ACC Basketball going back to 18-game conference schedule in 2025-2026

The ACC made its plans to cut two games from the men’s basketball conference schedule official on Wednesday.

The league slate will be at 18 games beginning with the upcoming 2025-2026 season.

And there was much rejoicing, up and down the Eastern Seaboard, into Texas, and all the way out to the Left Coast, because conferences in the modern era no longer adhere to any sense of geography.

The ACC expanded to a 20-game conference schedule from 18 with the 2019-2020 season, to provide more conference-game inventory for the debuting ACC Network.

That ACC Network sure is working out for everybody, isn’t it?

Seriously, when was the last time you flipped it on?

The rationale behind going back to 18 is, two fewer conference games will give ACC programs the opportunity to be more aggressive with non-conference scheduling.

Or to add Maryland-Eastern Shore, Tennessee-Martin, a school with A&T in its name.

Either way.

The move comes on the heels of the ACC getting just four of its 18 members into the NCAA Tournament in 2025, with only Duke advancing past the first round.

So, four last year, five in 2022, 2023 and 2024

The suits will tell you that our teams have won three of the last 10 national titles, but the last one was in 2019, with Virginia cutting down the nets, and Duke and North Carolina also being #1 NCAA Tournament seeds that year.

I don’t know that giving coaches and ADs the chance to schedule two more non-conference games is the answer.

(Stage whisper: The answer, as with everything in life, is money. The SEC and Big Ten have it, from their great TV deals, the ACC doesn’t, because it’s locked into a bad TV deal for another 11 years.)

“As a league, we have been transparent about the importance of ACC Men’s Basketball and specifically our commitment to ensuring it is best positioned for the future,” ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips said on the matter, per a press release from the conference.

It wasn’t Jim Phillips who wanted to make the ACC a football conference, but that was the beginning of the downfall – that, and expanding into the Northeast, and getting nothing in return from doing that, aside from adding more mouths to feed.

More from Phillips:

“Moving to an 18-game conference schedule is a direct result of our ongoing strategic review and analysis and provides our schools a better balance of non-conference and conference games, while also allowing them more autonomy in the scheduling process,” the commish said.

Virginia’s non-conference strength of schedule rank in its 2019 national-title year: 255th.

Non-conference strength of schedule is overrated.

One more thing from Phillips on this:

“This decision reflects our on-going prioritization to do what’s best for ACC Men’s Basketball, and we appreciate the thoughtfulness of our membership and the support from our television partners,” Phillips said.

If ESPN, the primary TV partner, wants to be supportive, maybe kick in some more money for the product, akin to what they’re giving the SEC.