Duke, UNC will play without Dickie V

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Heels upset win cost the ACC

BCS bowl projections:

National championship: Florida vs. Texas Rose: Iowa vs. Oregon Orange: Georgia Tech vs. Penn State Sugar: Alabama vs. Cincinnati Fiesta: USC vs. TCU

North Carolina's win, and USC's loss, cost the ACC a real shot at $4.5 million.

NCAA rule might limit State's bowl options

ACC bowl partners in Charlotte or Washington might want to invite N.C. State to their games, but the NCAA might not allow it.

Under ACC rules, N.C. State can play in any of the conference's bowl tie-ins except the Orange Bowl. Under a relatively new NCAA rule, N.C. State could end up left out of the conference bowl lineup and perhaps any bowl altogether.

The Wolfpack finished the regular season 6-6 overall, the minimum number of wins for bowl eligibility. However, the Pack is 4-4 in the ACC, which is either tied with or within one game of the nine other ACC bowl-eligible teams, and that technically opens the door from Atlanta (Chik-fil-A Bowl) to Washington (EagleBank Bowl) for the Wolfpack.

Another bowl season, more ACC struggles

So far, it's one step forward and three steps back, as usual, for the ACC this bowl season.

In the conference's perpetual pursuit of national respect in college football, Clemson's Music City Bowl win over Kentucky stands as the only circle on the ACC's scorecard, cluttered with losing squares around North Carolina, Miami and Boston College.

Of course, the Tigers already did enough damage by losing to a different 7-5 SEC team (South Carolina) before the ACC championship game. Beating a 7-5 Kentucky team that finished 3-5 in the SEC merely avoided further embarrassment for the ACC rather than establish any claim to inter-conference dominance.

Tigers suddenly an overnight success

CLEMSON

At 1-2 in the ACC, it looked like Clemson had promoted the doltish gym teacher (Dabo Swinney) from "Glee," which qualified as only a slight upgrade from the prodigal son (Tommy Bowden) from "Dynasty."

After a fourth straight win, three in the ACC, Swinney looks like a revelation, maybe even in the same zip code as the Tigertown demigod himself, Danny Ford. The Tigers need only to beat two galactically flawed teams, N.C. State and UVa, to play for their first ACC title since 1991.

Tar Heels lose most in bowl shuffle

The bowl business is fluid and confusing, but the big loser in Gator Bowl's power play for Florida State stands to be North Carolina.

Last Saturday's loss to N.C. State cost North Carolina a bowl trip to Florida, and the fine print also could cost the Tar Heels a trip out of their home state.

A clause in the Gator and Champs Sports bowls' contracts with the ACC allows both games to pass on the loser of Saturday's conference championship game between Clemson and Georgia Tech. In essence, the clause offers those games a loophole for the ACC's "one-win" rule protecting bowl-eligible teams from getting leapfrogged by teams with two fewer league victories.