BCS
Path: We control our destiny. Win the division. Win the ACC Championship Game. Go to the Orange Bowl.
Outlook: This is a long shot but given how beatable most of the ACC has looked, this could still happen. We have a the best defense in the division, which makes winning the Atlantic possible. Then it is just a matter of beating the Coastal winner.
Gator
Path: We have to finish in the top of the conference yet not win the ACCCG.
Outlook: Forget it. Not going to happen. Our poor showing in Jacksonville hurts. Notre Dame looking good enough to qualify makes it worse. If the Irish are selected the Gator Bowl will not want a rematch of the regular season (that eliminates a promising UNC team from contention too).
Chickfila (Peach)
Path: We have to finish in the top of the conference yet not win the ACCCG.
Outlook: Not this year. As an Atlanta resident, I keep holding out hope that the Peach will select us knowing that the SEC team will sell the game out regardless of the ACC team. We have one problem though this year...Georgia Tech is looking good. Local politics dictate that the Peach selects the Jackets every once in a while. Now -- with a new coach that has folks fired up -- is as good a time as any. Even if the Jackets struggle down the stretch we would be the 6th or 7th preferred choice for this bowl.
Champs
Path: Solid conference record with enough of a standings buffer over teams with a better travel reputations (see 2007).
Outlook: Decent. Don't rule this out yet. We travel better than Wake. Georgia Tech went to this game a few years ago and sold fewer tickets than us. Miami doesn't look like it will be high enough in the ACC pecking order. So it really comes down to BC, Maryland, Clemson, UNC, Florida State and Virginia Tech. A few of those will be selected to the better bowls. I think we brought enough people last year to be considered again.
Meineke Car Care
Path: Middle of the road ACC record.
Outlook: Will not happen. Clemson, UNC or Wake will be available and taken before us. Georgia Tech would also be taken before us for this game as well.
Music City
Path: Middle of the road ACC record.
Outlook: Decent. We'll get here one of two ways. 1. Our conference record doesn't allow us to fall any further. 2. The other teams left have poor travel reps too (Miami, Wake, Duke even).
San Francisco
Path: 4-4 or worse ACC record.
Outlook: Probable. Not ideal but better than Boise. Plus we have plenty of fans in California who rarely get to see the team in person.
Humanitarian (Boise)
Path: 4-4 or worse ACC record.
Outlook: This is where going previously comes into play. I don't think they would select us because of the various brouhahas during the last trip. So indirectly we owe thanks to Meterparel, the Boise booster who mocked Kiwi, and the BC alum who fired off a nasty letter to the bowl organizers.
Eagle Bank (Washington D.C.)
Path: 4-4 or worse ACC record.
Outlook: It could happen. I really think they want Maryland. We would only be the default choice.
Reminder: BC still needs two more wins to be bowl eligible.
On the off chance we don't go to a BCS bowl...and since there's 0.000000% that the Peach will ever voluntarily take us...
ReplyDeleteI like the Music City Bowl as a viable alternative...mainly because it's within driving distance of tATL!
I agree with bcmike - I like the Music City because it's ACC v. SEC and we haven't been there since we beat Georgia in 2001.
ReplyDeleteI also like the Champs - someday the Peach Chickfila - and of course the BCS - Orange Bowl. Having gone to the ACCCG last year, you can have Jacksonville - it's for the birds. This is the last year for Boise, thank goodness - so let's hope we dodge that stinker. Even if everyone has a good time, etc. - it's cold weather and we have NOTHING to gain.
Charlotte won't happen and San Francisco is too far to travel over the Christmas break, in my opinion.
Washington only if we have a bad year.
Of course above all, we have to get to the ACC Championship - and win it.
ReplyDeletequestion... ACC.com has us as either the 8pm game on espn or the 8pm game on espn2 for Virginia Tech. If we are the 8pm game on ESPN doesn't this mean we're the primetime game and thus get college gameday????
ReplyDeleteI don't think BC will get GameDay. Michigan State hosts Ohio State, and that game is already picked up by ABC, I bet you they go to East Lansing, especially if Sparty beats Northwestern this weekend. They haven't done a show from a Big Ten campus yet this year.
ReplyDeleteI think its time we collectively as a fanbase drop our desire to go to the Gator Bowl. True its got a name, and true it probably puts us up against a Michigan or an Illinois or a Penn State in any give year, but who cares anymore.
ReplyDeleteWe've seen Jacksonville. I don't know anyone that wants to go to Jacksonville. Nashville sounds like a better trip, and Tampa and Orlando are certainly better trips. Atlanta is a city worth seeing. Let's forget them, they dog us every year, and we get upset about not going to Jacksonville, a whoop-dee-doo city if there ever was one.