With nine regular-season games down and three to play, Georgia Tech is where many figured the Yellow Jackets wouldn’t be — still alive in their pursuit of the ACC Coastal Division title.
As such, Tech is not entertaining bowl-projection talk.
“My preference would be to win the league championship and play in the Orange Bowl,” coach Paul Johnson said Tuesday.
With two more ACC games plus the Georgia game, Tech’s postseason future is far from clear. However, there is at least one certainty regarding Tech’s path to a spot in the ACC title game in Charlotte, N.C., on Dec. 6. To get there, the Jackets need division-leading Duke to lose two more games and finish with a 5-3 record in the conference.
After Duke’s double-overtime win over Pittsburgh on Saturday, Tech (4-2 in the ACC) lost any chance of being able to tie Duke at 6-2 and win a tiebreaker. If Tech beats N.C. State on Saturday and Clemson in two weeks to finish at 6-2 and Duke, now 3-1, also finishes 6-2, the Blue Devils will earn the spot in Charlotte because of their head-to-head win. If Miami, Duke and Tech all finish at 6-2, the division title would be decided on the second tiebreaker, division record, and Miami would win based on its 5-1 record against Coastal opponents. They are the only Coastal team with two or fewer losses.
The Blue Devils finish with a road game at Syracuse and three home games against Virginia Tech, North Carolina and Wake Forest. A 2-2 finish is not out of the question, but appears unlikely.
“Until (Tech is) mathematically eliminated, we’ve just got to control what we can control and go see if we can win and see what happens,” Johnson said.
Regardless, from a bowl perspective, Saturday’s game at N.C. State could be important. By obtaining an eighth win against two losses, it’s believed that the Jackets could secure their spot in the ACC’s more attractive pool of bowls. Obviously, wins against Clemson and Georgia would only heighten Tech’s appeal.
Asked if Tech was on the radar of the TaxSlayer (formerly Gator) Bowl, bowl president and CEO Rick Catlett replied, “Oh, absolutely they are.”
Tech and the other ACC schools will enter in a new arrangement with the conference and its bowl partners to give both sides more flexibility and to create better matchups.
The ACC champion will play in the Orange Bowl, unless it is selected to play in the College Football Playoff, in which case the game will select the second highest-ranked ACC team, according to the playoff selection committee. The next bowl to pick is the Citrus Bowl, which will take an ACC team if the Orange Bowl selects a Big Ten team to play the ACC representative, which doesn’t seem likely this year.
The Russell Athletic Bowl in Orlando, Fla., has the next selection. After that, the Belk (Charlotte), Sun (El Paso, Texas), Pinstripe (New York), Music City (Nashville, Tenn.) and TaxSlayer (Jacksonville, Fla.) bowls all have equal selection status.
Previously, bowls picked teams in order. In the new setup, bowl representatives will collaborate with each other and the ACC to create the lineup. Geography, avoiding repeat appearances, matchups and the teams’ preferences will be among the criteria.
“We’re really optimistic we can put together some fantastic matchups that previously weren’t contractually possible,” said Michael Strickland, senior associate commissioner for the ACC.
After those selections are made — the Music City and TaxSlayer bowls share one pick — the next tier will be the Military (Annapolis, Md.), Independence (Shreveport, La.) and Quick Lane (Detroit) bowls.
Tech has not had formal discussions with bowl officials yet, although a conference call is scheduled Wednesday for the bowls to make presentations to school officials. TaxSlayer Bowl selection committee members will begin scouting the following weekend, Catlett said.
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