ACC Media Day 2012: Tournament to remain in North Carolina

The ACC will continue to make North Carolina the "home base" for the men's basketball tournament, according to commissioner John Swofford. While the ACC tournament has rotated throughout the conference, it's held in either Charlotte or Greensboro a majority of the time. With the recent expansion, there have been lengthy discussions about moving the Championship Week event north, with venues in New York and Washington DC the subject of those talks.

The tournament was firmly entreated in North Carolina from 1990 to 2000, but it did start to rotate with DC, Atlanta, and Tampa getting a shot to host. The MCI Center was the site of the 2005 Tournament, and the old Capital Centre had hosted three times prior to that.

With Pittsburgh and Syracuse adding to the northward expansion of the conference, one would expect the tournament to rotate away from North Carolina and Atlanta. Swofford expects the occasional venue outside of North Carolina to be used, but the home base will stay on Tobacco Road (via Alex Prewitt of The Washington Post):

"My guess is, in listening to the discussions and to the athletic directors, the next eight or 10 years will look somewhat similar to the past decade," Swofford said. "North Carolina as its home base in Greensboro and Charlotte, then bounce out periodically to parts of our footprint. My anticipation at this point is we'll do something similar to that."

Greensboro, one of the rare spots in college basketball where fans tailgate en masse, is set to host for the next three years.