Belk Bowl: Arkansas Razorbacks and Virginia Tech Hokies
The Belk Bowl has secured a good matchup including the ACC runner-up Virginia Tech Hokies.
Of all the events that left the state of North Carolina involving college sports, pretty much only the Belk Bowl remains. This game will be played at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte on December 29. The teams involved will be the Virginia Tech Hokies of the ACC and the Arkansas Razorbacks of the SEC. Even that matchup was made based on the peculiar place the bowl found itself in.
First the Hokies. Virginia Tech would be not be in the Belk Bowl if the ACC Championship had remained in Charlotte. The reason for that is simple, the bowl would not have brought back a team who had just played in the stadium several weeks before. This was the same logic for the Orlando folks passing on the Hokies in the Russell Athletic Bowl.
With two teams with big traveling fan bases, the Belk Bowl is well positioned to sell out all of its tickets despite any latent issues regarding North Carolina HB2. The HB2 legislation was the impetus for the exodus of many college events from the state.
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So it is a good matchup moneywise, but what about the football? This will be one of those matchups favored by football traditionalists. Both Hokies and Razorbacks emphasize power football and stopping the run. The result should be a close grinding affair. There should be suspense until the very end.
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The Hokies sort of surprised the ACC by their quick rise under new coach Justin Fuente. They may have caught North Carolina in bad weather but did real work on the rest of the Coastal Division. There was only an odd loss to Syracuse to scratch heads over. They finished up by pushing Clemson to the very limit in the Championship game.
Arkansas has had its share of high scoring affairs and shutdowns this season. Rawleigh Williams III had 1300 yards of rushing and Austin Allen was over 3,000 passing on the year. In a down SEC year it is harder to measure Arkansas, particular after their season ending loss to Missouri. Brett Bielema brings it when it counts and he’ll have some sort of plan.
If you discount the Belk Bowl, remember that Dak Prescott used the game to launch a big NFL rookie season.