Few if any people in the country love college basketball as much as CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein. If you follow him on social media, you know he puts absolutely nothing in sports above college basketball. If a college football fan tweets something at him, he'll play dumb and frame his response in college basketball terms.
Rothstein has released his ACC preview, and Notre Dame gets only one mention, which isn't unexpected given that it has a lot to prove. However, it's how Rothstein references the Irish that makes this interesting.
The ACC has been going through a bit of a dry spell as far as the number of berths it gets in the NCAA Tournament. The Irish last made the tournament in 2022, but some conferences teams have even longer droughts. Rothstein particularly signals out Louisville, Syracuse and Florida State.
Rothstein's point is that all of these high-profile programs need to get their act together in order to restore the ACC's reputation as the best in college basketball and have more than the five March Madness berths it's gotten in each of the past three years.
We'll see how the season plays out, and hopefully, the Irish can help make the ACC truly intimidating again.
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This article originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire: Jon Rothstein: ACC needs Notre Dame to be good for March Madness spots