's decision comes after a similar change for Big 12, which announced in March that it would spend 20 games at 18 After his coaches had expressed concerns about a grinding calendar without time to rest. The Sec, which obtained a record of 14 offers from its 16 teams last year, plays 18 games while the Big Ten plays 20.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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