Report: ACC approves 18-game basketball schedule

According to Matt Norlander of CBS Sports, the ACC has officially approved moving its basketball schedule to 18 games. This is two fewer than previous years, where the conference was getting 20 games in a season.

ACC officials make the move, even with 18 members currently in the league. This is expected to go into effect right away for the 2025-2026 season.

“Sources: ACC ADs have officially approved moving to an 18-game schedule in basketball, sources tell @CBSSports,” Norlander said via X. “League had been on a 20-gamer since 2019-20 (save the COVID year). Decision was made in part because the ACC only sent four of its 18 teams to the men’s NCAAT this yr.”

Once ACC teams have been included in the field of 68, the results have been quite good. Duke is the latest example after winning the ACC regular season championship and ACC Tournament title. Jon Scheyer’s team made the Final Four and nearly played in the national championship game.

However, only four teams made this past season’s NCAA Tournament. The year before, just five. Not enough for a conference that has prided itself on being among the best in men’s basketball.

Norlander went on to add to his report, saying the goal is for ACC teams to have space for a couple more nonconference games. This would allow them to boost their resume before getting ACC play started. Improving the metrics appears to be a must if the goal is to get more than a few teams into the NCAA Tournament.

“The ACC has struggled in recent seasons, though it has sent teams (Duke this year, NC State in ’24, Miami in ’23) to the F4,” Norlander said. “Some upper-echelon programs want to free up two more non-con games as opposed to having games 19 and 20 be potential intra-league Quad 3/4 scenarios.”

The ACC hasn’t won a national championship since the 2019 season, when the Virginia Cavaliers captured the title under former head coach Tony Bennett. This continued a trend of an ACC team winning the title every other year with Duke (2015) and North Carolina (2017) winning it all in previous seasons. Whether reducing the total number of league games will be the solution to the six-year drought remains to be seen, but the hope is for the new schedule to help the ACC gain some extra notoriety on a national, non-conference level.

On3’s Barkley Turax contributed to this report