ACC Quarterfinals Day: Four Games, Three Co-Champions, and Stanford’s Impossible Opener

Tuesday is quarterfinal day in Chapel Hill, and the ACC has done us a favour: four games, all on ACC Network, all at Karen Shelton Stadium, and no easy draw anywhere on the card.

It starts at 10 a.m. ET (8 p.m. PKT) with No. 1 seed North Carolina against No. 8 seed Stanford. The Tar Heels shared the regular-season title at 6-2 in ACC play and took the top seed on the tiebreak. Stanford only got here by beating No. 17 Cal 2-1 on Thursday, and their reward is the tournament hosts. Carolina won this season’s meeting 8-1 and lead the all-time series 17-1. Stanford’s only win in the series came in the very first meeting, back in 1984. That’s the scale of the task.

Then, at 12:30 p.m. ET (10:30 p.m. PKT), No. 4 Syracuse (9-6, 4-4 ACC) play No. 5 Louisville (10-8, 4-4 ACC). Two teams with identical conference records, separated by the tiebreak. This is the coin-flip game of the day.

The evening session runs into Wednesday morning PKT. No. 2 Wake Forest (13-5), the other co-champions, face No. 7 Virginia (8-6) at 3:30 p.m. ET (1:30 a.m. PKT), and No. 3 Duke (12-4, 6-2 ACC), the third co-champions, meet No. 6 Boston College (8-9, 3-5 ACC) at 6 p.m. ET (4 a.m. PKT). Wake closed the season with four straight wins, including an upset of North Carolina, so they arrive as the form team. Duke arrive as the team nobody wants to draw.

The winners go through to Wednesday’s semifinals, and the championship game is Friday at 3 p.m. ET. Admission is free in Chapel Hill, every game is on ACC Network, and the winner takes the ACC’s automatic NCAA bid. Three teams shared the regular-season crown, and only one of them can win the tournament. That’s a proper championship week.

For our money, the Syracuse-Louisville winner is the dangerous floater in the semifinal draw. They’ve got nothing to lose against a top seed on Wednesday, and they’ve already survived a knockout game.