Three-Way ACC Title Race Goes to Friday Night as UNC Visit Duke and Wake Host Louisville
The ACC regular season comes down to one Friday night, and the title race is still a three-team argument. North Carolina, Duke and Wake Forest can all finish level at the top, and Friday’s results decide whether anyone shares it or one side takes it outright.
The headline game is number 10 North Carolina at number 6 Duke, 6pm ET on the ACC Network. If North Carolina win, and Wake Forest beat Louisville in the game before it, then North Carolina, Duke and Wake Forest all finish with a share of the regular-season championship. That is the simple version. Duke, at home, with the title in their own hands, will not see it as simple at all.
Wake Forest host Louisville at 5pm ET, and the Demon Deacons have the same prize in front of them. Win, and they stay in the title conversation. Louisville, who Wake beat in the scenario above, are the spoilers here, and a Louisville win ends the three-way dream before the night game even starts. The order of the games matters. Wake and Louisville play first. By the time North Carolina and Duke start, both sides will know exactly what is at stake.
The third game of the night is at Syracuse, where number 13 Syracuse host Boston College at 4pm ET. Syracuse arrive with real momentum after a weekend sweep at home, beating Stanford 3-2 on a late Taylor Bigbie goal and then beating number 16 California 2-1 in a shootout, with goalkeeper Tane King standing tall in the second half and Aubrey Turner scoring the deciding shootout goal. Boston College split their final home weekend, losing 2-1 to California after Maren Boyle’s opener was overturned by two late Golden Bears goals, then beating Stanford 3-0 on Senior Day, Alex De Cain scoring twice and Madelieve Drion adding a goal and an assist in a game the Eagles outshot 20-6.
Boston College are 7-9 and 2-5 in the conference, Syracuse 9-5 and 4-3. The Orange are playing for seeding and for the feeling of going into the tournament hot. The Eagles are playing to build something to take to Chapel Hill. The ACC Tournament starts November 3 at North Carolina, with the semi-finals on November 4 and the championship game on November 6.
Thursday night opened the weekend, with California visiting Stanford at 9pm ET in Stanford’s final home game. That result was not in when this preview was written, and it does not change Friday’s title maths. What changes it is 5pm and 6pm on Friday. Two games, three teams, one shared title on the table. For our money, Wake Forest at home get the first part done, and then it is all on Durham.
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