We are just 17 days until the official start of the 2016 New York Life ACC Tournament in Washington DC.
The ACC tournament returns to Washington DC for the first time since 2005.
One of the biggest side stories that surrounds the ACC Tournament is always the ticket scalping scene. Immediately after games are completed you can find lines at the box office eager to scoop up ANY tickets that losing schools are looking to dump.
With the tournament having not been in DC in a number years and adding in the addition of Pittsburgh, Notre Dame and Syracuse, the ticket scalping game will be a story to follow. Scalpers have been used to relying on the Virginia schools, NC schools and Clemson in recent years to make some quick paper in Greensboro. With the tournament moving further north and out of the scalpers safe haven of Greensboro, this will be an interesting story to follow.
We at SportsChannel8 have examined the current ACC standings, this year’s tournament bracket, and determined which teams need to rise or fall for the hardest workers at the ACC Tournament…Scalpers.
Tickets are sold by sessions after we get past the Tuesday opening round. Once Wednesday begins a Session 1 ticket gets you tickets to 2 afternoon games and Session 2 tickets will get you tickets for the 2 night games. That format continues for Thursday. Friday (the semifinals) features just one session. Saturday is just the championship game. The key for scalpers is to get good high profile games every session and hopefully add in some upset-minded teams with fanbases that might make the trip to DC.
The current standings and seeds are:
1. Miami
2. UNC
3. UVA
4. Notre Dame
5. Duke
6. Clemson
7. Syracuse
8. Pittsburgh
9. FSU
10. Virginia Tech
11. Georgia Tech
12. NC State
13. Wake Forest
14. Boston College
Add the teams in to the below bracket to see what it would look like before Saturday’s games.
When it comes to “Scalptology”, we focus on games we COULD see as the tournament plays out. We would be projected to have a Thursday afternoon session that could include Miami vs and possibly a Duke/Notre Dame matchup. The PM session would include UNC and UVA. This would still give us the possibility of a dream Duke/UNC final.
At this point it is too difficult to project what scalpers need as the standings are so close together. We do know that scalpers do NOT want to see upsets from Boston College or Georgia Tech. Fortunately with current scenario one of BC and GT would lose on Tuesday so everyone can breathe a sigh of relief. Scalpers probably do not want to see Florida State or Wake Forest making a deep run either. Of any teams that can make a run from the bottom, scalpers will want NC State or even VT (proximity of school and huge DC following) to be those teams.
Some things that need to happen will be Georgia Tech and Boston College not meeting each other on Tuesday. It would better off if they both can lose as early as possible. Scalpers will also maybe want to see NC State get out of the Tuesday games.
The following are games that scalpers do NOT want to see on Wednesday in order of importance:
Pitt vs Syracuse
NC State vs Clemson/Syracuse or Pitt
Virginia Tech vs Syracuse or Pitt
The rest of the dream scenario is still too tough to call because of so many moving pieces. Trust us that if it ends up being Miami vs Notre Dame in the final that some people may be eating Ramen noodles for a long time.
Stay tuned next week as we give updated thoughts on Scalptology and what needs to happen as the standings start to shake themselves out.
