Jason, placing VT in our path does not violate the committee's principles. The relevant ones are bolded below:
1. Each of the first four teams selected from a conference shall be placed in different regions if they are seeded on the first four lines.
2. Teams from the same conference shall not meet prior to the regional final if they played each other three or more times during the regular season and conference tournament.
3. Teams from the same conference shall not meet prior to the regional semifinals if they played each other twice during the regular season and conference tournament.
4. Teams from the same conference may play each other as early as the second round if they played no more than once during the regular season and conference tournament.
5. Any principle can be relaxed if two or more teams from the same conference are among the last four at-large seeded teams participating in the First Four.
We know the first four teams from the ACC were Duke, UVA, unc and FSU (in that order). So they had to be placed in different regions and were handled correctly, per #1. After that, the only issue regarding the timing of Duke facing a conference opponent comes down to how often the teams played, and since Duke and VT only played once, the rules say that they can play each other as early as the second round, per #4. It may seem unfair, but it's consistent with the selection rules.
https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball...-march-madness