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With news that Michigan State jumped Mississippi State in the penultimate College Football Playoff rankings, the websites that update these sort of things mid-week all hopped off the BC-to-Military-Bowl train and on the BC-to-Pinstripe-Bowl one.
That's because with the Citrus Bowl opening up, the conference now has four Tier I bowl eligible teams available for four Tier I bowls. Nice and neat. Once again, here's how this thing works:
Tier 1
College Football Playoff -- CFP top 4
Orange Bowl, Miami -- ACC Champ or top-ranked, non-playoff team
Citrus Bowl, Orlando -- ACC #2 if a Big Ten team plays in the Orange Bowl
Russell Athletic Bowl, Orlando -- ACC #2, or ACC #3, if Citrus Bowl takes an ACC team
Eligible ACC teams: Florida State (12-0), Georgia Tech (10-2), Clemson (9-3), Louisville (9-3), Duke (9-3)
Tier 2
Gator Bowl, Jacksonville, OR Music City, Nashville -- ACC #3-6, selected equally (the other bowl will select from Big Ten)
Belk Bowl, Charlotte -- ACC #3-6, selected equally
Sun Bowl, El Paso -- ACC #3-6, selected equally
Pinstripe Bowl, Bronx -- ACC #3-6, selected equally
Eligible ACC teams: Clemson (9-3), Louisville (9-3), Duke (9-3), Boston College (7-5), N.C. State (7-5), Notre Dame (7-5)
Tier 3
Military Bowl, Annapolis -- ACC #7
Independence Bowl, Shreveport -- ACC #8
Quick Lane Bowl, Detroit -- ACC #9
BITCOIN Bowl, St. Petersburg -- ACC #10
Birmingham Bowl, ACC #11 (conditional, but has already been filled this year by its primary conference affiliation, the AAC)
Eligible ACC teams: Miami (6-6), North Carolina (6-6), Pittsburgh (6-6), Virginia Tech (6-6)
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Here are this week's projections:
ESPN (Brett McMurphy): Pinstripe Bowl vs. Rutgers Scarlet Knights (12/27)
ESPN (Mark Schlabach): Pinstripe Bowl vs. Penn State Nittany Lions (12/27)
ESPN (David Hale): Pinstripe Bowl (12/27)
SBNation.com (Jason Kirk): Gator vs. South Carolina Gamecocks (1/2)
CBSSports (Jerry Palm): Pinstripe Bowl vs. Penn State Nittany Lions (12/27)
Phil Steele: Pinstripe Bowl vs. Penn State Nittany Lions (12/27)
Scout.com: Sun Bowl vs. Stanford Cardinal (12/27)
Syracuse Post-Standard (Patrick Stevens): Quick Lane Bowl (12/26)
College Sports Madness: Quick Lane Bowl vs. Minnesota Golden Gophers (12/26)
The Sporting News (Bill Bender): Military Bowl vs. Memphis Tigers (12/27)
Athlon Sports (Steve Lassan): Pinstripe Bowl vs. Penn State Nittany Lions (12/27)
Sports Illustrated (Zac Ellis): Military Bowl vs. UCF Knights (12/27)
FOX Sports (Stewart Mandel): Sun Bowl vs. Arizona State Sun Devils (12/27)
Orlando Sentinel (Brant Parsons): Pinstripe Bowl vs. Iowa Hawkeyes (12/27)
NFL.com (Mike Huguenin): Pinstripe Bowl vs. Maryland Terrapins (12/27)
al.com (Mike Herndon): Pinstripe Bowl vs. Penn State Nittany Lions (12/27)