...here's a quick guide into the actual matchups in the ACC's bowl games this season:
ADVANTAGE ACC
Champs Sports Bowl - Florida State (8-4, ACC #4 of 12) vs. Wisconsin (7-5, Big Ten #6 of 11)
Music City Bowl - Boston College (9-4, ACC #3 of 12) vs. Vanderbilt (6-6, SEC #6 of 12)
Chick-fil-A Bowl - Georgia Tech (9-3, ACC #2 of 12) vs. LSU (7-5, SEC #7 of 12)
DISADVANTAGE ACC
Emerald Bowl - Miami (7-5, ACC #7 of 12) vs. California (8-4, Pac 10 #4 of 10)
PapaJohns.com Bowl - NC State (6-6, ACC #10 of 12) vs. Rutgers (7-5, Big East #4 of 8)
Gator Bowl - Clemson (7-5, ACC #9 of 12) vs. Nebraska (8-4, Big XII #6 of 12)
RELATIVELY EVEN
EagleBank Bowl - Wake Forest (7-5, ACC #8 of 12) vs. Navy (8-4, Independent); Navy won the regular season meeting
Meineke Car Care Bowl - North Carolina (8-4, ACC #5 of 12) vs. West Virginia (8-4, Big East #3 of 8)
Humanitarian Bowl - Maryland (7-5, ACC #6 of 12) vs. Nevada (7-5, WAC #3 of 9)
Orange Bowl - Virginia Tech (9-4, ACC #1 of 12) vs. Cincinnati (11-2, Big East #1 of 8)
So the ACC should go 3-3 with 4 other question marks based strictly on matchups. If the "even" matchups all break the ACC's way (and they haven't as we've already seen), the league should go 7-3 in bowls. If the "even" matchups all go to hell (and they haven't as we've already seen), the ACC is looking at 3-7. So there's your window: 7-3 and above means a rousing success, 3-7 or worse means disaster. 4-6 is disappointing but not necessarily cause for panic. 6-4 or 5-5 is OK but not something to plaster all over the 2009 media guide. Naturally, one of the "Advantage ACC" games could very well result in an upset, just as one of the "Disadvantage ACC" contests could surprise. But it all comes back to the matchups as a whole. 7-3 is the mark to hit for glory and honor and all that crap.
2 comments:
Wow. UNC and Miami really crapped away the ACC being 4-0 in bowl games on Saturday. SO close yet so far away. Can a coach be fired solely for running a terrible 2 minute offense in a bowl game? the last 200 seconds of that Miami game looked like a drunk coaching staff with drunk middle school players. So very terrible... The timeout with 12 seconds left the ball on the 45 and the clocked stopped was the coach puking on one of the players as they were puking icing on the cake.
I've seen bad clock mgmt but that Emerald Bowl was something else altogether. Now I have yet more reasons to be skeptical of Randy Shannon.
Can't fault UNC much for losing to WVU...Pat White had the game of his career, although UNC's defense aided that quite a bit. Still, 31-30 is as close as it gets.
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