ACC sets NCAA tournament record advancing six teams to Sweet 16

College basketball fans and analysts spend significant time and energy each season debating which conference is the best in the nation.
Several leagues had a case to be made at the end of the regular season this year, but after the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament there is little doubt the standard-bearer is the ACC, which set a record this year by advancing six teams to the Sweet 16.

The previous record of five was set in 2009 by the old Big East Conference and then tied last year by, you guessed it, the ACC.

Virginia's Devon Hall and Malcolm Brogdon

There was some debate when the bracket was announced about two ACC teams, North Carolina and Virginia, receiving No. 1 seeds, but nothing those teams and the rest of the conference has done to this point suggests it was a bad call by the selection committee.
North Carolina, Virginia, Miami, Duke, Notre Dame and Syracuse won their first- and second-round games this week, though Notre Dame needed a tip-in in the final seconds to squeak by Stephen F. Austin on Sunday.

And let's remember that this a league that also includes a very could Louisville team that banned itself from the postseason this year because of NCAA violations. The Cardinals might have been a No. 3 seed if they were eligible.
Pitt is the only ACC team that failed to advance this weekend. It lost in the first round to Wisconsin 47-43 in one of the ugliest NCAA tournament games in recent memory — for lovers of offense and the up-and-down game anyway.
While the ACC deserves credit for setting a new record and advancing so many teams, we should note that those six teams have combined to beat two No. 16 seeds, a No. 15, two No. 14s, a No. 13, a No. 12, two No. 11s, two No. 9 and one No. 7 seed.

So a case could be made that the ACC teams have traveled an easy road thus far, but one can also point out that teams earn their seeding throughout the year. Every team and coach in America wants a better seed in order to have the best chance to win at this time of year. You can’t fault the ACC for earning those seeds and then beating lower seeded teams. That’s the way the system is supposed to work.
It’s possible we could have an All-ACC Final Four. Imagine what that would do for bragging rights.
While it’s extremely unlikely it will happen, Miami could win the South Region. North Carolina or Notre Dame could win the East Region. Duke remains alive in the West Region, but so do the top three seeds and Virginia and Syracuse are still playing in the Midwest.