My hypothesis was, the 1-seeds this year will appear weaker because the ACC is so loaded and their overall records won't reflect how much better they are than teams with better records.
College basketball town crier Jon Rothstein has called the 2017 ACC the greatest conference in history. That's dubious at best but it's best by leaps and bounds this year. What can we learn from the 2011 Big East, called the same at the time? Let's compare.
First, the Big East had 16 teams compared to the ACC which has 15. We could drop DePaul to even it out but let's not and just compare apples to apples.
Both leagues have 11 top 50 KenPom teams. We're using the final 2011 rankings and the current 2017 rankings. The average score for the ACC is 24.6, the Big East was 16.5. The Big East had 9 top 30 teams with another at 31. The ACC has 6.
Pitt won the Big East at 15-3 and earned a 1-seed and promptly lost in the Round of 32 to Butler. Notre Dame finished 2nd at 14-4. 3 .500 clubs made the tournament including UConn who would win the title. UConn garnered a 3-seed, largely on an unprecented run through the Garden. Nova was a 9 and Marquette was an 11, making the Sweet 16, albeit at the expense of fellow league mate, Syracuse.
Brian has 10 ACC teams in. That seems the likely number. Clemson is loved by the computers but needs to win out or the ACC tournament to make it. The ACC is currently projected to have 5 teams in the top 4-seed lines. That would match what the Big East had in 2011.
What will probably happen this time around though is, the ACC won't likely flame out in March. Only two Big East teams made the Sweet 16. Every team seeded on the 4-line or above failed to make the second weekend except UConn. For whatever reason, the league bombed in March.
Though the numbers may not say it, the ACC probably is better this year and I think it'll show in March. They may also not get a 1-seed and it won't matter.
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