How unusual is a Final Four without a single ACC team?
This weekend's Final Four will be the first without an ACC school since 2014. It is also the first time since 2014 that a Triangle team has not made it. It was a disappointing end to a successful season in which nine league teams earned NCAA tournament bids. How many times has the league not made the Final Four?
Unprecedented success
With North Carolina's record 20 trips to the Final Four and Duke's 16 (fourth), the ACC hasn't had many barren seasons. The league has won 14 national championships, not including new members Louisville and Syracuse. Duke won the title in 2015 and UNC won in 2017.
Dominant decades
In the 1980s and '90s at least one ACC team made the Final Four almost every season.
Since the NCAA expanded the tournament in 1975, the ACC has missed the Final Four only 15 times in 44 seasons. From 1975 to 2002 the ACC missed the Final Four only seven times in 28 seasons (1975, '76, '79, '80, '85, '87, '96).
The biggest success happened from 1988 to 2002 when the ACC had at least one Final Four team in 14 of the 15 seasons. The league also got at least one team in the national semifinals in 19 of 22 seasons from 1981 to 2002.
Dilution by expansion?
Perhaps influenced by expansion, in the past 16 seasons the ACC has missed the Final Four eight times or half of the seasons (2003, '06, '07, '11-'14, '18).
Multiplicity
The ACC also has had success getting multiple teams in the Final Four. The league had six seasons (1981, '90, '91, '01, '04, '16) in which two schools reached the Final Four.
North Carolina and Virginia both reached the Final Four in 1981; Duke and Georgia Tech made it in 1990 and 2004; Duke and UNC just missed playing for the national title in 1991; Duke beat Maryland in 2001 en route to the national title; and UNC and Syracuse both made appearances in 2016,
Early success
In the 21 seasons from the beginning of the ACC in 1954 to 1974 the league had 10 Final Four teams, including national champions in 1957 (UNC) and 1974 (N.C. State).
This story was originally published March 30, 2018 at 10:18 AM with the headline "How unusual is a Final Four without a single ACC team?."