Welcome!

By registering with us, you'll be able to discuss, share and private message with other members of our community.

SignUp Now!

Honorary Physicsfactor Bowl Discussion Thread

Welcome to the new normal. Week 8 of the football season and Duke is bowl eligible. The 18th/21st ranked Duke Blue Devils gained bowl eligibility this past weekend in a 4OT thriller against the scrappy, yet not quite there yet Virginia Polytechnical Institute Hokies. The Blue Devils were able to avoid the upset and hold off the Hokies after Tommy Football/Baby Tebow Sirk clawed his way into the endzone for a 2 point conversion.

FSU's last second loss to Georgia Tech redefined the bowl landscape, as the loss drops FSU from a New Years Day Six bowl, consequently dropping the rest of the ACC down a notch in bowl priority. But not much to do there for Duke - just keep winning and somehow the priority will figure itself out.

The ACC affiliated bowls fall into different groups or tiers

CFP: Orange Bowl
New Year's Six (if certain conditions are met): Fiesta or Peach

Russell Athletic Bowl - in its own tier

Tier 1 Bowls: TaxSlayer or Music City, Belk, Pinstripe, and Sun
Tier 2 Bowls: Military, Independence, and Quick Lane

And now it's time for the speculation to happen. This year's bowl selection for the ACC will be incredibly screwy, as the Orange Bowl is hosting one of the CFP semi-finals, taking away an automatic bid for the ACC. Accordingly, we will not get any type of clear picture to the bowl scenario until at least November 8th, but more than likely not until the end of the season. That being said, I will do my best to continue to catalog the bowl predictions from "reputable" news sources.



Enough chatter, here are this week's projections.

ESPN ACC blog - TaxSlayer Bowl (Jacksonville, FL), Jan. 2nd

(ESPN bowl "experts")
Mark Schlabach: Belk Bowl (Charlotte) Dec. 30th v. Tennessee
Brett McMurphy: New Era Pinstripe Bowl (NYC) Dec. 26th v. Wisconsin

Jerry Palm (CBSsports) - Pinstripe v. Nebraska

Phil Steele (updated as of 10/20) - Belk Bowl v. Kentucky

CFN - No updated projections.

AthlonSports (not updated since Week 6) - Military Bowl (Annapolis) Dec. 28th v. Navy

SBNation - Belk v. Auburn (Rollins may die).

Orlando Sentinel (updated as of Oct. 21) - Russell Athletic Bowl (Orlando) Dec. 29 v. Oklahoma State

Syracuse.com (with Patrick Stevens being let go, I believe this site will no longer have ACC bowl projections)

SI.com (updated as of Oct. 22) - Russel Athletic v. West Virginia
 
Duke is a 2.5-point underdog to Indiana in the Pinstripe Bowl to be played in Yankee Stadium, New York, New York, on Saturday, December 26, 3:30 PM Eastern Time, televised on ABC.
 
I’ll try my best here to summarize the lay of the land. There are going to be 10 teams eligible for ACC bowl bids:

Clemson 10-2
UNC 9-3
FSU 9-3
Notre Dame 8-4
Pitt 8-4
NC State 8-4
Duke 8-4
Louisville 7-5
Wake 7-5
Shitacuse 7-5

Nobody will go to the CFP. Clemson or UNC will go to the Orange Bowl. Notre Dame is eligible for everything other than the Orange Bowl and will be able to jump any team other than Clemson.

There are 9 Tier 1 bowls available for the 9 teams that don’t go to the Orange Bowl. That’s the good news. The bad news is some of them are optional. Not sure how that option works, but anyone who can opt for a B1G team over an ACC team this year will do that. So the number of Tier 1 spots that are actually available may be 8 or even 7. Here are the 9 Tier 1 bowls, ranked in order of how attractive I think it is for Duke. The optional bowls are marked with a (*)

1. Gator* (vs. SEC)
2. Reliaquest (Outback)* (vs. SEC/B1G)
3. Duke’s Mayo (vs. B12)
4. Holiday (vs. P12)
5. Sun (vs. P12)
6. Pinstripe (vs. B1G)
7. Cheez-It (vs. B12)
8. Fenway (vs. American)
9. Military (vs. American)

Any of the first 7 are good opportunities for Duke. The other 2 are more tedious, but they are still better than what follows. Here is Tier 2:

10. Gasparilla
11. Birmingham
12. First Responders Bowl

I think it is pretty clear that the UNC/Clemson loser, FSU and Notre Dame will be the first teams picked. After that, there are interesting decisions to be made. Duke is not going to sell tickets outside of Charlotte or NYC, but maybe they have something to offer here as a fresh team with a good young coach and QB?
 
Last edited:
Trying to be realistic here (neither too optimistic nor pessimistic), I come up with:

Orange: Clemson
Gator: Notre Dame
Reliaquest: Nobody
Duke’s Mayo: NC State
Holiday: FSU
Sun: UNC
Pinstripe: Pitt
Cheez It: Louisville
Fenway: Duke
Military: Wake
Gasparilla: Syracuse

Most optimistic is Duke’s Mayo or Holiday. Least optimistic is Gasparilla vs. UConn.
 
Trying to be realistic here (neither too optimistic nor pessimistic), I come up with:

Orange: Clemson
Gator: Notre Dame
Reliaquest: Nobody
Duke’s Mayo: NC State
Holiday: FSU
Sun: UNC
Pinstripe: Pitt
Cheez It: Louisville
Fenway: Duke
Military: Wake
Gasparilla: Syracuse

Most optimistic is Duke’s Mayo or Holiday. Least optimistic is Gasparilla vs. UConn.
If we’re going to play on a baseball field I’d rather it be the Pinstripe than Fenway.
 
The ESPN guys have us either in Charlotte or El Paso. Jerry Palm has us in San Diego.
 
Give me El Paso or SD. I want to play a Pac team. I don’t think we’ve beaten one since the 70s.
 
I guess the Wake game had a real impact on the projections. Before that, Duke was getting Military or Tier 2 while Wake was getting some choice games. Glad to hear that Fenway is probably out.
 
That’s a brutal draw for a Louisville team that came on strong to close the year. Was thinking Wake or Cuse would probably wind up there.

Have a gut feeling we’re going to end up in the Sun Bowl, which would be pretty cool by me.
 
They may have wanted that game. Louisville-Cincinnati is an old forgotten rivalry lost to realignment. Alternatively, they were the only school that didn't care about a conflict with finals. But then what about UNC
 

Chat users

  • No one is chatting at the moment.

Chat rooms

  • General chit-chat 0
  • NCAA Tournament (Non-Duke) 0
  • Duke vs Houston 0

Forum statistics

Threads
1,056
Messages
417,272
Members
623
Latest member
ScheySchey30
Back
Top Bottom