NC State’s Evolving Bowl Picture (Update #7: GT Accepts Peach)

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Folks, stay tuned to this entry, as we’ll be adding updates as they roll in relative to the Wolfpack’s bowl destination.

We learned on Monday that NC State was out of the running for one of the nine bowls with ACC ties after the NCAA held a lengthy teleconference with conference and bowl officials to go over the selection process. But, as we spelled out this afternoon in this very important entry…nothing is set in stone and the ultimate bowl selections remain very fluid.

Again, before reading this entry you would be well served to lay some groundwork by starting with this entry.

Update #7: Georgia Tech Officially Accepts Chick-Fil-A

This doesn’t affect State directly, except to eliminate a wildcard.  Georgia Tech has officially accepted their expected invitation to the CFA/Peach Bowl in Atlanta:

No. 16 Georgia Tech accepted an invitation to the Chick-fil-A Bowl on Wednesday, staying at home to face a Southeastern Conference team on New Year’s Eve.

Bowl president Gary Stokan got permission from the Atlantic Coast Conference to make the announcement ahead of Saturday’s league championship game after the selection committee decided on the Yellow Jackets (9-3) over Florida State.

The pieces are starting to move, so stay tuned.

Update #6: ESPN’s Heather Dinich Explains Scenarios / SFN Analyzes

Bowl Update: Close But Not Quite

“Nothing is finalized yet, but it looks like the Gator Bowl wants Clemson and the Chick-fil-A Bowl wants Georgia Tech. That announcement could come as early as tomorrow.

“As for North Carolina playing in Charlotte, it depends on who wins the ACC championship game and what the Champs Sports Bowl does.”

Dinich continues by giving the scenarios a decent review, and don’t forget that ESPN owns some of the at-large bowls that State may ultimately end up playing in…so do not discount her employer as a player in this situation.

As we pointed out in our afternoon entry, although the following statement is technically correct, Dinich’s hedge (italicized) is unnecessary.

If Virginia Tech wins, the Champs Sports Bowl is likely to take FSU, Boston College would fall to Music City, and North Carolina would go to Charlotte. If Virginia Tech loses but puts on a good showing, Champs might take the Hokies over FSU, which would likely send North Carolina to the Music City Bowl, and the Meineke Car Care Bowl would have Maryland, Miami or Florida State to choose from.

Folks, VPI is NOT going to put on a good showing in the ACC Championship. Even if the Hokies were to put on a good showing traveling to Tampa for the second consecutive year, why would that trip to Florida be a GOOD thing for the Champs?

VPI is playing in Florida for the ACC Championship for their second consecutive year and for the third time in four years. The Hokies played in the Orange Bowl in Miami last year for their bowl game. Who in their right mind would think that Hokie fans would/could travel BACK to Florida to play in the Champs Bowl one year after an Orange Bowl appearance and three weeks after an ACC Championship game appearance?

The biggest variable to NC State’s bowl selection in this scenario has nothing to do with Virginia Tech. Since it is now obvious that the Champs is leaning FSU, the primary risk is that UNC-CH tries to work a deal with the Champs to supplant FSU in Orlando. Again, we’ve got it all covered for you here.

Update #5: More potential wrenches? EagleBank calls Maryland’s bluff

ESPN’s Heather Dinich is reports:

The Humanitarian Bowl is considering choosing undefeated Ball State over an ACC team, a decision that would be difficult to move forward with unless most parties involved agree to it.

If that happens, the teams most likely to get farmed out to an at-large spot would be Wake Forest and Maryland, both of which have given reasons not to play in the Eagle Bank Bowl.

The Eagle Bank Bowl might take Wake Forest, even though they made an agreement with Navy not to schedule rematches. The Eagle Bank Bowl is also willing to work around Maryland’s exam schedule.

“We would work our bowl schedule to accommodate Maryland,” said Sean Metcalf, a co-CEO of the bowl. “Not our game date, but what we need them to do as a team here in town.”

Update #4: Independence Bowl News

Site member TVP1 passed along this tidbit and link in the comments section, which I will post up top.   Props to TVP1 and Chrispy over at the Wake boards for the information.

“The contingency deal the Independence and Papa John’s bowls have with the Sun Belt DOES NOT require them to take a 6-6 Sun Belt team over other 6-6 teams for an at large spot.”

