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After beating Syracuse on Saturday, NC State is back above .500 and one win away from bowl eligibility. Florida State, Clemson, Miami, Duke, Louisville, Georgia Tech, and Boston College are the ACC teams that have already punched their tickets to a fabulous postseason destination.
There's no consensus about where NC State will end up assuming it joins those seven later this month, but both the Military Bowl and the Quick Lane Bowl pop up in multiple projections for the Pack. Here's a sampling:
| Source | Projected Bowl | Projected Opponent |
| College Football News | Quick Lane (Detroit, MI; Dec. 26) | Northwestern |
| Patrick Stevens (Syracuse.com) | Military (Annapolis, MD; Dec. 27) | [no pick] |
| Dave Miller (National Football Post) | Independence (Shreveport, LA; Dec. 27) | Texas A&M |
| Phil Steele | Military (Annapolis, MD; Dec. 27) | Cincinnati |
| Jason Kirk (SBN) | Military (Annapolis, MD; Dec. 27) | Temple |
| Bill Bender (Sporting News) | Military (Annapolis, MD; Dec. 27) | Cincinnati |
| Jerry Palm (CBS) | Quick Lane (Detroit, MI; Dec. 26) | Temple |
| Brett McMurphy (ESPN) | Quick Lane (Detroit, MI; Dec. 26) | Rutgers |
How does Detroit the day after Christmas grab you? Yeah, that's what I figured. We would have to hope that the Detroit-area Wolfpack alumni association's membership is large and starving to see some football of highly questionable quality.
The Military Bowl would make much more sense logistically for the Wolfpack since it's an easy trip and the game's on a Saturday. Depending on how the last few weeks shake out, it's possible that the Belk Bowl enters the mix for State as well. That would probably stand as the best possible outcome for the Pack fans at this point.
Of the possible opponents listed, only Texas A&M feels like certain defeat--the Aggies would have 50 points by the time they stepped off the bus--but if the choice is A&M or the scattered remnants of the Big East, maybe A&M is still the more fun way to go.
Though if State got Temple and won that game, we could then spend the offseason talkin' about how State > Temple > ECU to all of our Pirates acquaintances. For months we would stump for the legitimacy of the transitive property in college football, then on Sept. 1 of next year totally forget we ever said any of that nonsense.