The Atlantic Coast Conference is trimming the league slate from 20 games to 18 to make room for more marquee non-conference contests, CBS Sports reported Wednesday.
The ACC is making the change effective with the 2025-26 men’s basketball schedule in order to help reverse a recent trend of dwindling NCAA Tournament bids, per the report.
The 18-team conference’s athletic directors reportedly approved the move in a call on Wednesday morning.
The ACC sent just four teams to the 2025 NCAA Tournament, including the controversial choice of North Carolina. It marked the lowest percentage (22.2 percent) of ACC teams in the field since it expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
The Southeastern Conference, by comparison, sent a record 14 teams to the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
The ACC sent seven teams to the 2021 tournament, followed by five in each of the next three years and four this season.
Adding more Quad 1 and Quad 2 opponents to the schedule may not fix all the problems in the ACC, which has been trending downward since the COVID-19 pandemic in part due to the retirements of high-profile coaches Roy Williams (North Carolina), Mike Krzyzewski (Duke), Jim Boeheim (Syracuse) and Tony Bennett (Virginia).
The Big 12 Conference announced a similar change to the schedule in March, a reduction from 20 to 18 games.
The SEC’s 16 members play an 18-game league schedule, while the 18-team Big Ten Conference has a 20-game slate.
–Field Level Media
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