DAVE LEITAOVirginia coach on key to making the NCAA tournament

ACC athletic directors plan to discuss expanding the conference men's basketball schedule from 16 to 18 games at the ACC spring meetings, Sunday through Wednesday in Amelia Island, Fla. They are looking for a way to get more bids to the NCAA tournament.

The ACC received four in 2008, despite being the nation's top-ranked conference in the Ratings Percentage Index. It got seven in 2007, four in 2006 and five in 2005. In the 10 previous years, when the league had nine teams instead of its current 12, it averaged 4.7 bids a year.

But the ACC hasn't performed well in recent tournaments, at least compared to its standards. Its 19 NCAA wins from 2006-08 are its fewest over a three-year period since 1979-81. But there were fewer opportunities for victories then because the tournament didn't expand to 64 teams until 1985.

The Big East, Pacific-10 and Big Ten all play 18 conferences games. In this year's NCAA tournament, the Big East received bids for eight of its 16 members. Six of the 10 teams in the Pac-10 got in, as did four of the Big Ten's 11 teams.

The ACC has played 16 games since 1991-92, when Florida State joined. League athletic directors considered expanding to 18 games last year, but the coaches opposed it, in part because some thought it would make their schedules too taxing.

Another factor is the ACC's television contract with Raycom Sports that expires after the 2010-11 season. More conference games would mean the ACC could demand more money from Raycom.

Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg thinks the coaches should keep an open mind about expansion, though he believes that even if it is approved, it likely won't take effect this season.

"I'm not saying I'd say yes, but I'm saying a sign of intelligence is knowing what you don't know and trying to figure out the answer," he said.

In doing that, he said, he'd like to ask the NCAA exactly how the selection committee would weigh conference wins.

"Last year we won nine games," he said. "Obviously they didn't give that much of a value - or not as much as we would have liked."

Tech finished 9-7 in the ACC last season but missed the tournament, becoming just the third ACC team to go 9-7 and be left out since the schedule expanded to 16 games. It didn't help the Hokies' cause that they went 1-7 against teams in the RPI top 50.

The conference has used an unbalanced schedule, in which teams don't play every opponent twice, since it began adding three former Big East teams, including Tech, in 2005. For the Hokies last season, this meant playing ACC front-runners North Carolina, Duke and Clemson just once in the regular season. They lost to all three, and to Carolina in the ACC tournament.

Virginia coach Dave Leitao opposes expanding to 18 games and is surprised it is back on the ACC's agenda. The schedule still would be unbalanced, he said. He also disagrees with assessing a conference's quality based on how many NCAA bids it receives.

"Each team is judged individually," he said. "And if that's the case, it should have a little bit less to do with how many league games you play. I've always thought: I don't care who you play in the league, if you build yourself a strong [nonconference] schedule and do well, you'll get in."
Jeff White contributed to this story.