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After the results of this past weekend, NC State’s bowl picture has become substantially clearer, and assuming the Wolfpack takes care of East Carolina this Saturday, it’s likely that a trip to the Camping World Bowl in Florida is in its future.
Here is the latest from Joe Giglio:
ACC bowl projection, in YP form.
— Joe Giglio (@jwgiglio) November 25, 2018
• Filled in what I’ve been told by my sources.
• Sun could go BC, GT or Pitt
• Duke was in Detroit last year
• The 6-6 teams can’t go to Tier I
• The ACC had hoped to avoid Gasparilla b/c of early date but won’t be an option if VT wins pic.twitter.com/rGVl6e8Urn
The big thing to remember is the ACC’s two-win rule; for example, a 7-5 team cannot jump a 9-3 team in the bowl pecking order. (League record and head-to-head are irrelevant.) An 8-4 team could be selected ahead a 9-3 team.
If NC State beats ECU, it will be two wins clear of every other team in the league save Clemson (which is going to the playoffs and doesn’t factor in here at all) and Syracuse. So that would leave Syracuse as the only possible competition for the Camping World Bowl, which gets the first pick of ACC schools that do not make the playoffs or the New Year’s Six.
Pittsburgh could pull to within a win at eight by upsetting Clemson in the ACC title game, but that would automatically put the Panthers in a New Year’s Six bowl, and Clemson would certainly have an at-large place somewhere in there as well. So again, it’s NC State or Syracuse.
If the Pack somehow loses to the Pirates on Saturday, then who the heck knows what that might do, but such a result is highly unlikely. Chances are pretty good we’ll be in Florida this bowl season.