Shreveport Times: I-Bowl Narrows Pool

The Independence Bowl would have to come to an agreement with [Louisiana] Tech to play in the Dec. 28 game at Shreveport’s Independence Stadium.

On the other side of the matchup, Bergeron said, “we’re trying to stay geographic. There’s some possibilities in Conference USA. There is a possibility out of the ACC. Notre Dame is out there as a wild card.”

In Conference USA, both Southern Miss and Memphis finished the regular season at 6-6 and could fit into the I-Bowl’s plans. North Carolina State won its last four games to get to 6-6 and become bowl eligible.

Looks like one thing that won’t be happening in Shreveport is an NCSU-Notre Dame game, which would nbe a rematch of the 2003 Gator Bowl.  Considering the Notre Dame rumors swirling about, I will leave it to you to decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

Update #3: Interesting Scenario from AJC.com

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution;s Tony Barnhardt (aka Mr. College Football) is making some interesting projections with some sound logic behind them:

Eagle Bank: N.C. State (6-6) vs. Navy (7-4): N.C. State coach Tom O’Brien, whose team finished with four straight wins, goes against his alma mater. Navy still has a game with Army on Saturday.

Motor City: Maryland vs. Ball State (12-0). Maryland can’t go to the Eagle Bank on Dec. 20 in Washington, D.C. because it conflicts with exams. Wake Forest can’t go because it played Navy this season. The Big Ten won’t fill its slot in the Motor City so the ACC cuts a deal for the Terps to play a 13-0 Ball State, which faces Buffalo for the MAC championship.

Update #2: News coverage from 12/2

We’ve got two links that focus on the impact of the muddy ACC Bowl picture on the EagleBank Bowl in Washington.

  • The Washington Times discuss the big picture for the bowl in this link.
  • The Wilmington Star talks about the impact related to the Wolfpack in this one.

Some of the speculation regarding Maryland and Wake Forest are echoed by some Wolfpackers on message boards and in our comments section. The question I have for eveyone is — have your forgotten that Miami is in the ACC?

I could be wrong and things could definitely change, but I don’t understand why fans are forgetting Miami’s presence. The Hurricanes don’t have any traveling fans to begin with; and they are limping to the finish line in miserable fashion. They would be a candidate to fall to the league’s last bowl spot regardless of any issues with Wake Forest &/or Maryland. Unless something changes amongst the schools, the bowl, the ACC office and the NCAA then it seems pretty obvious that will be the only logical result for the EagleBowl.

Regardless of the realities of this situation, we encourage you to really rub it to the bowl and conference and go to EagleBankBowl.org and quickly vote for NC State. It can’t do anything but show how much support and excitement exists around NC State football.

Turning the focus to NC State– ESPN is projecting State to head to Detroit for the Motor City Bowl, but ACCNow’s Joe Giglio has just posted a great update on what is going on with the Wolfpack — he says that Pack is working for the PapaJohns.com bowl in Birmingham.

Update #1: Morning news coverage from 12/2

Giglio: ACC now

“By the way, to complete N.C. State’s best-case scenario from yesterday, the Motor City Bowl would the No. 1 choice at this point.

“An unbeaten Ball State will likely be there (with a win over Buffalo in the MAC title game) and State wouldn’t have to worry about competing against an at-large MAC team for the spot.

“For a spot to come open in the Motor City, which is played in Detroit on Dec. 26, Ohio State must be taken as a BCS at-large.”

CO/N&O, Tysiac: Pack Not In ACC Bowls

“The shortage of bowl-eligible teams in the SEC, Big 12 and Pac-10 conferences mean that there might be opportunities for at-large spots in other bowls. Those bowls must take 7-5 teams first, though.

“It appears there will be between two and four open at-large spots for 6-6 teams. N.C. State and Notre Dame are the only 6-6 teams in the BCS without an automatic bowl slot.

“Louisville (5-6, at Rutgers) and Arizona State (5-6 at Arizona) could get to 6-6 this week and occupy additional bowl slots.”

Ovies, 850 The Buzz: So Much For Interpretation

“This silly notion that the NCAA has nothing to do with bowl games is crazy. The NCAA is the body that sanctions, approves and sets eligibility rules for those games. It’s their rule, and a good one at that, that protects teams from getting shut out with 7 or more qualifying wins. With that said, Barry Bonds and O.J. will come clean before State gets left out of the bowl line up.”

