What’s to come in 2017-18
• The ACC returns three Associated Press All-Americans from a season ago – Lexie Brown, Duke (third team), Shakayla Thomas, Florida State (honorable mention) and Asia Durr, Louisville (honorable mention), and Louisville’s Myisha Hines-Allen, who earned AP All-America honorable mention honors in 2016. Notre Dame’s Brianna Turner, an AP All-American second team selection in 2017 will sit out the 2017-18 due to injury.  
 
• The ACC returns six All-ACC performers from a season ago –Duke’s Lexie Brown (first team) and Rebecca Greenwell (first team), Florida State’s Shakayla Thomas (first team, Player of the Year (coaches)) and Chatrice White (Sixth Player of the Year) Louisville’s Asia Durr (first team) and Myisha Hines-Allen (ACC Player of the Year) and Notre Dame’s Brianna Turner (first team, Defensive Player of the Year).
 
• All eight players who were All-Freshman Team selections also return: Clemson’s Kobi Thornton, Duke’s Leaonna Odom, Georgia Tech’s Francesca Pan, who was also named the ACC Freshman of the Year in 2017, Notre Dame’s Jackie Young, Syracuse’s Gabby Cooper, Virginia’s Dominique Toussaint and Jocelyn Willoughby and Wake Forest’s Alex Sharp.
 
• Four ACC teams are listed among ESPN’s Way-Too-Early Top 25 for 2017-18: No. 5 Notre Dame, No. 10 Louisville, No. 12 Duke and No. 25 Florida State.
 
The ACC is well represented in a number of preseason polls including:

• Five teams ranked in the Athlon Sports Preseason Top 25 (No. 4 Notre Dame, No. 7 Louisville, No. 17 Duke, No. 22 Florida State and No. 24 Virginia)
• Four teams ranked in the Street and Smith Top 20 (No. 7 Louisville, No. 8 Duke, No. 15 Notre Dame and No. 20 Florida State).
• Three teams ranked in Lindy’s Preseason Top 25 (No. 6 Notre Dame, No. 9 Louisville and No. 12 Duke)

• Experience will be on the ACC’s side this season as 46 starters return, including Florida State’s Shakayla Thomas, who was selected as the ACC Player of the Year by the head coaches. Eighteen of the ACC’s top 30 scorers from the 2017-18 season also return.
 
• 2017 marks the 11th year of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. The ACC owns seven Challenge titles (7-0-3) and holds a 71-51 lead in Challenge games.
 
• The ACC has six of the top 20 freshman classes as ranked by ESPN Hoopgurlz coming in this season –No. 4 Louisville, No. 11 Duke, No. 12 Georgia Tech, No. 13 Miami, No. 14 Syracuse and No. 19 Notre Dame. The ACC’s six ranked classes are the most from any conference.
 
• Five McDonalds All-Americans will join the league for the 2017-18 season: Janelle Bailey (North Carolina), Dana Evans (Louisville), Danielle Patterson (Notre Dame), Loretta Kakala (Louisville) and Jade Williams (Duke).
 
• In its 39-year history, ACC schools have produced a 4,109-1,571 (.723) record against non-conference foes. In each the last four seasons, the conference has produced winning records higher than 70 percent. During the 2016-17 season the ACC went 183-48 (.792) when facing outside competition, which ranked second nationally, and it marked the highest non-conference win percentage since the 2005-06 season.
 
 
The ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament

• The 2018 Atlantic Coast Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament will mark the 41st edition of the longest running conference women’s basketball championship in the nation. 
 
• The 2018 Atlantic Coast Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament will be held Feb. 28-March 4 at the Greensboro Coliseum for the 18th time in the last 19 years.
 
• The Coliseum, with assistance from the Tournament Hosts of Greensboro, Greensboro Sports Commission and Convention and Visitors Bureau, is now set to play host to the tournament through 2023.
 
• Every attendance record for the 40-year-old tournament has been set at the Greensboro Coliseum, including the overall attendance mark of 73,187 in 2009. Overall attendance at the Greensboro Coliseum has exceeded 60,000 eight times since 2006.
 
• ACC Tournament play opens with three first-round games on Wednesday, February 28, and concludes with the championship game on Sunday, March 4.
 
Current ACC Members and the NCAA Tournament

• With seven teams selected for last season’s NCAA Championship, the ACC has had at least seven teams in the tournament three of the last four years.
 
• ACC member institutions have won two NCAA Championships and made 21 trips to the Final Four.
 
• Seven different institutions have represented the ACC in the Women’s Final Four (actual membership). The ACC has had a team in the women’s Final Four three of the last four seasons.
 
