Editing Atlantic Coast Conference (section)

===Tournament as championship===
{{main|ACC men's basketball tournament|ACC women's basketball tournament|List of Atlantic Coast Conference men's basketball regular season champions}}

Possibly Case's most lasting contribution is the [[ACC men's basketball tournament|ACC tournament]], which was first played in 1954 and decides the winner of the ACC title. The ACC is unique in that it is the only Division I college basketball conference that does not recognize a regular season champion. This started when only one school per conference made the NCAA tournament. The ACC representative was determined by conference tournament rather than the regular season result. Therefore, the league eliminated the regular season title in 1961, choosing to recognize only the winner of the ACC tournament as conference champion. Fans and media do claim a regular-season title for the team that finishes first, and the NCAA recognizes a regular-season title winner in order to maintain its system of choosing [[National Invitation Tournament|NIT]] and NCAA tournament berths based on regular season placement.<ref>{{cite web|title=March Madness Swells as NCAA Pumps Up NIT Tournament|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aMw7OarRcGLI|publisher=Bloomberg|access-date=March 21, 2013|date=March 14, 2006}}</ref> For the ACC, recognition of a regular season champion is insignificant as a 1975 NCAA rule change allowed more than one team per conference to earn a bid to the NCAA tournament. As a result, the team finishing atop the ACC regular-season standings has invariably been invited to the NCAA tournament even if it did not win the ACC Tournament. Even so, any claim to a regular season "title" remains unofficial and carries no reward other than top seed in the ACC tournament.

Historically, the ACC Tournament has been played in North Carolina and dominated by the four teams from [[Tobacco Road (rivalry)|Tobacco Road]] in North Carolina—North Carolina, Duke, North Carolina State and Wake Forest. Between them, they have won 50 tournament titles. The [[Virginia Cavaliers]], however, have historically dominated the ACC regular season standings along with North Carolina and Duke. Between just these three programs they have 65 regular season titles. Since 2007, these three teams have finished first or tied for first 19 times in 18 years, with by far the most first-place finishes by North Carolina (9) and Virginia (7).