ACC title game loser's bowl stock will plummet

By Doug Roberson

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The winner of Saturday’s ACC Championship game will play in the Orange Bowl.

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Johnny Crawford, jcrawford@ajc.com Georgia Tech kicker Scott Blair celebrates his winning kick against Clemson in early September. The Jackets and Tigers meet again Saturday for the ACC Championship Game, with the winner earning a spot in the Orange Bowl. The loser won't be quite as excited about their bowl.

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But to which bowl will the loser go? What will be the reward for months of work?

There’s no easy answer, but the bottom line is either Georgia Tech or Clemson might be unhappy when the bowl invitations are announced Sunday.

It’s possible that the Yellow Jackets or Tigers could fall all the way to the Music City Bowl in Nashville, which gets the fifth choice of ACC teams.

How could a 10-3 Tech team end up in non-New Year’s Day bowl? First, it would have to lose to Clemson in the championship game. From there it gets murky.

The Chick-fil-A Bowl gets the second pick of ACC teams after the Orange Bowl completes its obligation of taking the conference winner.

The Chick-fil-A contract with the ACC states that it if it doesn’t take the remaining team with the best conference record, it can take a team that’s within one win. Therefore, it could take Virginia Tech instead of Georgia Tech. Because Georgia Tech lost to LSU in last year’s Chick-fil-A Bowl, and because historically bowls prefer to not have the same team participate in consecutive years, the Jackets could be bypassed.

The Gator Bowl is up next, but it has made it known that it would prefer to select Florida State and its retiring coach Bobby Bowden. The bowl has a clause in its contract that allows it to pass on the ACC championship game loser three out of four years. It selected Tech in 2006, satisfying that clause.

The Champs Sports Bowl gets the next pick. Its contract also has the “once-in-four-years” rule, and the bowl took Boston College in 2007. The Jackets last played there in 2004, defeating Syracuse 51-14. However, the bowl might be more inclined to take Miami because of geographic proximity. The Hurricanes haven’t played there since 1998.

The Music City Bowl gets the next pick and is contractually obligated to take the ACC’s runner-up, should it fall that far.