The ACC has solidified itself as the top conference in college basketball, but do they really stand a chance of having three number one seeds in the NCAA tournament. It’s certainly a possibility, but the upcoming power five tournaments are likely to give the committee a lot more to think about.
Gonzaga is the number one ranked team in the country and a virtual lock to be a one seed during the NCAA tournament so that shouldn’t be factored into this discussion. The ACC currently has three of the top five teams in the AP poll but the ACC tournament is going to have to go down in a very specific way for UNC Tar Heels, Duke Blue Devils, and Virginia Cavaliers to all be number one seeds. Duke especially has some work to do after a season sweep by the hands of UNC and the injury of star player Zion Williamson.
The Big Ten and SEC are ultimately going to determine the odds of this happening. The committee has no basis to leave out the Michigan State Spartans or Kentucky Wildcats should they win their respective conference tournaments. Neither of those is a guarantee however given the opposition in their conference. The Purdue Boilermakers and Michigan Wolverines aren’t in contention for a one seed but are both more than talented enough to pull off an upset. The same can be said about the upstart LSU Tigers and Tennessee Volunteers s in the SEC.
Ultimately, it is most likely that the two teams that go the farthest in the ACC tournament will be one seeds with the third likely dropping to a two seed, but Big Ten or SEC tournament losses by Michigan State and Kentucky respectively could leave the door open for the third place ACC team to be at the top of their quarter of the bracket.
