If you are a member of the NC State football team, then you need to quit wasting time on internet chatter and get back to work on preparing for Wake Forest. For everyone else, let’s pool what we can find from official or media sources about bowl games and the selection process to see where that leads us.
As I read various posts on possibilities of bowl games for State, I am struck by how much contradictory information is being floated around and how little support is being offered for those “factsâ€. I have done a few searches to come up with some official links….but they all appear to be dated from last year.
So I am going to assume that no new rules have been inflicted upon the college football world since last year. I am hoping that our readers can help search for any new rules…or confirm that the following rules are still applicable.
ACC Bowl Tie-Ins and Selection Process
Complete bowl game explanation from theacc.com
The ACC has contractual ties to eight bowl games. After the BCS has selected team(s) from the ACC, the following bowls get to select an ACC representative in the following order:
The Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta, Ga.
The Toyota Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla.
The Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, Fla.
The bowls may select any ACC team they want…with the two following stipulations.
– The ACC Divisional Champion which does not win the ACC Dr. Pepper Championship Game is guaranteed to be selected by one of four bowl games from among the Chick-fil-A Bowl, the Toyota Gator Bowl, the Champs Sports Bowl or the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl, unless the team desires to go to another ACC-affiliated bowl game.
– The team chosen must be within one conference victory of the remaining, highest-ranked ACC team or be ranked more than five spaces ahead of the ACC team with the best Conference record available in the Final BCS Standings.
If that is not confusing enough, it gets better. The next three bowls are:
The Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tn.
The Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, N.C.
The Emerald Bowl in San Francisco, Calif.
[These bowls] share the fourth, fifth and sixth selections of ACC teams after the BCS. These bowls will submit their top three preferences of ACC bowl-eligible teams to the Conference Office in order to make the best selections from the available teams and bowls. If an agreement cannot be reached, then a financial ranking will be used to determine the selection order which would be:
1. Music City Bowl
2. Meineke Car Care Bowl
3. Emerald BowlIf the order is used to determine selection then if the bowl selecting does not choose the next available team in the ACC standings, then the bowl must choose a team within one conference win of the ACC team available with the best Conference record. The bowl could also choose an ACC team that is ranked more than five spaces ahead of the ACC team with the best Conference record available in the Final BCS Standings.
This particular silliness is the ACC office’s way of keeping Boston College from geting passed over all the way to Boise every year. And of course, the Blue Carpet Bowl picks from whatever is left.
So this quickly summarizes the peculiarities of the ACC rules. Now let’s delve into the murky world of NCAA rules for bowl participation as “explained†in the 2006-2007 Football Postseason Handbook.
The NCAA prescribes that bowl games are limited to “deserving teams†from member institutions. There are two parts to their definition of “deserving†that we need to take a closer look at:
Wins Against I-AA Opponents
A deserving winning team is defined as one that wins a minimum of six games against Division I-A competition and has a record that includes more wins than losses. [Exception: Each year, a Division I-A institution may count a victory against a Division I-AA opponent that has averaged 90 percent of the permissible maximum number of grants-in-aid per year in Division I-AA football over a rolling two-year period.]
I would have bet money that the restriction on counting 1-AA wins had been done away with. Instead, they have been somewhat simplified…you can count one victory each year as long as the opponent is giving enough scholarships. Any one know if Wofford qualifies or not?
7-5 vs 6-6
Per Bylaw exception 30.9.2.1 an institution with a record of six wins and six losses may be selected for participation in a bowl game if
1) the institution or its conference has a primary contractual affiliation, which existed prior to the first contest of the applicable season, with the sponsoring bowl organization. In the case of a conference contractual affiliation, all conference teams with winning records must be placed in one of the contracted bowl games before any institution with a record of six wins and six losses may be placed in a contracted bowl game; and
2) all contractual affiliations have been fulfilled and all institutions with winning records have received bowl invitations (either through a contractual affiliation or as an at-large selection).
This is big change that I was not aware of until last night. A lot of people have focused on the ACC requirement of being within one conference victory of another school before a bowl could pass over a “less-deserving†school and select State. This NCAA requirement would lock a 6-6 State team BEHIND every ACC team with 7 or more wins.
Combining the NCAA Rules and ACC Contractual Requirements
Looking over these rules, it becomes obvious that becoming “bowl eligible†does not guarantee a bowl….regardless of how well State fans have traveled to past bowls. TOB mentioned last week that six wins doesn’t guarantee a bowl and we can see that his response was not just “coach speakâ€.
If eight ACC teams finish with seven or more wins and State finishes at 6-6, then State CANNOT be selected by any of the bowls under contract with the ACC. (This conclusion assumes the obvious…that the ACC will not send two teams to BCS bowls.) This means that State’s only chance at a bowl game under this scenario would be to fill a spot left empty from one of the other conferences.
If the ACC does not have eight teams with seven wins, then an interesting question comes to mind. Can one of the trio from SanFran, Nashville, or Charlotte select a 6-win State team and send a 7-win team to Boise? For this to happen, I think State will have to find a sleazy lawyer to spin the NCAA rules:
…all conference teams with winning records MUST be placed in one of the contracted bowl games BEFORE any institution with a record of six wins and six losses may be placed in a contracted bowl game.
Where Does State Stand?
At present, only two teams have been eliminated from post-season play this year. Here is a summary of where everyone else in the ACC stands right now:
|
|
Conf |
O’all |
Remaining |
|
|
6-1 |
9-2 |
|
|
Virginia |
5-1 |
8-2 |
|
|
Clemson |
5-2 |
8-2 |
|
|
|
4-2 |
8-2 |
|
|
Seven Wins Likely |
|||
|
|
4-3 |
6-4 |
NCSU, |
|
|
3-4 |
6-4 |
UMD, |
|
Georgia |
3-4 |
6-4 |
UNC, |
|
Six or Seven Wins Possible |
|||
|
NC |
3-3 |
5-5 |
WF, |
|
|
2-4 |
5-5 |
FSU, |
|
|
2-4 |
5-5 |
VT, BC |
– There is a slim chance that all 10 teams could become bowl eligible.
– The ACC is guaranteed to have at least 8 teams bowl eligible because State and Maryland can not both lose seven games this year.
As I pointed out earlier, the links to the ACC and NCAA websites are a year old. If you find newer information, then include it and a link in the comments below. I have no doubt that we can piece all of the pertinent information together long before anyone in the MSM can be bothered to do it.
