ACC bowl guide: Sorting through the Orange Bowl process
You have questions about the ACC’s complicated bowl process and I have answers.
Here’s the primer for how the ACC’s bowl order and selection process works.
On with this week’s questions:
What’s going to happen with the Orange Bowl?
The ACC has a guaranteed spot in the Orange Bowl. So if Clemson (10-0) wins out and makes the College Football Playoff, the ACC still gets a team in Miami.
The contract stipulates that, if the ACC champion is unavailable, the Orange Bowl has to take the second-highest ranked team in the CFP poll. But if Clemson is the only ACC team in the rankings, then what?
Wake Forest (7-2) was No. 19 in the initial CFP poll but the Demon Deacons lost at Virginia Tech on Saturday, are a 33-point underdogs at Clemson this weekend and lost top receiver Sage Surratt for the year to a shoulder injury.
The Deacs could finish 9-3 and in the CFP top 25. Virginia Tech (6-3) or Virginia (7-3) could win out and do the same.
The new rankings come out on Tuesday night. The ACC might not have a second team in this week’s poll. If that happens in the final poll, the ACC and Orange Bowl will get together to decide which team will represent the league.
Notre Dame (7-2) can’t take the ACC’s spot. The Fighting Irish, No. 15 in last week’s poll, can face the ACC in the Orange Bowl. The other side of the Orange Bowl is based purely on the CFP rankings. The highest-rated available team from the Big Ten, SEC or Notre Dame gets the spot.
Based on the initial rankings, that would have been No. 10 Florida, since the Big Ten has a contractual obligation to the Rose Bowl and the SEC to the Sugar Bowl.
If Notre Dame is the opponent, the Orange Bowl would certainly want to avoid a regular-season rematch with Virginia or Virginia Tech. So that, in theory, would help Wake Forest or Miami.
Notre Dame is likely to win out and finish 10-2 but will need help to jump the SEC cluster to get the Orange spot. Even if it doesn’t go to Miami, the Irish probably wouldn’t fall into the ACC order. They would likely be ranked high enough to go to the Cotton Bowl.
Can the Belk Bowl get Appalachian State to face an ACC team?
Unfortunately, no. The Mountaineers (8-1), off of their win at South Carolina, might be able to jump the cluster of American Athletic Conference teams at the bottom of the CFP rankings for a spot in the Cotton Bowl.
The highest-rated champion from the “Group of 5” conferences is guaranteed a spot in a “New Year’s 6” game. The Cotton Bowl is the only “NY6” game open this year (the Fiesta and Peach are the CFP semifinal games).
But if App State wins the Sun Belt championship game, and does not rank high enough to be selected for the Cotton Bowl, the only bowl game it can play in is the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl.
The SEC part of the equation is dicey for the Belk Bowl (Dec. 31 in Charlotte) because the league is so top heavy, it could send two teams to the CFP, one to the Sugar and one to the Orange.
The Citrus Bowl in Orlando gets the first choice after the CFP/NY6 process. On the SEC side, the Belk is in a pool with five other games.
Right now, the SEC has six bowl eligible teams. Missouri (5-4) is banned from the postseason and Tennessee (5-5) is the only other 5-win team. There’s a chance the Belk might have to look elsewhere but the hope is either the Volunteers or Kentucky (4-5) will be available.
Virginia Tech and UNC remain the top targets on the ACC side for Charlotte.
How will the ACC treat Virginia Tech’s record?
Virginia Tech is 6-3 but two of its wins are against Football Championship Subdivision (or Division I-AA) opponents (Furman and Rhode Island). The NCAA changed its rules to allow a Football Bowl Subdivision (or Division I-A) team to use one FCS win per year but not two.
So Virginia Tech has to win seven games to become bowl eligible. That also matters because the ACC has a “two-win” rule.
That means an 8-4 team can’t be jumped by a 6-6 in the ACC process. But the ACC will treat Virginia Tech the same way the NCAA does and only count one of the FCS wins.
So if Virginia Tech finishes 8-4, for a example, the ACC would consider that as a 7-4 record for its selection purposes. A 7-win team can be jumped by a 6-win team in the selection process.
NOV. 12 ACC BOWL PROJECTIONS
CFP (Peach Bowl): Clemson vs. Ohio State
Orange (Miami): Virginia Tech vs. Florida
Camping World (Orlando): Virginia vs. Big 12
Belk (Charlotte): UNC vs. Tennessee
Music City (Nashville): Miami vs. Big Ten
Pinstripe (New York): Pittsburgh vs. Big Ten
Sun (El Paso): Wake Forest vs. Pac-12
Military (Annapolis): Louisville vs. American Athletic
Independence (Shreveport): Florida State vs. at-large
Out: Boston College (5-5), N.C. State (4-5), Duke (4-5), Syracuse (3-6), Georgia Tech (2-7)
This story was originally published November 12, 2019 at 2:54 PM.
