Notre Dame To ACC: Changes To The ACC Men's Basketball Tournament Format

With Pittsburgh and Syracuse set to join the conference next season, the ACC was already anticipating a move to a five-day format for the ACC men's basketball tournament. Though Notre Dame makes it 15 programs, an odd number, don't expect the new format of the conference tournament to change much.

Commissioner John Swofford thinks that this new format will remain largely the same after Notre Dame joins, with three games being played on Wednesday and the top-four seeds continuing to receive early-round byes. The dreaded double-bye? Oh yes, the double-bye.

Heights Sports put together a sample bracket for your viewing pleasure:

via heightssports.tumblr.com

I guess I can live with this format if the conference moves the tournament somewhere ... anywhere other than Greensboro, North Carolina. Like, you know, a major East coast city easily accessible to the conference's 15 member schools? If you are going to spend up to five days holed up at the conference's basketball tournament, I can think of a few East coast cities better than Greensboro, North Carolina. But that's just me.

Here's an even better idea: why don't we qualify the top 12 programs for the tournament and leave the format as-is?

In other ACC men's basketball tournament news, the city of Pittsburgh and the CONSOL Energy Center has put together a bid to host the ACC men's basketball tournament while the rest of the ACC collectively laughs. Slow down there, new kids.