Breaking Down The ACC's New Bowl Lineup and the Big Finish

Brian: Yesterday, the ACC announced their new bowl lineup for the 2010-2013 seasons. Let us break it down in table format:

Gone are the Gator Bowl and the GMAC Bowl. Additionally, if the ACC has nine bowl eligible teams, they have a conditional agreement with the Emerald Bowl to send the #9 ACC selection to San Francisco if either of the bowl’s primary partners aren’t bowl eligible. I personally think that is a good deal for the ACC and better than any pizza bowl or car financing bowl that has served as the ACC bowl safety valve in the past. The Emerald Bowl typically has a decent Pac-10 team that usually draws local fans and schools like BC have a lot of alumni living on the West Coast. I enjoyed going to this bowl in 2003 vs. Colorado State and am glad to see it still in the rotation, if even on a conditional basis.

Love the new ACC bowl lineup? Hate it? Your thoughts?

Jeff: I don't hate it. I love the addition of the Sun Bowl in the #4 slot but I am not exactly thrilled that the Champs Bowl moved up. It essentially just became the Gator Bowl since they're taking a Big East / Notre Dame team in the future and I'd personally much rather watch a game at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium than the Citrus Bowl which is a dump. I was also hoping that in reshuffling the ACC #3 wouldn't be playing a Big East team and could get a high Big Ten team or a decent Big 12 team maybe.

Brian: The lack of Big Ten and Big 12 opponents is definitely something that jumps out at me. Even though the Gator Bowl's bowl tie-ins were ridiculously complicated and hard to understand, at least the ACC had the possibility of playing a Big 12 opponent two out of every four years. Now the best and only shot the ACC has at drawing a Big 12 opponent is the 2013 EagleBank Bowl where the ACC will put up its #8 selection. Try to hold back your excitement.

Jeff: I do like that the Meineke Car Care Bowl jumped the Music City Bowl. The Music City Bowl gets a bad SEC team. And by bad I mean one with a bad record like last year's 6-6 Vanderbilt team.

I also like the addition of the Independence Bowl and its bowl tie-in with the #3 Mountain West team. The MWC will send BYU, TCU, Utah, or Air Force more often than not. I think that's a perfect arrangement for the #7 ACC team to get real excited about each year.

Brian: I'm not thrilled with the addition of the Independence Bowl, but given that this replaces the GMAC Bowl, I guess I'm ok with it. The Mountain West is a better conference tie-in than Conference-USA (for the GMAC Bowl), but Shreveport, Louisiana instead of Mobile, Alabama? Why does it feel like we are going backwards in terms of desirable bowl locations? Also, while I appreciate that the (surely to be renamed) Advocare 100 Independence Bowl has more history than, say, the newly formed EagleBank Bowl, it would have been nice to see the conference reward the EagleBank bowl by moving it up in the bowl pecking order. Even in December, I would imagine a trip to Washington DC is a better reward for a 6-6 season than heading to Shreveport.

Jeff: Any year that the ACC gets two teams into the BCS this agreement is perfect because then it's really the #5 team going to Charlotte and #4 team headed to Orlando. But if we only get one team into the BCS as has been the norm lately, I think the #3 team deserves better than a game against a Big East team several days before New Years Day.

Brian: One final thing that I do like about this deal is there is much less ambiguity as to the bowl pecking order. Under the previous deal, you had a strange #5/#6/#7 arrangement with the Music City, Meineke Car Care and the Emerald Bowl. This arrangement has been replaced with a much clearer order. The ACC runner-up can now no longer fall past the #4 spot (Sun Bowl), instead of the #5 spot (Music City), which is also a welcome addition. If the ACC runner-up falls in the bowl selection order, they are at least rewarded with a bowl against a quality Pac-10 opponent, instead of a crappy SEC opponent in the Music City Bowl.

Big Finish

Brian: Josh Haden speaks out about his decision to transfer from BC. He’s ruled out transferring to an ACC school or a I-AA school. Your best guest as to where he’ll land?

Jeff: Sounds like he's looking for a party school. Arizona State.

Jeff: Rich Gunnell is 236 yards shy of setting the all-time BC receiving record. With 3 regular season games and 1-2 postseason games, does Gunnell get it done?

Brian: This one will be close. He is averaging over 63 yards per game and the Eagles basically have 4 guaranteed games left. But I'll confidently go over. Maybe he even gets all 236 against Maryland.

Brian: The men’s basketball team tips off the 2009-10 basketball season with an exhibition against St. Michael’s on Sunday. Chances St. Michael’s pulls a LeMoyne on BC?

Jeff: 0.25%. That's 1 in 400 for the non-mathematicians.

Jeff: Clemson has already sold out 3 basketball games for this upcoming season. The two obvious sell outs are Duke and North Carolina but the third is (surprise) Boston College. Surprised by the ticket demand for this early January game?

Brian: Surprised? Maybe just a little bit. That's great news for both Clemson and BC.

Brian: Papa Samba Ndao, a five-star, ESPNU 150 power forward recruit from Senegal ($), verballed to BC yesterday. You excited?

Jeff: It's always good to recruit a big man that sounds pretty athletic.

Jeff: Number 2 seeded women’s soccer outlasted Virginia 3-2 in penalty kicks in the quarterfinals of the ACC women’s soccer tournament. Isn’t it high time we give the women’s team some DAP?

Brian: Absolutely. Good luck to the women today as they face North Carolina in the semifinals.

Brian: Last one, BC is off this week, but there is still a pretty important ACC football game being played this weekend in your neck of the woods. Let’s hear a prediction. Who ya got? What’s the final score?

Jeff: I have mentioned several times in the last 4 or 5 weeks that I still think Florida State will get to 5-3 in conference and I'm not backing down from that. I'll say 30-24 FSU wins.

Pick 5

Brian: I've been on a tear of epic proportions the past few weeks (14-1 in my last 3 weeks). This undoubtedly means that I'll go 1-4 or 2-3 this week. All good things must come to an end, right?

• Maryland at NC State (-6.5)
• Troy (-24) at Western Kentucky
  
• Vanderbilt at Florida (-35)
  
• Duke (+10) at North Carolina
  
• Oklahoma (-4.5) at Nebraska
  

Jeff:

• Navy (+12.5) at Notre Dame
  
• Central Florida at Texas (-34.5)
  
• LSU (+7.5) at Alabama
  
• Wake Forest (+14) at Georgia Tech
  
• Florida State (+9.5) at Clemson