ACC ready to rule college hoops once again

The fear surrounding much of the whole conference realignment movement that has happened over college basketball in the last five years has been regarding the formation of “Super Conferences,” or leagues with 16-20 schools that dominate the landscape of the sport.

Yet, the realignment did the opposite in the case of the mighty Big East.

Over the last decade, the Big East and its 16 teams has been a ruling force in college basketball, winning four national championships and earning a total of 12 Final Four berths. In fact, three different schools combine for those four national titles, and the only two years since 2003 in which the league has not sent a team to the Final Four are 2006 and 2008.

In mid-December 2012, after a flurry of movement between the teams in the league and teams wanting to join the league, the Big East split in half. The ‘Catholic 7’ left and retained the Big East moniker along with Xavier, Creighton, and Butler, while the rest of the schools either left for other conferences or joined forces with others to form the American Athletic Conference.

So, what does all of this mean for college hoops? Well, the Big East is no longer the strongest conference in the nation. The Atlantic Coast Conference is.

For many years, the ACC was regarded as the strongest league in college basketball. Tobacco Road rivals University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Duke University and Wake Forest University along with the University of Maryland and Georgia Tech in the early 2000s, were perennial powers and consistently competed for national titles.

Since winning the 2002 National title, Maryland has been unable to replicate any sort of success. Wake Forest fell off the map after star point guard Chris Paul graduated. Georgia Tech was never the same after Jarrett Jack left and Paul Hewitt never could redirect the Yellow Jackets. Duke and North Carolina, however, have remained strong, accounting for three total NCAA championships since 2005.

But the issue with the ACC since 2005, a year in which Duke and North Carolina were No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament and Wake Forest was a No. 2 seed, is that Duke and North Carolina have dominated the league.

From 2005-2011, the Blue Devils and Tar Heels accounted for every single ACC Tournament championship. Florida State University and the University of Miami broke that streak, winning titles in 2012 and 2013, respectively, by beating North Carolina in the championship. This shows that the league is beginning to revive itself and other teams are finally beginning to compete and challenge the traditional powers on a regular basis. This couldn’t come at a more opportune time for the ACC, as recent additions will continue to add to this heightened competition.

Beginning this year, former Big East members Syracuse University, University of Pittsburgh and Notre Dame University will be playing in the ACC. All three have been powers in the Big East in recent years with Syracuse advancing to the Sweet 16 in three of the last four years. Next summer, Maryland leaves the league, but in comes defending 2013 national champion University of Louisville. With the way these two programs have been competing in the last decade, this is a clear upgrade.

Combining Duke, North Carolina, Louisville and Syracuse only gives you 13 national championships and 48 Final Four berths. Not too shabby. Plus, this pits legendary coaches Mike Krzyzewski (Duke), Roy Williams (UNC), Rick Pitino (Louisville) and Jim Boeheim (Syracuse) against each other on a regular basis. Seeing these brilliant minds battle one another will no doubt bring a number of exciting finishes and close games.

It doesn’t end with these four, though. Pitt and Notre Dame will be forces, and Florida State and Miami are showing that they can compete as well. Throw in schools such as Georgia Tech, Boston College, Wake Forest, and North Carolina State, who always seem to surprise everyone with a big win here and there, every day in the new-look ACC will be exhilarating.

The new Big East will still regularly send teams to the NCAA Tournament and Final Four; there’s not much question there. But move over, Big East. The ACC is back and ready to win. A lot.