ACC Tournament 2012: Duke and North Carolina's Dominance Makes Tourney a Bore

The ACC Tournament has lost much of its luster due to the sheer dominance of Duke (26-5, 13-3 ACC) and North Carolina (27-4, 14-2 ACC).

These two powerhouse programs have won 14 of the past 15 championships, and it’s highly unlikely anything changes this year. This makes for an awful tournament and a competition that no one outside of North Carolina and bandwagon fans really care about.

According to Paul Newberry of the Associated Press, this UNC/Duke takeover is also having a harmful effect on the conference finances and other fans just aren’t excited about their team’s chances against these juggernauts.

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Average attendance dipped to 9,632 per game, the first time it’s been less than 10,000 since the 1988-89 season. In a sign that even the ACC tournament isn’t the must-have ticket it once was, this year’s event will be played at 19,445-seat Philips Arena rather than the cavernous Georgia Dome right next door, where it was held the last two times Atlanta served as host.

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It’s a down year overall for the ACC, but that trend may continue because, face it, not many recruits want to go to a school that has no chance to win their conference.

If programs such as Wake Forest and Boston College can’t land prospects the way the Blue Devils and Tar Heels are able to, there will never be parity in the conference.

BC is especially fed up with losing to the same universities every year.

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“It’s going to take a serious commitment from everyone else involved with these other schools to say, “We’re tired of this,’’’ said Boston College coach Steve Donahue.

“It does get a little repetitive,’’ said BC’s Ryan Anderson.

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It’s fine for a team or two to be the strongest in a conference and be the one’s to beat on a yearly basis, but when they have a 15-year stranglehold on it, that just isn't fun to witness.