ACC commissioner believes NCAA Tournament committee too reliant on NET rankings

The 2022-23 men's basketball season was considered a down one for the ACC. With only five bids placed in the NCAA Tournament, the selection committee apparently agreed with that assessment.

Conference commissioner Jim Phillips is determined to change the narrative, though, and he believes he knows what might be dragging the ACC down.

Too much reliance on the NET rankings.

"We're paying too much attention to the NET. I'm just not there on that," Phillips said, via ESPN. 

"It does not reward teams that play 20 conference games versus 18 or less, and so that's one of the things I'm hopeful in the future we don't spend more time on or put more credence to it...Go sit down and watch these games and watch who the best players are," he explained.

The NET rankings are an NCAA evaluation tool that attempts to weigh a team's record and resume for selection into the tournament. It replaced the old RPI rating system. 

In the favor of Phillips' argument, three ACC teams reached the Elite Eight a year ago, while two made the Final Four. And this spring, Miami has crashed into the Elite Eight with a chance of its own to reach the Final Four should the Hurricanes defeat Texas on Sunday. 

While Miami, Pitt, Duke, North Carolina State and Virginia all made the tournament when the big bracket was revealed, there was a belief within the ACC that Clemson and North Carolina should have additionally been included in the 68-team field. 

The conference has shown out relatively well despite its lack of bids. Miami, Pitt and Duke all won their first-round games, while Pitt won a First Four game in Dayton. 

Phillips told ESPN that he plans on sitting down with ACC coaches and athletic directors at season's end in order to figure out a way to shift the narrative around the conference.