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Wake Forest Demon Deacons: The Current ACC Bowl Picture

By John Woodcock

Oct 1, 2016; Raleigh, NC, USA; Wake Forest Deamon Deacons receiver Tabari Hines (1) is tackled by North Carolina State Wolfpack defensive back Dravious Wright (8)during the second half at Carter Finley Stadium. The Wolfpack won 33-16. Mandatory Credit: Rob Kinnan-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 1, 2016; Raleigh, NC, USA; Wake Forest Deamon Deacons receiver Tabari Hines (1) is tackled by North Carolina State Wolfpack defensive back Dravious Wright (8)during the second half at Carter Finley Stadium. The Wolfpack won 33-16. Mandatory Credit: Rob Kinnan-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Wake Forest Demon Deacons are one of eleven ACC teams going bowling this off season.

With the Wake Forest Demon Deacons having lost to the Boston College Eagles, it is now fairly easy to project the Atlantic Coast Conference bowl picture in all of its glory. The ACC has a number of bids that it has to fill and the bowls it sends to are listed in two tiers.

The first tier is the Orange Bowl (which gets the ACC Champion) and then the Russell Athletic Bowl. Of course this changes in years where the Orange Bowl is a playoff game (not this year) and there are also at large bids into the New Years Six, but Louisville probably blew that today against Kentucky.

The second tier is where the Belk, Sun, Pinstripe, and Music City or TaxSlayer (formerly Gator) then get to negotiate amongst themselves.

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The third tier is where the Independence, Military, Quick Lane, and St. Pete Bowls get to negotiate amongst themselves.

Finally there is a tie to Birmingham if it does not get another team. Bowls cannot take teams two wins worse than another team to their game. Notre Dame is 4-8 and will not count as a bowl spot this year.

First issue is the ACC Championship which is Clemson vs Virginia Tech. We will pick Clemson as the winner and project on from there.

  1. Clemson 12-1 9-0
  2. Louisville 9-3 7-1
  3. Virginia Tech 9-4 6-3
  4. Florida State 9-3 5-3
  5. North Carolina 8-4 5-3
  6. Miami 8-4 5-3
  7. Pitt 8-4 5-3
  8. Georgia Tech 8-4 4-4
  9. NC State 6-6 3-5
  10. Wake Forest 6-6 3-5
  11. Boston College 6-6 2-6

With eleven eligible teams, the ACC will be able to fill most of its bowls unless there is a playoff team out of the conference. As it just happens, Clemson will likely be that team and make it into the College Football Playoff.

So

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    1. College Football Playoff – Clemson

    Then it gets a bit tricky. It depends on how much freedom the Orange Bowl has. For fan base they would want the Seminoles, but you can see that Louisville has a better conference record by two wins. I think Lamar Jackson (especially if he wins the Heisman) will be enough to soothe their concerns, so I am picking Louisville here on that basis.

    1. Orange Bowl – Louisville

    Now it could potentially get weird. The Citrus Bowl can take an ACC team in years where the Big Ten sends a team to the Orange Bowl. With Michigan or Penn State or Wisconsin or even Ohio State out there, that will probably happen.

    1. Citrus Bowl – Florida State

    If somehow the Citrus does get a Big Ten team, the Seminoles would easily fall to the next spot. If not the Orlando based Russell Athletic Bowl may have offer rental housing to the next team on the list.

    1. Russell Athletic Bowl – Virginia Tech

    Then comes the four games that get to figure things out amongst themselves. This assumes the Taxslayer Bowl in Jacksonville will take an ACC team and not the Music City in Nashville.

    1. Belk Bowl – North Carolina
    2. Pinstripe Bowl – Pitt
    3. Sun Bowl – Georgia Tech
    4. TaxSlayer Bowl – Miami

    For these I tried to be as regional as possible. That may displease the Panthers as it sends them to New York when they might actually have wanted to go a warmer destination. Miami played the Sun Bowl last year and Tech has no natural traveling fan base anyway.

    Now comes the next tier. With Clemson and the Citrus situation the ACC will be a bid short at this point in the process. If that happens then the order of priority goes: Military, Independence, Quick Lane, St. Pete.

    1. Military Bowl – NC State
    2. Independence – Wake Forest
    3. Quick Lane – Boston College

    This again takes proximity into account. State gets to stay relatively local in Washington while Wake ships out to Shreveport and the Eagles get to go to Detroit.

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    So that is the bowl shake out picture. Outside the ACC, East Carolina and Charlotte failed to make bowl eligibility. Duke also did not win enough. That leaves Appalachian State. The Mountaineers will be bowling but the Sun Belt has no particular order other than sending its champion to New Orleans. Don’t worry, the Mountaineers will be going somewhere.

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