• The ACC has placed at least one team in the regional semifinals every year since the NCAA Women’s Championship began in 1982. With three teams advancing in 2017, 89 ACC squads have reached the regional semifinals over the past 36 years.
 
• The ACC’s five representatives in the 2017 NCAA Tournament posted a combined 12-7 record and gave the conference .500 or better showing in the tournament for the 20th consecutive year.
 
 ACC & the WNBA

• ACC member schools have produced 128 WNBA draft picks, including seven that were selected in the 2017 WNBA Draft.
 
• The ACC has had at least one player selected in the first round in each of the last 12 drafts, and current membership accounts for 46 first-round picks.
 
• Three No. 1 WNBA Draft picks have come from current ACC schools - Lindsey Harding, Duke - 2007; Angel McCoughtry, Louisville - 2009; Jewell Loyd, Notre Dame - 2015.
 
• The ACC’s 15 member institutions combined for 33 former players on WNBA opening day rosters in 2017.
 
 ACC and the Naismith Memorial and Women’s Basketball Halls of Fame

• Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Sept. 7, 2017.
 
• Overall, four members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame have ACC women’s basketball ties: Kay Yow (NC State - coach), Sylvia Hatchell (North Carolina - coach), Muffet McGraw (Notre Dame – coach) and Dawn Staley (Virginia – student-athlete).
 
• The ACC boasts three active Hall of Fame Coaches – North Carolina’s Sylvia Hatchell (Naismith and Women’s Basketball), Notre Dame’s Muffet McGraw (Naismith and Women’s Basketball) and Pitt’s Suzie McConnell-Serio (Women’s Basketball).
 
 Attendance

• ACC schools combined for a 2017-18 season attendance of 777,516, a 7.4 percent increase from the 2016-17 season.
 
• The ACC had two schools ranked in the top six in home attendance for the 2016-17 season with Louisville (165,115) at No. 5 in home attendance and Notre Dame (137,764) at No. 6.
 
• Two ACC schools saw an increase in attendance for the 2016-17 season, including NC State (2,912 – 1,619; +1,293) and Syracuse (2,100 – 1,018; +1,082).
 
 ACC Coaches are Leaders of the Game

• Entering the 2017-18 season, the Atlantic Coast Conference’s 15 head coaches have combined for 5,843 career victories, the most of the Power 5 conferences. Eleven of the league’s coaches have 200 or more career wins, including three with at least 300 and five with at least 400. The ACC also boasts six coaches, who rank in the top 20 of winningest active coaches by percentage, the most of any league in the country.
 
• Suzie McConnell-Serio (Pittsburgh): 2017: U19 Women’s National Team Head Coach; 2016: U18 Women’s National Team Head Coach and 2016 U18 FIBA Americas Champion.
 
• Katie Meier (Miami): 2013 USA Basketball Coach of the Year; FIBA U19 World Championship head coach.
 
• Sue Semrau (Florida State): Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Past President.
 
• Jeff Walz (Louisville): 2017 U.S. U23 Women’s National Team Head Coach; 2014 U.S. U18 Women’s National Team Assistant Coach and FIBA Americas U18 Champion; 2015 U.S. U19 Women’s National Team Assistant Coach and FIBA U19 World Champion.
  
ACC Well Positioned for Many Future Successes
 
Television Exposure
• In July of 2016, the ACC, in conjunction with ESPN, announced the ACC Network. The comprehensive linear and digital network will launch in 2019 and will air 450 exclusive live events, including more than 150 basketball games.
 
• All 120 conference games will be broadcast this  season on either an ESPN linear channel, ACC Network Extra or Regional Sports Networks.  
 
• In July 2016, the ACC announced an extension of its Grant of Rights through 2035-36, again highlighting the league’s solidarity and commitment.
 
Academics
• The ACC continues to lead the way academically by almost any measure among peer conferences:

• For the 11th straight year, the ACC had the best average ranking among FBS conferences in the US News & World Report ‘Best Colleges.’
• Eighty-eight league teams, the most of our peer conferences, received Academic Progress Rate recognition awards from the NCAA.
• The league achieved an NCAA Graduation Success Rate of 89.3 percent in last fall’s release, nearly six points above the national average. Ten of 15 ACC Women’s Basketball teams earned a GSR above the Division I average of 87
• 2016 marked the ninth-straight year that the ACC had at least four women’s basketball programs score 100 in the NCAA’s GSR, making it the only Autonomy 5 conference to do so. Five ACC teams – Boston College, Florida State, Pitt, Virginia and Wake Forest – hit the century mark in the latest report.