For two years in a row, the ACC only received five bids to the NCAA Tournament.
Five.
There are fifteen teams in the ACC, yet only five teams were deemed worthy of getting invites into the big event. Last season, Wake Forest felt they had a real argument to be included. This season, both Clemson and UNC felt like they had a real case to be invited. In both seasons, the perception of the ACC was such that it was a pretty weak conference and that perception had been locked in stone once conference play began.
To some extent, perception is reality.