The deeper the pile, the tougher to dig your way out from the bottom. That’s always seemed a logical consequence of expanding to a 15-school league with a single basketball division.
ACC football’s bifurcated paths to first place make it easier for teams to insinuate their way to the top, if only for a year or two, their ascent burnished by the chimera of bowl participation in a system where every breakeven record is rewarded.
In basketball the danger is that, once fallen, a program is more likely to stay down for an extended period in a larger conference.