Looking at Notre Dame's path in the 2025 ACC Baseball Tournament

Notre Dame is firmly on the 2025 NCAA Tournament bubble. To get off of it — or a little more on the right side of it, whatever terminology you fancy or whatever feels more appropriate given the circumstances — the Fighting Irish could make good use of a run in the ACC Tournament.

It all begins for ND in Durham, N.C., late Tuesday night.

No. 11 seed Notre Dame (32-20, 14-16 ACC) faces No. 14 seed Boston College (26-28, 11-19) at 9 p.m. ET at Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

The ACC Tournament is a single-elimination event this year. Lose once, go home. That, of course, is concerning for lower seeds. One game like the majority they’ve had this season, and they’re out. But it’s also concerning for higher seeds because, well, baseball is as silly of an “anything can happen” sport as it gets. One off day, and they’re out. See: No. 16 seed knocking off No. 9 seed Miami, 12-2 in eight innings, in the first game of the tournament on Tuesday.

Notre Dame knows all about losing to teams with worse records than its own. The Irish lost to these same Boston College Eagles twice in April. A third loss to them tonight would make selection Sunday very interesting. Too interesting.

As of the beginning of the week, Notre Dame was one of the “last four in” the NCAA Tournament field according to D1Baseball.com’s projections. The Irish share that space with Creighton, Virginia and Troy.

Hm. Virginia. Speaking of things that are interesting … a Notre Dame vs. Virginia matchup in Durham on Wednesday if the Irish take care of business on Tuesday. The Irish and Cavaliers did not match up during the regular season. Their first meeting of 2025 could have an NCAA Tournament bid on the line.

If Notre Dame beats Boston College, will it matter? Will the Irish be in the tourney no matter what? Too tough to say. Whether it’s March Madness or Memorial Day weekend, teams on the bubble never feel completely safe. The committee will always be good for a snub or some surprises.

That’s why Notre Dame should leave no doubt and stay in Durham as long as it can. It really shouldn’t be all too surprising if that ends up being a while. This is an Irish team that’s won 16 of its last 19 ballgames. Who cares what the schedule was — that’s a large sample size of sustained winning.

North Carolina, the ACC Tournament’s No. 3 seed, was not an Irish opponent in those 19 games. The Tar Heels (39-12, 18-11) will be an Irish opponent if Notre Dame gets by Boston College and Virginia. The first game of the year between the Heels and Irish would be Friday at 7 p.m. ET.

North Carolina and No. 2 seed Florida State (37-13, 17-10) are the teams with double byes on the Notre Dame half of the bracket. So if the Irish somehow make it all the way to Saturday’s semifinals, it’d likely be the Seminoles waiting for them there. Other possible semifinal opponents are No. 10 seed Louisville, No. 7 seed Duke and No. 15 seed Pitt.

Here’s a full look at the ACC Tournament schedule and bracket.

Tuesday, May 20
Game 1 – No. 16 California vs. No. 9 Miami, 9 a.m.
Game 2 – No. 12 Virginia Tech vs. No. 13 Stanford, 1 p.m.
Game 3 – No. 15 Pitt vs. No. 10 Louisville, 5 p.m.
Game 4 – No. 14 Boston College vs. No. 11 Notre Dame, 9 p.m.

Wednesday, May 21
Game 5 – Game 1 winner vs. No. 8 Wake Forest, 9 a.m.
Game 6 – Game 2 winner vs. No. 5 Clemson, 1 p.m.
Game 7 – Game 3 winner vs. No. 7 Duke, 5 p.m.
Game 8 – Game 4 vs. No. 6 Virginia, 9 p.m.

Thursday, May 22
Game 9 – Game 5 Winner vs. No. 1 Georgia Tech, 3 p.m.
Game 10 – Game 6 Winner vs. No. 4 NC State, 7 p.m. 

Friday, May 23
Game 11 – Game 7 Winner vs. No. 2 Florida State, 3 p.m.
Game 12 – Game 8 Winner vs. No. 3 North Carolina, 7 p.m.

Saturday, May 24
Game 13 – Game 9 vs. Game 10 Winners, 1 p.m.
Game 14 – Game 11 vs. Game 12 Winners, 5 p.m.

Sunday, May 25 – Championship Game
Game 15 – Saturday Winners, Noon, ESPN2

All Tuesday through Saturday games air on ACC Network

Let the games begin 🏆

The bracket for the 2025 ACC Baseball Championship is here.

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— ACC Baseball (@ACCBaseball) May 18, 2025