The Atlantic Coast Conference is one of the most storied conferences in all of college basketball. From 1991 through the 2010 season, an ACC team has won the national championship or been runner-up 12 times. The winner of the ACC Tournament is named the official ACC basketball champion. Seeding for the tournament is based on regular-season conference records. In the event of a tie, specific tiebreaker rules are used to determine seeding.
Two Teams Tied
When two teams are tied in the regular-season standings, the teams' head-to-head results are the first thing used to determine a tiebreaker. If the two teams played two games against each other and each won a game, the tiebreaker moves to the next stage. That involves examining the teams' records against the top team in the standings. If the two teams tied are in first place, the next-highest team is used. For example, if North Carolina and Duke are tied for first place and the next-highest team is Wake Forest, the team with the best record against Wake Forest would win the tiebreaker. If the teams have the same record against that team, the process continues down through the regular-season standings until a winner is determined.
Three or More Teams Tied
The process gets a bit more complicated when three or more teams are tied in the standings. When this occurs, the first step is to determine each team's record against the other opponents involved in the tie. For example, if Wake Forest, North Carolina and Duke are tied, the first step is to examine each team's record against the other tied teams. If Wake Forest's record is 1-3, North Carolina's record is 2-2 and Duke's record is 3-1, Duke would be ranked first, North Carolina second and Wake Forest third, based on winning percentage. If this process fails to reveal a winner, the same backup procedure is used for two teams: comparing the teams' records against the highest team in the standings.
Other Teams Tied
Things get really tricky when there are two or more sets of tied teams, and the tiebreak procedure involves both sets of teams. For example, if Duke and North Carolina are tied for first place, split their regular-season matchups and the next-highest set of teams -- Clemson and Wake Forest -- are tied for second, the tiebreaker rules call for a special procedure. In this situation, Duke and North Carolina's combined record against both tied teams is used rather than against one team. So, if Duke went 2-1 against Clemson and Wake Forest, and North Carolina went 1-2 against the two teams, Duke would win the tiebreaker. If any of these procedures ultimately do not result in a winner, the ACC commissioner uses a coin flip to break the tie.
ACC Tournament Seeding
The tiebreaker results are used to seed the ACC Tournament. The top four teams receive a bye into the second round of the tournament. Seeds 8 and 9 meet in the first round, with the winner playing the No. 1 seed. Seeds 5 and 12 play for the right to play the No. 4 seed. Teams seeded 7 and 10 play each other, with the winner facing seed 2. Seeds 6 and 11 play each other, with the winner facing the 3 seed.
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