UPDATED TUESDAY MORNING, 8:30AM
During our various bowl analyses last week, we stated (on Tuesday):
“The Emerald Bowl in also rolls into the ACC’s rotation next year and would be an obvious fit based on conference relationships. It is being speculated that an ACC team might match-up with Utah in San Francisco.”
On Sunday, our speculation became reality when the Emerald Bowl formalized the fact that the ACC will supply a team to battle Utah. Despite State’s low finish in the ACC, various scenarios DO exist that might send State to the Mieneke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte which is generally considered the destination of choice for the program.
Sunday – 9:30 PM Update:
More of our previously discussed projections are starting to become reality. Fansblog turns our attention to the following:
620 WDEA in Tampa is reporting that the Gator Bowl will issue official invitations to Miami and Louisville tomorrow.
There remains a lot of cloudiness around the Peach Bowl’s potential match-up as attention may be turning away from a South Carolina (Spurrier) vs Florida State (Bowden) game and perhaps to a Georgia vs Clemson game.
The ultimate selections of the Peach and the Champs Sports Bowl will play the key roles in NC State’s bowl fate. If Clemson is snapped up by the Peach or the Champs, then the Wolfpack is an almost a certain lock to play in the Mieneke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, which represents the most attractive option imagineable for the Wolfpack.
Monday – 8:45 AM Update:
Since most people are morons, I choose not to pay much attention to most “Bowl Projections” until I have a reason.
But, there are some sources that I trust more than others because of various reasons. As much as I don’t really like Tommy Barnhart most of the time, there is no denying his deep connections to various football contacts in the South. This is important because there are a lot of things that he knows/hears on the inside that he can’t/won’t explicitly share…but he can include in things like his bowl projections this morning.
Barnhart projects the following for the ACC’s Bowls:
Dec. 27 Champs Sports ACC vs. Big 12 Florida State vs. Colorado
Dec. 28 MPC Computers WAC vs. ACC Boise State vs. Boston College
Dec. 29 Emerald MWC vs. Pac-10 Utah* vs. Virginia
Dec. 30 Chick-fil-A Peach ACC vs. SEC Clemson vs. Georgia
Dec. 31 Meineke Car Care ACC vs. Big East N.C. State vs. South Florida
Jan. 2 Gator ACC vs. Big East Miami vs. Louisville
With Barnhart’s proximity in Atlanta and his connections to the Peach Bowl, Georgia Tech, and UGA (key players in the Wolfpack’s bowl fate), I’ve got no reason to think that he is just making up uneducated projections.
Monday – 4:30 PM Update:
Additionally, Sports Illustrated‘s Stewart Mandel’s projections look pretty consistent with Barnhart’s and seem to make good sense to me as long as we get through the weekend without any big upsets.
Tuesday- 8:30 AM Update:
No surprise in the news this morning – almost the entire conference will be waiting until the ACC Championship game is completed before all of the dominos fall. Lots of variables remain for the Wolfpack, and we’ve highlighted most of them in this entry and amongst the super comments included below from readers.
* Charlotte has made what we already knew publicly clear – they want Clemson, followed by NC State to probably battle South Florida (with an outside chance of UConn).
* The N&O shared the public statement that NC State is still an option for the Music City Bowl. This scenario would only happen if the Champs Sports chose Georgia Tech, leaving Clemson for Charlotte and Boston College for Boise.
