There are definite signs of growth in an ACC basketball garden fertilized by last season’s embarrassment.
Notably, this year ACC men’s teams almost broke even against the SEC in the leagues’ Challenge series, posting a respectable 7-9 mark after a 2-14 wipeout in 2024-25. Overall, after 63 nonconference games through Dec. 9 against top-flight opposition, in 2024-25 ACC men had won 31 times – 49 percent.
ACC women unfortunately adopted last year’s mantle of futility, going 3-13 in the female version
of the ACC/SEC Challenge after mounting a 6-10 record in ‘25.
Still, ACC men’s teams clearly are competitive against opponents from power conferences, the way they used to be as a matter of course. Four ACC clubs made the most recent AP top 25. Six made the top 27 in the NCAA’s NET ratings. Ken Pomeroy had five ACC teams rated among the game’s 25 best.
All of those metrics are improvements from last season.
But do not mistake this year’s positive start with a return to eminence.
ACC clubs are hardly dominant. The conference’s teams have lost some of their collective luster, breaking even against teams hailing from other strong leagues.
Florida took care of its in-state rivals from the ACC, Florida State and Miami. The Gators, the 2025 NCAA champions, then dropped a narrow verdict at Duke. NCAA runnerup Houston defeated Syracuse in overtime, and then Notre Dame and Florida State, all within a four-game span.
BC lost in overtime against LSU. SMU dropped Texas A&M and Mississippi State but lost at Vanderbilt.
Clemson was defeated by Georgetown of the Big East, which then lost to Miami and North Carolina. Later, the Tigers beat West Virginia and Georgia, then hung with Alabama and Brigham Young to the bitter end, only to lose to each.
Duke and Virginia, an unexpected entry in the AP Top 25, beat Texas, which more recently stopped NC State. Georgia did fall to Clemson, but defeated Georgia Tech and Florida State.
North Carolina was 3-1 against big-time opponents, losing only to Michigan State. The Tar Heels topped Kentucky, as did Louisville.
And on notes both positive and negative, possible ACC first-division clubs Notre Dame and Wake Forest went on the road and each lost a close contest to power league foes.
The Irish fell by a point at Ohio State (which was beaten by Pitt), and Wake was defeated in overtime at Detroit to top-10 Michigan. Notre Dame otherwise split with power conference teams, beating TCU and Rutgers but losing to Kansas and Houston. The Demon Deacons bested West Virginia, but were defeated by Oklahoma and Texas Tech, Duke’s opponent next week.
KenPom rates the ACC this year’s fourth-best conference after the SEC, Big 10 and Big 12. In Pomeroy’s estimation that’s the league’s best standing since 2020. He ranked the ACC second-best from 2016 to 2018, third in 2019, and tops in 2004, 2005, and 2007.
Last year was anomalous from an ACC perspective. For whatever reasons – several persuasive causes can be cited — the ACC bit off more than it could swallow in ‘25, winning barely a quarter of its regular-season contests (.267) against the most powerful men’s basketball conferences – the SEC and the Bigs East, Ten, and Twelve.
Now things are settling into more familiar form. The last time the ACC won more than it lost in regular-season action against formidable outside competition was 2019 (31-28), a shade better than this year’s mark. The smaller ’19 ACC had seven NCAA entrants and produced the national champion (Virginia), three No. 1 tournament seeds, three Sweet Sixteen teams (FSU, UNC, Virginia Tech), and an Elite Eight member (Duke).
| OPPOSITION RESEARCH ACC Regular-Season Games Versus The SEC And The Bigs East, 10, 12 (Through Dec. 10, 2025) |
||
|---|---|---|
| Season | W-L | W% |
| 2026 | 31-32 | .492 |
| 2025 | 20-55 | .267 |
| 2024 | 32-33 | .492 |
| 2023 | 15-34 | .319 |
| 2022 | 26-33 | .441 |
| 2021 | 17-19 | .472 |
| 2020 | 17-23 | .425 |
| 2019 | 31-28 | .525 |