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'08 Football

87 Responses to NC State’s Evolving Bowl Picture (Update #7: GT Accepts Peach)

  1. JokersWild 12/01/2008 at 7:22 PM #

    Horse shit

  2. McLovin 12/01/2008 at 7:31 PM #

    Pray for an at-large bid…

    If we don’t make a bowl, I would be willing to bet that the NCAA gets rid of that rule. That always seems to be the trend with our football team. TA’s game-winning touchdown against UNC in Kenan called back even though it WAS a touchdown – helped spur argument for instant replay. The Akron opener a few years ago – one thing that led to changes to the challenging process. 4-letter words are flying through my head…

  3. SEAT.5.F.2 12/01/2008 at 7:46 PM #

    Oh well…WTNY

    The best is even if there is the slightest chance we could be “allowed” by the NCAA to play in a bowl we would get picked over by ND, arguably the worst 6-6 team in history.

  4. Daily Update 12/01/2008 at 7:58 PM #

    Who knows how the rule came about? Wasn’t it because Swofford manipulated the system a few years ago?

  5. highstick 12/01/2008 at 8:00 PM #

    I saw this coming last week, guys, but probably because I live in SC and understood the situation with Clempson.

    We didn’t get screwed, those are the rules. BUT, if we play 2 Div I-AA teams next year, we’re screwing ourselves! Thanks, Lee! Quit scheduling powder puffs and let’s play with the big boys!

  6. ktoh 12/01/2008 at 8:02 PM #

    Very weak indeed!

  7. gopack968 12/01/2008 at 8:24 PM #

    But if Heather is correct, neither of the bottom two 7-5 teams, Wake and Maryland, are eligible for the EagleBank Bowl… so is Navy just going to play with itself?

    SFN: Miami

  8. RBCRowdy 12/01/2008 at 8:26 PM #

    Question? With Wake and Maryland declaring they want no part of the DC bowl then who will play in it? BC cant fall that far (even though the world would like them to).

    SFN: Miami

  9. choppack1 12/01/2008 at 8:27 PM #

    Interesting – so what’s the conference supposed to do if a) UMd says it can’t play and b) Wake is contractually forbidden from playing Navy…and all other spots have been filled?

    We’ll see – we’ve got at least one week of practice.

    This shows what the world would be like if the NCAA ran it – a bureaucratic nightmare where things are given on their twisted since of merit. Think quotas, mandates and ceilings:

    3.5 GPA in nuclear engineering, equals a 3.5 in communication
    Degree from Harvard is the same as a degree from Devry.

    Somehow, I doubt that they handle the hiring practices that way, but that’s the rules they have implemented for the bowl system.

  10. Alpha Wolf 12/01/2008 at 8:39 PM #

    I suspect all the dealing is not said and done. Who knows, maybe some horsetrading can happen.

  11. Pack1998 12/01/2008 at 8:47 PM #

    you can VOTE on the EAGLEBANK BOWL SITE:

    http://www.eaglebankbowl.org/

    There are a lot of things we have to wait for before we find out our bowl situation, but at least we know the bowls want people to come to their city and spend moola . . . so we got that going for us since we travel well. The way we’ve ended the season has every Wolfpack fan excited about watching this team play one more game.

  12. Daily Update 12/01/2008 at 8:48 PM #

    In 2002, Swofford sent 7-5 GT to the Silicon Vally Bowl so that 6-6 Wake Forest could go to an ACC affiliated Seattle Bowl.

    Because of that manipulation, the NCAA created this rule.

    Playing two I-AA doesn’t hurt you unless you only win 4 games against division 1 opponents.

  13. PhilipRiversWannabe 12/01/2008 at 9:00 PM #

    Why can’t Maryland play in the EagleBank Bowl?

  14. PhilipRiversWannabe 12/01/2008 at 9:01 PM #

    Never mind. i just saw that it conflicts with their exam schedule.

  15. RBCRowdy 12/01/2008 at 9:10 PM #

    Is there a no practice period for exams?

    If yes, we would be very short on practice for the bowl game which would minimize the extra practice benefit.

  16. WolftownVA81 12/01/2008 at 9:14 PM #

    Everyone needs to vote on the Eaglebank site. NCSU is leading with 77% of the vote. No close seconds.

