One way to examine the strength of league schedules is to consider a top-tier group of six: Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Maryland, Duke and North Carolina State. Wake Forest will play three of those teams twice and will only host Maryland and North Carolina. Comparatively, Virginia will play four teams from that group twice and will play Georgia Tech and Duke only once, both on the road.
"It's going to be a new era," said Shyatt, Clemson's head coach from 1998 to 2003. "A team that plays Virginia Tech, Miami and Clemson twice, that might not happen for another decade. The year it happens, it will be a marvelous advantage not to have to play Duke, North Carolina and Wake Forest, etcetera, all twice."
In an early indication of the ACC's strength this season, Eric Wilkins and visiting Miami shot down Matt Walsh and SEC power Florida, 72-65.
(Phil Sandlin -- AP)
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Another change caused by expansion affects the conference tournament, which this season will be played March 10-13 at MCI Center. The Terrapins finished sixth in the conference last season and had to beat the top three seeds en route to their first tournament title in 20 years. The difference this season: The sixth-place team, likely an NCAA tournament team, will need to beat the 11th-place school in the opening round -- previously reserved for only the eighth- and ninth-place teams -- and win on four consecutive days to earn the title.
"I'm so sick and tired of people complaining about the changes," Florida State Coach Leonard Hamilton said. "Change doesn't always have to be bad. Some people are just resistant to change because [they think] it's been great, and there is nothing that can make it better. When you look around to see the positives that have come from changes in another conferences, you can predict the same will happen with the ACC."
It remains to be seen how the league's strength and scheduling changes affect the number of teams invited to the NCAA tournament. Six schools earned bids last season and seven are ranked in the top 25.
"Can they take eight?" Williams said. "They've taken seven out of the Big Ten, when the Big Ten hasn't been as strong as our league is this year. There might be eight teams that deserve to go."
Hamilton would not be surprised if eight teams earned bids, which would be a record number for any conference. That appears unlikely even though the NCAA selection committee does not cap the number of bids it awards to teams from one conference.
It is difficult, though not impossible, for a team to garner one of the 34 at-large berths with an RPI outside the top 50. Palm said it would not be unprecedented if eight teams from one conference remained in the RPI top 50 at season's end.
"But you're not going to be in the top 50 if you're 4-12 in the conference," Palm said.
Last season, Virginia had an RPI of 52 and did not earn an invitation; Air Force received one despite an RPI of 70.
Bilas believes the ACC is the nation's best conference but said the gap between it and the second-best league, either the Big 12 or Big East, isn't as wide as others think. "Already Florida State has lost some games, and Maryland lost to George Washington," Bilas said. "We've seen some vulnerabilities people didn't expect."
Even with an unbalanced schedule, though, teams will be awarded for playing nationally ranked conference opponents. Florida State will play seven consecutive games against teams that are currently ranked.
"Whoever makes it out of the league," Williams said, "you're not going to play anyone better than what you've played in the league. That's true in the ACC this year."
