ACC Teams Are Consistent And Regular Sweet Sixteen Participants

Last season was the first in two decades the ACC had at least four teams in the Sweet 16. (True, that’s a lot of numbers for one sentence, but you get the idea.)

Last year’s five regional semifinalists was a record for the ACC. This year’s six Sweet 16 participants from the ACC is a record for any conference, and marks the first time since 1992 and 1993 the league sent at least 40 percent of its members that far in NCAA competition.

The percentage is a significant measure. The more quality basketball programs you have in your league, the greater your chance of getting NCAA bids and earning Sweet 16 berths.

By percentage, then, the ACC’s greatest showing came not this year but in 1990 when four of eight teams, 50 percent, reached the Sweet 16.

This year marks the fifth time in the past 27 seasons at least 40 percent of the ACC’s membership got to the Sweet 16, and the ninth since 1975 when the NCAA field was expanded to allow multiple entrants from the same league.

Tellingly, and a bit counterintuitively, 2015 also was the first time the ACC had more than three members in the Sweet 16 since it expanded beyond nine schools a decade earlier.

Expansion also put an end, at least temporarily, to a remarkable ACC streak.

For 27 straight years – from 1980 through 2006 – the conference annually sent at least two teams to the Sweet 16. North Carolina was the sole ACC survivor to get that far in ’07. Also in 2008. Duke was the lone ranger in 2010, advancing all the way to capture the national championship.