ACC Bowls for 2008

2008 ACC Bowl Predictions

With most ACC teams halfway through their season, it will now be interesting to see the possibilities of where some of these teams may end up. There are a ton of bowls out there for the post season, but where will your favorite ACC team end up…if they go to a bowl at all?

Let’s try to run down some ideas of where the ACC teams may go, and see how this will look a month or two down the road, shall we?

First, we have to get an idea of what bowls the ACC are eligible for:

Fed-Ex BCS National Championship

Ok, let’s go ahead a nip this in the bud…no chance. Now, outside of that the ACC does have a lot of slots available.

BCS Bowl: Available to ACC Champion
Chick-Fil-A Bowl: #2 ACC vs. SEC
Gator Bowl: #3 ACC vs. Big East or Big 12
Champ Sports Bowl: #4 ACC vs. Big 10 #4 or #5
Music City Bowl: ACC #5, #6 or #7 vs. SEC #6 or #7
Emerald Bowl: ACC #5, #6 or #7 vs. Pac 10 #5
Meinike Car Care Bowl: ACC #5, #6 or #7 vs. Big East #3
Humanitarian Bowl: WAC vs. ACC #8
Congressional (Eaglebank) Bowl: Navy vs. ACC #9

I have read on some other sites that the ACC is not going to be able to put 9 teams in the bowls, but let’s see if that is possible. We know there are 12 teams in the ACC, and as of October 12th, every team still has, in THEORY a chance to win enough games to go to the post season. But somehow, we know that’s not really gonna work out.

But we do know that there will be an ACC Championship, and the winner is guaranteed a BCS bowl. I think it is quite likely that the ACC winner will go to the Sugar bowl, because distance also determines where a team may play. Since the Fed-Ex Orange Bowl is the National Championship this year, the ACC will have no part of that. So the next closest place is New Orleans and the Sugar Bowl. To me, it looks like Virginia Tech may be playing either Wake Forest or Boston College. Either way, at this moment it looks like Virginia Tech going to the Sugar Bowl, meaning the loser will be going to the Chick-Fil-A Bowl vs. some SEC team.

I want to say Wake Forest is going to be that team, but I’m not 100% convinced that they can score enough to do that. Right now, I’ll say Boston College might be the surprise for that. But to do that, Wake Forest will have to lose a couple of games in their division, something they have not done yet. But with Boston College traveling TO Wake Forest, that might be in the Demon Deacons’ favor. But just to sound controversial, I will say Boston College loses the ACC Championship and goes to the Chick-Fil-A Bowl.

That means the third place ACC team gets to go to the Gator Bowl against either a Big 12, or Big East, or even Notre Dame. With Notre Dame losing 2 games, they may be out of any chance for a BCS bowl, so they may be going to the highest paying bowl. Here’s a thought, could UNC be that team to play in the Gator Bowl? With 6 games left, I can see them winning at least half of those, maybe even stealing a game. Three losses would look real good to them at the end of the year.

Which could drop Wake Forest to a 4th seed Bowl, that being the Champs Sports Bowl vs. a Big 10 #4 or #5. Think maybe Wisconsin or maybe even Northwestern. I could see Wake Forest going to this bowl if they don’t win their division.

It may get tricky with the next 3 bowls because the Music City Bowl, the Emerald Bowl and the Meinike Car Care Bowl have some options with the 5th, 6th and 7th ACC teams. So now you’d have to ask yourself, who else in the ACC would have qualified for a bowl after Virginia Tech, Boston College, UNC and Wake Forest?

Of those, Florida State might be in trouble, if they don’t count the two Southern Conference teams they beat earlier, then I cannot see them qualifying for a bowl. They’d have to win 4 of 7 games, and I can’t give them the Florida game and maybe not the Virginia Tech game. That means FSU has to win 4-5...I can’t see that.

IF Maryland wins 6, it will be the hard way, and it may ONLY be 6 if they play like they did against Virginia. But I think it is possible for them to get 7 wins. As far as any other teams…it might be true…the ACC can’t put 9 teams in bowl season.

Now I say that with the idea that there are a couple of ACC teams such as Miami and Clemson, and maybe Virginia that has outside shots, but from what I have seen, it don’t look too good. What this may mean is that those bowls will open up for at large teams, but if Maryland is the only one to qualify after the previous ones that I have going to a bowl, I think the Meinike Car Care Bowl will take Maryland because travel isn’t too far for the fans of Maryland. The Emerald Bowl, in San Francisco, could be too much of a stretch to ask fans to travel across the country for a mid card bowl.

So right now, it seems that the ACC might put 5 teams in a bowl; Virginia Tech, Boston College, UNC, Wake Forest and Maryland. There are other teams that could change this, but it might be a stretch. We’ll see how this plays out and update this if we can.