Well, either none of you really care about Patriot League basketball or you guys are the most impossible homers on the planet. Most of you picked the good guys to win the conference. You might be rethinking that position after Towson stomped a mudhole in the Mids on Friday night. If you were hoping to think that Towson is really good as a way of easing the sting, that was crushed on Sunday as Niagara carried out a similar mudhole-stomping on the Tigers. The Mids have a lot of kinks to work out before Patriot League play begins.
Anyway, one more weekend down, one more chance for the ACC to screw everything up. More specifically, Wake Forest screwed everything up by losing to North Carolina State. A win would have given the Deacs a 5-2 record in the conference, making it pretty tough for them to fall to the EagleBank Bowl. Instead they’re 4-3 with only Boston College left on their league schedule. The Eagles did their part to avoid RFK Stadium by beating Florida State to get to 3-3. But now either Wake or BC is guaranteed to lose, meaning that one of them will be no better than 4-4. As the two teams most likely to be picked last by the ACC’s bowl games, that means hello, Washington. And hello, rematch.
| ATLANTIC DIVISION | ||||
| School | Conference | Pct. | Overall | Pct. |
| Maryland | 4-2 | .667 | 7-3 | .700 |
| Florida State | 4-3 | .571 | 7-3 | .700 |
| Wake Forest | 4-3 | .571 | 6-4 | .600 |
| Boston College | 3-3 | .500 | 7-3 | .700 |
| Clemson | 3-4 | .429 | 5-5 | .500 |
| NC State | 2-4 | .333 | 4-6 | .400 |
| COASTAL DIVISION | ||||
| School | Conference | Pct. | Overall | Pct. |
| Miami | 4-2 | .667 | 7-3 | .700 |
| Georgia Tech | 4-3 | .571 | 7-3 | .700 |
| North Carolina | 3-3 | .500 | 7-3 | .700 |
| Virginia Tech | 3-3 | .500 | 6-4 | .600 |
| Virginia | 3-3 | .500 | 5-5 | .500 |
| Duke | 1-5 | .167 | 4-6 | .400 |
Of course, that assumes that Virginia wins a game to become bowl eligible. They have Clemson and Virginia Tech left to play, so it’s no guarantee. If they don’t win, then the ACC won’t have 9 eligible teams. The EagleBank Bowl will then have to turn elsewhere. Originally it was reported that “elsewhere” meant the MAC, but that may not be the case. Reports from back in April that the MAC was the guaranteed replacement if the ACC did not field 9 eligible teams were premature. The EagleBank Bowl will instead pick from all at-large candidates. A smart move, really, since a MAC team will still be there if you really want one.
So what might be available? Notre Dame becoming bowl eligible shakes up the Big East a bit. Including the Irish, the Big East has 6 teams eligible. Rutgers will become team #7 with a win over Army this weekend. Louisville is also one win away, but needs to beat either Rutgers or West Virginia to get there. With only 6 Big East bowl tie-ins, someone should be left hanging.
The Big Ten has 7 bowl partners and 7 eligible schools. Illinois can become #8, which would leave someone hanging there, too. If a second team from the conference is selected for a BCS game, though, there won’t be anyone left out.
Conference USA probably won’t have anyone left over. The MAC might have one or two.
So the question for this week is the same as the question two weeks ago, only expanding beyond ACC choices. Who do you want to play in the EagleBank Bowl? I don’t even know how realistic some of these are, but who cares? Pick anyway.
The Birddog 
LOL Towson.
I agree with 73Goat – but just so it won’t be a rematch, and to allow us to get revenge/redemption – our football team should play their basketball team.
I should’ve put Virginia on the poll too, since they’re still my first choice. I just don’t think anyone will pick Wake or BC before them.
Since you’re assuming that UVA (if eligible) will be selected over BC and Wake, should we be rooting for Clemson to beat UVA and South Carolina and then for UVA to beat Va Tech? Or does that still put us in the same spot between BC and Wake? Amazing that even with the “BC” rule, a 6-6 UVA team could get a better bid than a 9-3 BC team (since they would only be one game up in the ACC standings).
That still leaves the bowl with a choice between Wake and BC. It might be better to root for Virginia to lose and grab an at-large.
