CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Atlantic Coast Conference has decided to revamp its baseball tournament structure, moving to a single-elimination format.
The announcement was made on Wednesday, indicating that the conference would no longer use the previous pool-play system. Under the new setup, all 16 teams participating in the baseball tournament will enter a single-elimination format, where the top four seeds will benefit from double-round byes into the quarterfinals. The teams ranked No. 5 through No. 8 will receive single-round byes.
In the former structure, 12 teams competed in a round-robin format, leading to pool play that determined the four teams advancing to the semifinals and subsequent championship match. This prior format sometimes resulted in games with little significance concerning which teams would progress.
The alteration to the tournament format was driven by proposals from head coaches within the league and received backing from the student-athletes.
Looking ahead, the schedule for the 2025 tournament is slated for May 20-25, occurring just before the NCAA reveals its 64-team bracket for the College World Series. This event will take place in Durham for the 14th consecutive time.