  17. choppack1 12/01/2008 at 9:34 PM #

    RBC – in addition to the practicing, it’s also about bragging rights. While we won the state title, it stinks to see 3 of the 4 teams we beat go bowling.

  18. RBCRowdy 12/01/2008 at 9:38 PM #

    choppack1,

    point taken, bowl appearances show tangible results to TOB building a program.

    It looks like OSU and Penn State will both get BCS bowls. This should open up the motor city for sure. If Louisville, us, and Arizona State are all 6-6 who would be the most likely to get the game? I’m from there so there would be at least one State fan at Ford Field the day after Christmas lol.

  19. LRM 12/01/2008 at 9:40 PM #

    Well, in all fairness, we aren’t getting screwed over. All ACC teams played 12 games and were the only one with a .500 record, while all the other ACC bowl-eligible teams are at least 7-5. A few years ago it wouldn’t even have been an issue, we’d be sitting at home for sure.

    I still think we’ll land in a bowl (Independence), but if not, we don’t have much of an argument, considering, especially, how dreadful we played the entire month of September. Maybe that’ll motivate an much-improved team to come out of the gate strong in ’09 so that we’re not in this predicament again.

  20. highstick 12/01/2008 at 9:57 PM #

    Why is Wake contractually forbidden from playing Navy???

    SFN: ACC doesn’t allow re-matches in its bowl tie-ins.

  21. Clarksa 12/01/2008 at 10:09 PM #

    ^there is a clause in Navy’s contract that prevents them from playing rematches…and Wake and Navy played earlier in the year.

  22. LRM 12/01/2008 at 10:09 PM #

    So how about this for a loophole: Boise has apparently shown interest in matching up Boise State and Ball State, which would release the ACC to another bowl, so in that case, could State still go to D.C, Charlotte, or Nashville, while Maryland, Wake or Clemson went to the Independence?

  23. choppack1 12/01/2008 at 10:19 PM #

    LRM – you are correct. We do sound kind of like a bunch of teachers complaining about our pay. We SHOULD have known the deal beforehand. Of course, I don’t think anyone saw the combo of us running the table, Wake beating Vandy and Clempson beating USC. And I didn’t know about that arbitrary NCAA rule designed to punish schools who travel well and/or schedule a little more aggressively. (Speaking of scheduling aggressively doesn’t our schedule next year offer the worst possible scenarios? Two losses to solid BCS programs w/ 2 wins vs. Division 1AA schools? If we play well and have a special record, we’ll be ridiculed for the 2 games versus the AA schools. If we go 2-2 again, we can have a respectable ACC record and be in the same position.)

    Some folks who claim to be in the know on the other board are saying that us to DC isn’t done yet.

  24. drhammondo 12/01/2008 at 10:23 PM #

    As much as I would love to take a trip to Shreveport (Independence Bowl)–I would rather fill the SEC’s 9th slot in Louisville (PapaJohns.com Bowl). This would also set us up for a match up with UConn or rematch with South Florida (which I would love). The Big 12’s slot in the Independence is probably going to get filled in by an at-large also because they will have two teams in the BCS. So unless the Independence Bowl ends up being NCSU v. ND, I would prefer the pizza bowl.

  25. LRM 12/01/2008 at 10:37 PM #

    FYI, the PapaJohns.com bowl is not in Louisville, it’s in Birmingham. It used to be the Hall of Fame Classic, which moved to Tampa, where we lost to MIchigan Jan. 1, 1993; and was then the All American Bowl, where we defeated Brett Farve’s Southern Miss in 1990.

    SFN: LRM…– I think that you are tying together a lot of individual data points that are actually unrelated and I need to throw out some clarification here.

    The PapaJohns.com Bowl didn’t used to be any bowl. It has just simply been the PapaJohns.com Bowl since its inception in 2006.

    The “All American Bowl” was in Birmingham, where PJBowl is now.

    The All American Bowl in Birmingham was in no way affiliated with the “Hall of Fame Bowl” in Tampa (which became the OutBack Bowl the year after State lost to Michigan).

    There was a “Hall of Fame Bowl” in Birmingham at Legion Field in the late 70s through mid 1980s. This is the bowl that moved that moved to Tampa; NOT the “All American Bowl” which died the year we beat Favre and Southern Miss.

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