This is all assuming that Wake and BC drop. Maybe that’s not a good assumption to make, but it’s usually how things play out.
Does the Eaglebank bowl not have some kind of policy against rematches, like the Poinsetta bowl claimed to have?
That still leaves the bowl with a choice between Wake and BC
You don’t think Chet hasn’t bent their ear to let them know we really don’t want to play Wake again? I’d rather play UVA but BC wouldn’t bother me as much as playing Wake (or Duke) again would.
I would think Meineke would take Wake over Virginia. Also, does the ACC have a policy on no rematches? That could be an out as well.
The problem is that I don’t think we’ll have a choice. All the other ACC bowl games pick before the EagleBank Bowl, so if the ACC has 9 eligible teams, we get whichever one is left. Last guy picked on the playground.
This doesn’t take into account whatever wheeling and dealing can happen behind the scenes, of course. But I don’t know what leverage the DC Bowl has to make a deal with anyone.
Didn’t Wake go to Charlotte last year? Otherwise I’d agree with you.
Mike, if Wake wins then they will be 5-3, not 4-4, right? Would that possibly move them out of the way?
Yeah, but then Boston College finishes no better than 4-4. I don’t want to play BC either.
Mike, of course. Neither do I. But that would at least make the odds a little better since there are other teams that could be floating around at the 4 win level.
Oh, and as for what team I would want to play…Illinois is DEFINITELY not it. Akron, mayhaps. :)
Maybe I am missing something, but the ACC appears to be guaranteed of having 9 eligible bowl teams. 8 teams are now eligible with two 5-5 teams that have to play each other, so one of them will get 6 wins.
4-4 teams can be chosen ahead of 5-3 teams, though.
If BC finishes 3-5 and UVA wins a game, then it’ll definitely be BC.
No rematches or frequent opponents. Want no part of Illinois (what they did to Mizzou defenense), Wisconsin or the MAC teams.
Kind of a toss up for me between Northwestern and USF. I’d kind of like to play a Big East team again, so it’s USF, although I can understand the draw of playing an academic school like NW.
Clemson needs 7 wins to get bowl eligible since they played two I-AA schools.
Man, I’m opposite of you guys. My first pick is Virginia because it’s good for nostalgia and good for the bowl. After that, I’d play USC if they’d let us. I’m all about the reasonable schedule during the season, but once we get to a bowl game I generally hope to play the best team possible.
Mike, I am all for Virginia Tech for the same reasons, though the history in the rivalry is not nearly as big. But if it is not possible then I would want someone like Buffalo, South Florida, or some other team that Navy has never played before.
UVa or Va Tech would be great from the ACC.
If they’re not available, I’m for Minnesota so I can hear a bunch of football fans that talk funny, and I don’t think Navy has ever played them.
EKW JR, once in 1962 and Navy lost 0-21.
I want UVA first, then Northwestern. Although I like the idea of Minnesota.
I want no part of USF or Wisconsin.
Then we need to get even!
Bring on the Golden Gophers!
Most of these are pipe dreams, but who knows.
Agree with 86…
No USF. The Rutgers of Florida. Thugs.
No Wisconsin. Too big. We would get mashed.
I am still hoping for UVA. It’s a winnable game against a major (in name at least) opponent. It is also a matchup that we have not seen recently and won’t in the future, and it should be a nice crowd.
I say no to VA tech – their defense is wicked insanely good. The VA Tech-Miami game was a defensive shootout – their defense makes Pitt and ND defenses look like pee wee football. Agree on no USF – we dont need any more thuggery and Wisconsin would be a huge mismatch in size. Minnesota is intriguing and UVA would be best from a regional draw perspective. The ACC has been really tough to make heads or tails of this year with the way the teams have been matching up against each other. We probably wont know until they figure out amongst themselves who is going to the ACC Championship game – and that is a toss up at this point.
Mike,
The two ESPN predictors are both saying it will be Virginia. I hope they are right:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/bowlprojection?season=2008&week=12
I put down Northwestern as I like to play the “academic” schools and their also from the Big 10, a conference Navy doesn’t play against all that much (ND being the “12th” member notwithstanding).
If Clemson gets to 7-5, no chance they fall to DC?
I don’t think so, with their reputation for travel. It’d be awesome if they did, though.