Getting five teams into the NCAA tournament has to be considered a satisfying result for the ACC in 2012. No one is complaining, anyway. For a change.
ACC participation has been uneven and generally depressed since Miami and Virginia joined in 2004-05, followed by Boston College in 2005-06.
Their arrival exacerbated a growing trend.
An ACC majority got invited to the NCAAs all but once in the 14 years from 1985 -- when the tournament field grew to 64 teams -- through 1998. In nine of the 14 subsequent seasons, including three of seven post-ACC expansion, fewer than half the league's members received bids.
Not long after joining the ACC, Virginia Tech became a highly visible representative of teams that felt snubbed come tournament time.
The Hokies were 9-7 in the league in 2008. Coach Seth Greenberg famously remarked following a fiercely contested loss to Final Four-bound North Carolina in that year's ACC Tournament semifinals, "If you don't think this team is one of the top 65 teams in the country, you're certifiably insane."
His team didn't get in.
Virginia Tech was left out again in 2010 and 2011 despite winning records in ACC competition. Last year Greenberg said he was "disheartened" at being excluded, presumably a reflection of a chronically undemanding nonconference schedule.
"You almost wonder if someone in that room has their own agenda and that agenda doesn't include Virginia Tech," he said of the NCAA selection committee. "Just plain and simple. I totally wonder it, if someone in that room has an agenda."
Probably not, but then conspiracy theorists abound in March.
The annual gripefest didn't draw in Jim Larranaga and his '12 Miami squad. The Hurricanes finished 9-7 ACC in the ACC with wins over Duke and Florida State, but couldn't get a defining win in the conference tournament. They also were visibly lacking in harmony on the bench and in the locker room at Atlanta.
"It appears to me we needed one more win somewhere along the way whether it was in or out of conference and that would have gotten us over the hump and into the NCAA tournament," Larranaga told the Miami Herald.
Instead the Hurricanes became the sole ACC representative in the NIT. They face Valparaiso on Wednesday night at attendance-challenged BankUnited Center.
| SEEDY NEIGHBORHOOD ACC Invitations and Snubs In NCAA Tournament Since 1985,When Field Went To 64 Teams |
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| Year | No.Invited | Winning ACC Record | In With Breakeven ACC | In With Losing ACC |  Totally    Snubbed |
| 2012 | 5 | 5 | 9-7 Mia | ||
| 2011 | 4 | 4 | 9-7 BC 9-7 VT |
||
| 2010 | 6 | 5 | 7-9 GT | 10-6 VT | |
| 2009 | 7 | 6 | 7-9 M | ||
| 2008 | 4 | 3 | 8-8 Mia | 9-7 VT 8-8 M |
|
| 2007 | 7 | 5 | Â 8-8 D, GT | ||
| 2006 | 4 | 4 | 9-7 FSU 8-8 M |
||
| 2005 | 5 | 3 | 8-8 GT | 7-9 NCS | 8-8 VT |
| 2004 | 6 | 4 | 8-8 NC | 7-9 MD | |
| 2003 | 4 | 4 | |||
| 2002 | 4 | 4 | |||
| 2001 | 6 | 4 | 8-8 GT, WF | ||
| 2000 | 3 | 3 | 9-7 V | ||
| 1999 | 3 | 3 | |||
| 1998 | 5 | 3 | 7-9 Cle, 6-10 FSU |
||
| 1997 | 6 | 5 | 7-9 V | ||
| 1996 | 6 | 3 | 8-8 D, M | 7-9 Cle | |
| 1995 | 4 | 4 | 8-8 GT | ||
| 1994 | 5 | 3 | 8-8 M, V | ||
| 1993 | 6 | 5 | 8-8 GT | ||
| 1992 | 5 | 3 | 8-8 GT | 7-9 WF | Â 8-8 V |
| 1991 | 6 | 4 | 6-8 Â Â Â GT, 6-8 V |
||
| 1990 | 5 | 4 | 6-8 V | ||
| 1989 | 6 | 5 | 7-7 Cle | ||
| 1988 | 5 | 4 | 6-8 M | ||
| 1987 | 6 | 4 | 7-7 GT | 6-8 NCS | |
| 1986 | 6 | 3 | 7-7 NCS, V | 6-8 M | |
| 1985 | 5 | 5 | |||
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