Don't Worry About ACC Basketball

The Atlantic Cost Conference (ACC) was once considered the very best basketball conference in the country. Historically, the ACC would send half of its schools to the NCAA tournament. Yet last year, the ACC only sent four schools. Recently, there have been a few concerns about the decline of the ACC as a basketball conference which have been echoed by BC Interruption.

One barometer that has recently been used for determining ACC success relative to other conferences is the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, which is an NCAA basketball tournament where the schools from each conference square off. The ACC has one every single year from the tournament's inauguration in 1999 to 2008. However, the Big 10 has now won the last three years which have caused several sports analysts to claim that the once great conferance, is now on the decline.

While there is no denying that the ACC has been weak both this year and last, the ACC is by no means a weakening conference. Despite these rough patches the ACC will undoubtedly soar back to the top as the very best conference in basketball1.

With any degree of foresight and context to the ACC struggles, it should be clear that there is no cause for concern for ACC fans disappointed by its recent struggles:

Coaching Turnover:

Normally a school's coaching turnover has little to no effect on the strength of that school's conferance, but the situation in the ACC is unique. In the ACC there was an unprecedented degree of coaching changes that have signaled rebuilding years for two-fourths of the conference that have all had new coaches within the past three years.

Mike Krzyzewski (Duke), Roy Williams (UNC), Leonard Hamilton (FSU), and Seth Greenberg (Virginia Tech) can rightfully call themselves ACC regulars. Not surprisingly Duke, UNC, and FSU were three of the four ACC teams that made it to the NCAA tournament (with Virginia Tech being among the "first four out").

After the dramatic changes in ACC coaches we will likely begin to see some stability with the ACC, which will bring the ACC back to where it once was.

Conference Expansion in ACC's Favor
One of the conferences that had continued to be strong during the ACC transition years was the Big East. However, the ACC will now skim the cream of the crop from the Big East acquiring Syracuse and Pittsburgh--both are basketball powerhouses.

I have no doubt that in the near future, the ACC will be the very best basketball conference in the nation and it won't even be close.