Virginia, the #2 seed in the 2026 ACC Tournament, is slotted in the first game of the quarterfinal round on Thursday, with a noon ET tip time.
This is a departure from the scheduling in past years, which is to say, forever – wherein the opening game of the quarterfinal round featured the #1 seed, with the #4 seed slotted into the second game of the afternoon portion of the schedule.
Then #2 and #3 seeds, then, played the night games.
The ACC had indicated ahead of this year’s schedule release that it would modify the schedule to accommodate TV, and with Duke as the #1 seed, and North Carolina at #4, obviously, ESPN would want those games not in the afternoon, but in prime time.
Ergo.
Miami, the #3 seed, will play in the second afternoon game on Thursday.
Virginia, in its game, gets whoever is left from among the #7, #10 and #15 seeds.
The winners of those two on Thursday then meet at 7 p.m. ET on Friday.
The contenders for the #7 spot
Louisville (21-9, 10-7 ACC) and NC State (19-11, 10-7 ACC) are currently in a tie for sixth place in the conference standings. Louisville faces Miami (23-6, 13-4 ACC) on Saturday; NC State gets Stanford (19-11, 8-9 ACC).
Louisville has the tiebreaker with State due to its 118-77 win in their only head-to-head matchup this season.
State also has the head-to-head tiebreaker with Florida State (16-14, 9-8 ACC).
Not sure how it would go if Cal (21-9, 9-8 ACC) got into a tie with State; those two didn’t play this season.
It could come down to Cal’s 86-85 upset of Miami on Jan. 31.
If that makes sense to you, you have more tolerance for nonsense than I do.
Contenders for the #10 spot
FSU and Cal, at 9-8 in ACC play, are tied for eighth; Stanford, SMU (19-11, 8-9 ACC) and Virginia Tech (19-11, 8-9 ACC) are tied for 10th.
FSU and SMU go head-to-head on Saturday, so, that one should be fun.
Tech is at UVA (26-4, 14-3 ACC); Cal is at Wake Forest (15-15, 6-11 ACC).
Stanford, referenced above, is at NC State.
Contenders for the #15 spot
I joked last night while watching the Wednesday slate that we should have done an ACC Tournament bracketology, since three teams are going to be left out.
Georgia Tech (11-19, 2-15 ACC) is already out.
Pitt (11-19, 4-13 ACC), Notre Dame (13-17, 4-13 ACC) and Boston College (10-20, 3-14 ACC) are the ones still on the bubble.
Dear lord.
Pitt and BC are head-to-head on Saturday; Notre Dame gets Syracuse (15-15, 6-11 ACC).
My breakdown:
- Notre Dame beat BC and lost to Pitt head-to-head.
- BC beat Pitt and lost to Notre Dame head-to-head.
- Pitt beat Notre Dame and lost to BC head-to-head.
Your guess is as good as mine.
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Chris Graham
