The month of March is here, you might have noticed. Jokes aside about this being “March 350, 2020,” due to the awareness that we’re still living in March of 2020 until the pandemic ends, we are about to arrive at the 2021 NCAA Tournament. It will be weird with limited fans. It will be even weirder with all games played near Indianapolis. Yet, there will be a bracket show this year. There will be a Big Dance. What will it look like?
Let’s prepare for an NCAA Tournament unlike any other.
One of the first things we need to make clear about this NCAA Tournament is that with television ratings being way down across most sports, the NCAA — needing to juice up this particular edition of March Madness — will want to make a special effort to spice up its signature tournament.
You know that the selection committee, in its bracketing process, will work hard to find TV-friendly matchups. Enter the ACC.
The First Four has been around since 2011. Obviously it was not held last year due to the pandemic and the cancellation of the 2020 NCAA Tournament. In the first nine First Fours, the ACC has made only three total appearances: North Carolina State in 2014, Wake Forest in 2017, and Syracuse in 2018.
With Duke and Georgia Tech on the bubble (Georgia Tech in better position, but hardly a lock), I’m going to make a firm prediction: The winner of that game will be in the First Four.
This is not a year in which the NCAA and the committee will want a Colorado State-Xavier First Four game — no offense to those schools. Maybe one will be in the First Four, but not both.
The Big 12 has no bubble teams right now, and neither does the Pac-12 with Stanford playing its way out of the at-large conversation. Since Georgia Tech is clearly ahead of Duke in any bracketology comparison, a Duke win might actually put both teams in the First Four, with North Carolina and Louisville likely in the Round of 64 after their huge wins on Saturday. Yet, let’s say Georgia Tech beats Duke and Duke then beats North Carolina next Saturday.
We could have Georgia Tech and UNC both in the First Four, with Michigan State another very possible First Four candidate to provide new episodes of “Blue Bloods on CBS” (or TruTV and TBS, in this case) this March.
The ACC in the First Four? It doesn’t usually happen, but it’s likely to happen this year… just not in Dayton, Ohio.
