According to SI's Stewart Mandel, the Peach Bowl has announced that it will select the ACC Championship Game runner up. No surprise there. And not that BC was going to the Peach Bowl or anything (actually impossible this year given the ACC's one-loss rule), but that does free up the Champs Sports Bowl and others to get moving and zero in on the ACC team of their choice.
After the Peach Bowl, the Champs Sports Bowl is on the clock. Mandel breaks down the current thinking of the Champs Sports Bowl selection committee in his latest bowl projections:
"The ACC's entire lineup is becoming almost impossible to predict. It starts with the uncertainty regarding the Champs Sports Bowl, which holds the third pick and is deciding between NC State and Maryland. If it goes with the Wolfpack (as I expect), the Terps, plagued by poor home attendance this season, may fall all the way to the ACC's eighth pick, the Military Bowl in nearby Washington D.C."
The Champs Sports Bowl is also apparently heavily courting Notre Dame which would pretty much rule out BC. Mandel further writes that the Sun Bowl is still taking a good luck at Miami, despite the ouster of head coach Randy Shannon.
Block-C is reporting that Clemson will be headed to the Meineke Car Care Bowl, so Charlotte is out.
That leaves the four options for the Eagles -- Music City (Nashville), Independence (Shreveport), Military (Washington DC) or Kraft Fight Hunger (San Francisco). With the local Meineke Car Care Bowl off the table, the Music City will likely take 7-5 North Carolina. And if the Champs Sports Bowl selects 8-4 N.C. State, which my guess is it will, that would send 8-4 Maryland all the way down the ACC bowl pecking order to the hometown Military Bowl. We feel your pain, bro.
It looks like BC's bowl options are now down to two -- the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl in San Fran, or the Independence Bowl in Shreveport. If its Louisiana, BC would face an 8-4 Air Force team. If it's the Kraft Fight Hunger, it's looking like BC's opponent would be either Nevada or Boise State.
Mandel further confirms the deal that the WAC is trying to broker between Nevada, Boise State and the Las Vegas Bowl.
"Various parties are trying to broker a deal to send either 11-1 Nevada or 10-1 Boise State to face 10-2 Utah in the Maaco Las Vegas Bowl. The Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl gets first pick of the two and favors the Broncos, but Nevada fans have been heavily lobbying the San Francisco game to take the Wolfpack -- and Boise fans have been lobbying it to let them go."
The Las Vegas bowl pays out a little more ($1.3 mil) than the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl ($750,000), so it would be in the conference's best interest to get a deal done.
So San Francisco on January 9, anyone? Or December 27 against Air Force in Shreveport, Louisiana? Yeesh.