March Madness 2019 conference power ranking

1. ACC

Teams: 7,  Duke (1), North Carolina (1), Virginia (1), Florida State (4), Virginia Tech (4), Louisville (7), Syracuse (8)

Average seed: 3.7

Yes, the ACC was second in terms of most teams in the tournament behind the Big Ten, who put in eight. But the reason why they get the bump up to number one should be fairly obvious.

Only one conference in history of the NCAA Tournament has ever been able to produce three number one seeds, that being the Big East in 2009. So for the ACC to do it with Duke, Virginia, and North Carolina is beyond impressive. In fact, one could argue that the three favorites to be holding up the trophy in Minneapolis would be Duke, Virginia, and UNC in no particular order.

But that’s not it.

Florida State and Virginia Tech, the fourth and fifth best teams in the ACC landed four seeds. While Louisville, who finished 7th in the conference, landed a seven seed and Syracuse received an eight.

We can argue all day long about whether Duke, UVA, and UNC deserved to be number one seeds all coming from the same conference but it would be a waste of time. These three finished the season ranked two (UVA), three (UNC, and five (Duke) in the AP Top 25 Poll.

The most shocking upset of the tournament would be a team not from the ACC winning the 2019 NCAA Championship.