Duke Basketball: Will Second in the ACC Be Enough To Earn a No. 1 Tourney Seed?

Duke has four more games (home games versus UNC-Greensboro, Western Michigan and Penn and a road game at Temple) before they begin their ACC schedule.

The Blue Devils and the North Carolina Tar Heels will battle it out to see who wins the regular season championship and conference tournament.

Sure, there are officially 10 other teams that make up the Atlantic Coast Conference, but let's get real. It'll be between Roy's Boys and Coach K's Crew.

There's a lot of basketball to play between now and Selection Sunday, but a strange question hangs in the air: Will second place in the ACC be enough to earn a No. 1 tourney seed?

History says that is more than possible.

Last year, Pitt was a No. 1 seed in the 2011 NCAA Tournament. They made it, not as the Big East Tourney Champ, but as an at-large selection.

In 2010, Syracuse was a No. 1 seed, making it in the exact same fashion that Pitt did the year before.

In 2009, three of the four No. 1 seeds (Pitt, UConn and North Carolina) all were chosen as at-large selections.

In 2008, all four No. 1 seeds (UCLA, North Carolina, Memphis and Kansas) were all tournament champs.

Without going any further, we can see that it is not a requirement for Duke (or North Carolina or anyone else, for that matter) to win the ACC Tournament to become a No. 1 seed in the 2012 NCAA Tournament.

As of today, Duke is No. 5 and North Carolina is No. 6 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll.

Who knows how the next two-plus months of the season will go?

Both the Blue Devils and the Tar Heels have a good shot at being No. 1 seeds, and at least one of them won't be the ACC champs.