Used to be, all the games were sold out.
Securing a ticket was a feat. The tournament was an EVENT that riveted the attention of a region. Favorite players and teams were on display, one right after the other. Proud programs pranced, pounced, previewed NCAA prowess.
Fans gave money to basketball programs of new league schools like Georgia Tech (1980) and Florida State (1992) to position themselves to secure the right to purchase a few of their allotted tickets. Creative ruses were employed to gain
ticket-less entrance to the host arena, with gatecrashers dressing as priests or phone repairers as pizza deliverers.
Over time, adding an extra day of largely irrelevant, preliminary games diluted some of the enthusiasm for watching the games in person, and made it more difficult for all but the top teams to survive to play for the title.
Since the expansion of 2014, a single team with a double-digit seed, No. 10 NC State in 2024, won the title. Seventh seeded Virginia Tech, a Big East transplant, won in 2022, the only other champion seeded lower than sixth.
Then came the 2025 flood of largely tangential league members as the ACC grew to 18 members. Neither Cal, SMU, nor Stanford advanced past the quarterfinals. That trio is included in the ’26 field while regular-season laggards Boston College (added in 2006), Georgia Tech (1980), and Notre Dame (2014) finished too poorly to earn floor passes at Charlotte.
BC remains the exemplar of getting off to a strong start in an inaugural ACC Tournament appearance, reaching the 2006 final with a cast paced by seniors Craig Smith and Louis Hinnant, junior Jared Dudley, and nifty freshman guard Tyrese Rice. Al Skinner’s Eagles, a power in the Big East, lost 78-76 to a top-seeded Duke squad fueled by JJ Redick, tournament MVP for the second year in a row.
The Eagles reached the semifinals in ’07, but got nowhere close since.
Skinner, the coach with more wins than anyone else in BC program history (247 in 13 years), capped by seven NCAA appearances, was dumped following a losing 2010 season. Four different coaches have followed, with three winning efforts in the ensuing 16 years, and no NCAA bids between them.
Notre Dame, another Big East refugee, was the quickest newcomer to achieve success, winning the ACC Tournament in 2015, its second year in the league. All five starters scored in double figures, led by guard Jerian Grant, as the Irish downed UNC in the final. Mike Brey’s club returned to the championship contest again in 2017, losing to Duke.
The Fighting Irish had little tournament success since. Things have gone even more poorly for Syracuse. Coach Jim Boeheim made clear his displeasure at leaving the Big East for the ACC in 2014. Maybe he suspected his team’s new league was a bit too much for the Orange, which have neither finished first during an ACC regular season nor gotten past the ACC Tournament quarterfinals.
Syracuse joins BC, Louisville, Pitt, and Clemson, a member since the 1954 season, in never winning at ACC Tournament. Wake Forest, a four-time champ, hasn’t won in 30 years. This year marks the 73rd edition of the event.
| ONE AND DONE, PART ONE Total Titles In Parenthesis |
|
|---|---|
| School | Most Recent Title |
| BC | None |
| Cal | None |
| C | None |
| D | 2025 (23) |
| FS | 2012 (2)* |
| GT | 2021 (4) |
| UL | None |
| Md | 1984 (3) |
| UM | 2013 (1) |
| NC | 2016 (18) |
| NS | 2024 (11) |
| ND | 2015 (1) |
| UP | None |
| SMU | None |
| Stan | None |
| SU | None |
| V | 2018 (3) |
| VT | 2022 (1) |
| WF | 1996 (4) |
| * Covid, awarded 2020 championship | |
