I had plans earlier this week to do some combing through Charlie Board’s fantastic site along with the official ACC site to get some good, interesting stats about the ACC’s performance in the NCAA tournament. Then, when I looked at the ACC’s weekly release, I realized that they’d already done a great job! So, instead, I’ll do just one table showing performance by the major conferences since 1985.
You hear all year long from various whiners about how the ACC gets too much media attention and love. The argument is that the other conferences get screwed because all the national media outlets are in infatuated with and blinded by the ACC. If that were completely true, you’d expect that bias to result in extra bids for ACC teams. Bids are one are where subjective measures come in to play. If everyone loves the ACC, it should have the most teams in the field, right? Well, it hasn’t worked out that way. Since 1985, the ACC has had 102 bids, the same number as the Big East, but nine fewer than the Big Ten.

If you look at what ACC teams did once they were in the tournament, you’ll see that if anything, the ACC is underrated. While the ACC has the same number of bids as the Big East and nine fewer than the Big Ten, the ACC placed 13 and 14 more teams in the Sweet Sixteen than those two conferences. That lead continues through every other round in the tournament. The ACC has seven more teams (or 54%) in the Final Four than the second place Big Ten.
Basically, it’s a whitewash. The ACC wins every single round, some by a significant margin. Considering that there are still three teams alive this year, the disparity is likely to grow even greater.
Check it out fo yoself:

		Round of 16		Round of 8		Round of 4		Finals		Champions		Total
Conference	Bids	Teams	%	Teams	%	Teams	%	Teams	%	Teams	%	W-L	%
ACC	102	56	54.9	31	30.4	20	19.6	10	9.8	5	4.9	203-97	67.7
Big East	102	43	42.2	24	23.5	10	9.8	8	7.8	4	3.9	170-98	63.4
Big Ten	113	42	37.2	22	20.0	13	11.5	6	5.3	3	2.7	166-109	60.3
SEC	99	44	44.4	20	20.2	11	11.1	5	5.1	3	3.0	145-97	59.9
Big 12 (8)	95	36	37.9	20	21.1	11	11.6	4	4.2	1	1.1	63-43	59.4
Pac-10	78	27	34.6	13	17.3	6	7.7	3	3.8	2	2.6	98-78	55.7

(The total numbers for the Big 8/12 only include years since 1997, when the league expanded to 12 teams)