We won’t take the time to reset the entire bowl process here since we have touched on it in past entries, but over the last few days we have become more and more hopeful/expectant that the NC State Wolfpack would fall into the ACC’s slot in the Belk Bowl in Charlotte on December 30th. It was all set up nicely and cleanly. In short, the way that affiliations and college football rankings were shaping up it appeared as though Louisville had a high likelihood of heading to the Citrus Bowl. That created a nice clean group of five ACC teams eligible for the ACC’s five “Tier One Bowls” — Clemson, Notre Dame, Duke, Boston College and NC State ultimately therefore available for slotting in the Russell Athletic, Sun Bowl, Music City Bowl, Pinstripe Bowl and Belk Bowl.Everything was falling into place for EVERYONE as it looked like the top part of the ACC’s bowl order was going to fall into place as follows:
Orange – Georgia Tech
Citrus – Louisville
Russell Athletic – Clemson
Music City – Notre Dame
Belk – NC State
Sun/Pinstripe – Duke/BC
Somehow or another — without even playing — Mississippi State managed to jump Michigan State in the final CFP Rankings….which serves to completely screw the Atlantic Coast Conference and drops Louisville from the Citrus. You can see a little more about this here.
There are some notable changes here that affect the bowl order. The biggest one comes from one of the two teams that jumped the farthest. Mississippi State and Ole Miss both shot up three places in the rankings despite not playing a game. Ole Miss’ move simply puts them into the New Year’s Six bowls, which is good for everyone else in the SEC, because it pushes everyone one place higher (more or less) in the pecking order. But in Mississippi State’s case, the jump moved them past Michigan State — which will cascade down the bowl pairings for the SEC, the ACC and the Big Ten. But first, the pairings.
Mississippi State going to the Orange Bowl instead of another playoff-aligned bowl is huge, because it means that the Citrus Bowl will take a B1G team instead of an ACC team. That essentially moves every member of the Up North Conference up one place in their bowl order, and knocks everyone in the ACC down a place.
It could also reshuffle the SEC’s order even more. Georgia would not have gone to the Citrus Bowl if an ACC team had gone, because that ACC team almost certainly would have been Clemson. Now, the Citrus will take a B1G team — and as long as that team isn’t Nebraska, Georgia is a likely candidate for the SEC’s berth. Missouri could then end up in the Outback, for example. The Tigers won’t fall far, because Slive has grumbled in the past about SEC Championship Game losers dropping, going so far as to put in a “safety net” for those teams in recent years. The conference doesn’t technically control the Citrus Bowl’s selection, but it does control the Outback’s.
But that’s the other part of the uncertainty here. This is the first time the conference office has dictated bowl destinations for a lot of the teams. There might be another curveball or two coming before the day is out.
The result of that means that the ACC now has SIX teams for only FIVE ‘Tier I’ bowls. It also means that one of the ACC’s ‘Tier II’ teams — Miami, UNC VT, or Pitt – will be left without a bowl and will suddenly need to scramble to find a spot outside of the ACC’s Bowls. (Does ANYONE want to wager on the likelihood that SOMEHOW it won’t be UNC that has to scramble to find a spot? Welcome to the ACC, Pitt!!!
Clemson is heading to the Russell Athletic. So, that means there are five teams for four ‘Tier I’ bowls. Because of records, Louisville, Duke and Notre Dame are now locked into three of the ACC’s four Tier One Bowls…meaning that only one spot now exists for either NC State or Boston College in the Tier I pool of bowls.
Another thing to consider is the ultimate impact of all of this to the Tier II Bowls. Not only were the Tier I’s probably pretty set…but the Tier II’s had their match-ups lining up. This throws it all into chaos for everyone. I’d honestly be surprised if all of this is actually sorted out by the ACC’s 5:30 Bowl Announcement Show.
Dear God. Madness.
Does ANYONE want to wager on the likelihood that SOMEHOW it won't be UNC that has to scramble to find bowl spot? Welcome to the ACC, Pitt!!!
— statefansnation (@statefansnation) December 7, 2014
