018: ACC point differentials
ACC point differentials home and away games through February 25.
As March is only a few days away, the table below shows point differentials for all teams in conference play only and compares home and away records.
The home team is 88-48 (.647 win percentage) in league games.
Miami, Pittsburgh, and Virginia are the only teams with a positive point differential in home and road league games.
Miami, Clemson, and Pittsburgh are the only teams with an away win percentage above .500.
Syracuse and Florida State are the only two teams with more road wins than home wins.
Four NC State and five Clemson league games have been decided by 20 or more points. The Wolfpack have won three of those games:
W, 84-64 over Duke at home
W, 94-66 over FSU at home
W, 92-62 at Boston College
L, 96-71 to Clemson at home
The Tigers also won four of their five league games decided by 20 or more points:
W, 77-57 over Wake Forest at home
W, 72-51 over Georgia Tech at home
L, 91-71 at North Carolina
W, 94-54 over Florida State at home
W, 96-71 at NC State
Duke owns a -9 road point differential despite beating Georgia Tech by 43 and Syracuse by 22 away from Durham. It also lost to Miami by 22 on the road.
The Blue Devils are 9-0 at home with a +81 point differential, and won four home games by 7 or fewer points.
Pittsburgh is 6-3 in games decided by 7 or fewer points, including three consecutive wins from December to early January over league opponents (Syracuse, North Carolina, Virginia) by a combined 7 points.
Notre Dame and Louisville have identical league records (2-16). The Irish own a -98 point differential, or 112 points better than Louisville’s -210 differential.
NET and the ACC bubble teams
The ACC is not having a banner year as a league. Conference pride is always a bit weird. It doesn’t just mean more in the ACC, but it’s hard to deny the league is down.
When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
Quadrants are easy to manipulate. In the real estate markets of conferences, the Big 12 has comps like Vancouver or Los Angeles. Over 85 percent of Big 12 league games are in the first quadrant.
We’ve had a quadrant problem since the beginning of the NET five years ago. The binning is too arbitrary and the unbalanced league ACC schedule doesn’t help.
The Big 12, which is actually only 10 teams, plays a round robin schedule. This means Oklahoma gets to play Kansas, Baylor, and Texas twice.
There is more opportunity to gain quality wins and quality losses. Fewer bubble teams.
Take Clemson. The Tigers have a terrific conference record and a +131 point differential at home. It’s lone home loss in the league is to Miami. It doesn’t host North Carolina, Pittsburgh, or Virginia.
Fewer opportunities for quality wins and quality losses. More bubble teams.
Would the ACC be better off playing a 28-game round robin schedule?
Check out the code for the table here.