Inside The Panthers

ACC Caps Conference Tournament Teams Despite Growth

The Pitt Panthers could get left out of the ACC Tournament in the future.

Stephen Thompson

ACC Caps Conference Tournament Teams Despite Growth
ACC Caps Conference Tournament Teams Despite Growth /
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PITTSBURGH -- Major changes are coming to the home conference of the Pitt Panthers soon, with Stanford, Cal and SMU set to join the ACC in the fall of 2024. 

At their annual winter meetings, the ACC announced that the conference would cap the annual men's and women's conference basketball tournament at 15 teams, even with three new teams joining Pitt and the 14 other basketball-playing member schools. 

The Panthers currently sit in a tie for fifth in the ACC standings but would fall to sixth if the season ended today because of a home loss to Clemson from earlier in the season. Pitt finished in a three-way tie for third in the ACC last season (but played as the fifth seed in the ACC Tournament). This program didn't finish above 11th in the four seasons prior. 

Pitt head coach Jeff Capel didn't have any specific opinions on the difference between playing 18 or 20 league games per year - he just wants whatever maximizes the chance of more ACC teams making the NCAA Tournament. But Capel did say he was in favor of every team in the league making the conference tournament at the end of the year. 

"I would want everyone in the ACC Tournament," Capel said. "I think it’s an opportunity for every team to have a chance at the postseason and that’s really what March Madness is about. You can get hot, it could be an unbelievable story and if you don’t allow teams to go there, then you strip a program or programs of that opportunity and kids of that opportunity.”

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Stephen Thompson
STEPHEN THOMPSON

Stephen Thompson graduated with a bachelor's degree in communications and political science from Pitt in April 2022 after spending four years as a sports writer and editor at The Pitt News, the University of Pittsburgh's independent, student-run newspaper.  He primarily worked the Pitt men's basketball beat, and filled in on coverage of football, volleyball, softball, gymnastics and lacrosse, in addition to other sports as needed. His work at The Pitt News has won awards from the Pennsylvania News Media Association and Associated College Press.  During the spring and summer of 2021, Stephen interned for Pittsburgh Sports Now, covering baseball in western Pennsylvania. Hailing from Washington D.C., family ties have cultivated a love of Boston's professional teams and Pitt athletics, and a fascination with sports in general.  You can reach Stephen by email at stephenethompson00@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter. Read his latest work:

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