ACC Reduces Conference Basketball Schedule to 18 Games

The first season with Cal, Stanford and SMU in the Atlantic Coast Conference coincided with one of the ACC’s worst seasons for its basketball image, so the ACC is trying to do something about it.

Starting next season, the ACC will move back to an 18-game conference schedule after playing a 20-game ACC schedule the past six seasons. CBS Sports reported that ACC athletic directors approved the change Wednesday morning, and the ACC announced the schedule change on Wednesday afternoon..

ACC teams are hoping to schedule two more nonconference games against top-level opponents to improve their resume when it comes to selecting teams for the NCAA tournament. Only four ACC teams were selected for the 2025 NCAA tournament. It remains to be seen whether the change has any effect on the ACC’s basketball image.

But there is one significant issue with the change. Cal apparently will not play every ACC opponent next season in the 18-game conference schedule. The 18-team ACC basketball conference creates 17 potential conference opponents for each team. However, sources told CBS Sports that the ACC plans to have each ACC team play only 16 conference opponents.

Each ACC team would play 14 conference opponents once and would play two other conference foes twice in a home-and-home setup. Stanford will be one of the two ACC schools Cal will play twice each year, and the other team the Golden Bears will play twice will change each season. Cal will not face one ACC opponent at all next season, in what is termed a "zero-play."

If the ACC team Cal does not play is, say, Duke, that would ease the Golden Bears’ conference schedule but would eliminate an attractive game for Cal players and fans.

The ACC basketball schedule for the 2024-25 season will be constructed during the summer and released in the fall, according to CBS Sports.

There is also the question of how Cal will use the two additional games against nonconference opponents. Will Mark Madsen choose to face teams he expects Cal to beat, to improve the Bears’ win-loss record and instill confidence, or will he try to schedule games against high-profile opponents, risking a loss to gain valuable experience in a game that will generate more exposure.

The ACC had just four of its 18 teams get berths in the 2025 NCAA tournament, and North Carolina barely made it as a controversial selection.

Having just 22.2% of its teams reach the NCAA tournament was the lowest percentage of ACC teams to make the tournament since the field was expanded to 64 teams in 1985. It was hard pill to swallow for a league that was considered the best basketball conference in the country not long ago.

The ACC saw 14 teams from the Southeastern Conference get into the NCAA tournament in 2025, while the Big Ten got eight and the Big 12 seven.

Here is a list of the ACC basketball primary partners, which are the teams that will play each other twice each season:

Primary Partners:

Boston College-Notre Dame

Clemson-Georgia Tech

California-Stanford

Duke-North Carolina

Florida State-Miami

Louisville-SMU

NC State-Wake Forest

Pitt-Syracuse

Virginia Tech-Virgini