Not my rules, I think the regular season champion should count. Go talk to the ACC, I somewhat agree with them now. The ACC Schedule is unbalanced, back in the day the ACC Regular Season was a much bigger accomplishment than the ACC Tournament. It's not as much anymore, it's possible you can get away with only playing Duke/UNC once now. It's always been that way, and it will never change (the tournament winner being declared champion). One of the best teams Maryland ever had was a legit national title contender and didn't even play in the NCAA Tournament. Why? They lost in the ACC Tournament (played in the state of North Carolina) to North Carolina State. They lost in overtime of that game, NC St went on to win the National Title, the only ACC Team in the tournament back then was the Tournament Champion. You VT fans claming an almost ACC Title last year is hillarious, you realize 3 teams could lay claim correct? It would be like me getting on here and proclaming Maryland the ACC Champion in 1995 when it was split like 4 ways.