ACC Tournament Bracket: Can Notre Dame make an NCAA regional?

Can the Irish do enough to make a regional in the NCAA Tournament?

After an abysmal start to the ACC season, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish finished strong with four series wins — with two of them via a sweep. The overall record, however, placed the Irish as an 11 seed and will face the Boston College Eagles in the first round of the ACC Tournament.

From the ACC:

Bracket Announced for 2025 ACC Baseball Championship

Purchase Tickets2025 ACC Baseball Championship Bracket

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (theACC.com) – The bracket for the 2025 ACC Baseball Championship was announced on Saturday, May 17, following the conclusion of regular-season play. In long-time head coach Danny Hall’s final season, Georgia Tech won the ACC regular-season championship outright and earned the tournament’s No. 1 seed for the first time since 2005.

The six-day event runs Tuesday, May 20, through Sunday, May 25, at Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham, North Carolina.

New for 2025, all 16 ACC teams will compete in a single-elimination championship. The top four seeds are based on the performance in the regular season and receive a double-bye into the quarterfinal round, which is scheduled to be held on Thursday and Friday, May 22-23. Florida State (2), North Carolina (3) and NC State (4) join Georgia Tech with double byes.

Seeds five through eight will earn a bye into the second round on Wednesday, May 21. Seeds 9-16 will begin play with four first-round games on Tuesday, May 20.

Single-session tickets, weekend passes and all-session passes can each be purchased through durhambulls.com, theacc.com/tickets, or by clicking here for group sales.

The tournament begins with four games on Tuesday, starting at 9 a.m. ET with No. 9 seed Miami (31-23, 15-14 ACC) taking on No. 16 seed California (22-30, 9-21). At 1 p.m. ET, No. 12 Virginia Tech (30-24, 12-18) battles No. 13 Stanford (27-24, 11-19), followed by No. 10 Louisville (35-20, 15-15) against No. 15 Pitt (27-26, 10-20) at 5 p.m. ET and No. 11 Notre Dame (32-20, 14-16) versus No. 14 Boston College (26-28, 11-19) at 9 p.m. ET.

Wednesday’s play also kicks off at 9 a.m. ET, with No. 8 seed Wake Forest (31-23, 16-14) facing the Miami-Cal winner. No. 5 seed Clemson (41-15, 18-12) then plays the Virginia Tech-Stanford winner at 1 p.m. ET. No. 7 seed Duke (17-13, 36-18) matches up with the Louisville-Pitt winner at 5 p.m. ET, with No. 6 seed Virginia (32-17, 16-11) battling the Notre Dame-Boston College winner at 9 p.m. ET in the nightcap.

Thursday’s quarterfinal action features top-seeded Georgia Tech (39-16, 19-11) playing the Game 5 winner at 3 p.m. ET, and No. 4 seed NC State (33-18, 17-11) facing the Game 6 winner at 7 p.m. ET. No. 2 seed Florida State (37-13, 17-10) starts the Friday quarterfinal games at 3 p.m. ET against the Game 7 winner, and No. 3 seed North Carolina (39-12, 18-11) follows at 7 p.m. ET versus the Game 8 winner.

The Thursday winners match up in the first Saturday semifinal at 1 p.m. ET, followed by the two Friday winners at 5 p.m. ET.

ACC Network will carry each of the games from Tuesday through Saturday. Sunday’s championship contest is scheduled for a noon ET start and will be carried nationally by ESPN2. Each game also will air on Sirius XM ACC Radio channel 371.

The ACC Baseball Championship returns to Durham for the 14th time overall and the ninth time since 2009. Most recently, Clemson won the 2023 ACC Baseball Championship in Durham, defeating Miami 11-5 in the championship game. Duke enters the 2025 season as the reigning league champions after winning the 2024 ACC Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina.

2025 ACC Baseball Championship Schedule

Tuesday, May 20

Game 1 – No. 16 California vs. No. 9 Miami, 9 a.m.
Game 2 – No. 12 Virginia Tech vs. No. 13 Stanford, 1 p.m.
Game 3 – No. 15 Pitt vs. No. 10 Louisville, 5 p.m.
Game 4 – No. 14 Boston College vs. No. 11 Notre Dame, 9 p.m.

Wednesday, May 21

Game 5 – Game 1 winner vs. No. 8 Wake Forest, 9 a.m.
Game 6 – Game 2 winner vs. No. 5 Clemson, 1 p.m.
Game 7 – Game 3 winner vs. No. 7 Duke, 5 p.m.
Game 8 – Game 4 vs. No. 6 Virginia, 9 p.m.

Thursday, May 22

Game 9 – Game 5 Winner vs. No. 1 Georgia Tech, 3 p.m.
Game 10 – Game 6 Winner vs. No. 4 NC State, 7 p.m.

Friday, May 23

Game 11 – Game 7 Winner vs. No. 2 Florida State, 3 p.m.
Game 12 – Game 8 Winner vs. No. 3 North Carolina, 7 p.m.

Saturday, May 24

Game 13 – Game 9 vs. Game 10 Winners, 1 p.m.
Game 14 – Game 11 vs. Game 12 Winners, 5 p.m.

Sunday, May 25 – Championship Game

Game 15 – Saturday Winners, Noon, ESPN2

All Tuesday through Saturday games air on ACC Network
All times Eastern

So — can the Irish do enough in the ACC Tournament to make a regional in the NCAA Tournament?

Absolutely.

Notre Dame has an RPI of 42. It’s not as though Tim Prister is wrong here (and I’m taking his answer to the question being Notre Dame’s place in the ACC as a “no”) he’s not remotely correct either. The ACC isn’t the SEC — but it isn’t the Big 10 either.

Two weeks ago, it was suggested by others that Notre Dame needed to win some type of combination of four games from the Miami series and the ACC Tournament to make an NCAA regional. The Irish just took two from Miami and will now face off against BC, and if they win, the Virginia Cavaliers. Both games are extremely winnable for the Irish and should be enough to make a regional.

In my opinion, the Irish can squeak in with just a win over BC.

Time will certainly tell, but the focus remains the same from here on out… win and advance.