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- It set off a chaotic chain of events during several hours Sunday that affected more than 20 teams’ bowl destinations and ended with a top-20 Notre Dame team headed for El Paso.
-it was assumed that the loser of the Ohio State-Michigan game would play in the Orange Bowl as the highest-ranked available team from the Big Ten or SEC. But when Alabama upset Georgia in the SEC Championship Game, it meant the Dawgs, not the Buckeyes, landed in Miami. That in turn triggered an unusual clause in the leagues’ contracts that turned the ReliaQuest (formerly Outback) Bowl from an ACC bowl to a Big Ten bowl. The Irish, who can play in any ACC bowl in their agreement with the conference, had been the Tampa game’s presumed pick, but that was no longer an option.
- It was widely assumed that Louisville would be on the other side of the Orange Bowl, win or lose in the ACC title game.
But with no ACC team in the Playoff, that conference landed only one New Year’s Six team, turning Louisville into a bowl free agent.
And with Louisville now out, No. 11 Ole Miss unexpectedly landed the SEC a fourth New Year’s Six berth, sending a ripple through that conference’s lineup that left the SEC-affiliated Duke’s Mayo Bowl with no eligible team. Through some 11th-hour bartering, the Charlotte game somehow landed a Big 12 team, 8-4 West Virginia.
-The Gator Bowl, Holiday Bowl and Pop-Tarts (formerly Cheez-It) Bowl in Orlando, which comprise the league’s “premium” tier, can in theory select any remaining team within one win of each other, as long as they avoid repeat visits, regular-season rematches, etc. Heading into the weekend, that pool was expected to consist of 9-3 NC State, 8-4 Clemson and 8-4 North Carolina. Now, it appeared the bowls could pick from 10-3 Louisville and 9-3 Notre Dame as well.
-when the bowls got on their scheduled 2:45 p.m. ET call with ACC officials, they learned it would not be that simple. Conference rules and tiebreakers stipulated that Louisville and NC State, the latter by virtue of its head-to-head wins over Clemson and North Carolina, had to be two of the three teams selected.
-As for Notre Dame, an official with one of the involved bowls said his bowl was told “point blank” by the conference that the Irish were “not available” to its pool.
- The group’s normally brief selection call lasted nearly 90 minutes. NC State had been to San Diego in 2021, too recently to return. The same applied with Clemson in Orlando. And the SEC, had already had placed Kentucky in the Gator Bowl, ruling out Louisville. Thus, the Pop-Tarts got the Wolfpack (to face Kansas State), the Gator got Clemson and the Cardinals landed in San Diego against USC.
-The prolonged process delayed selections for the conference’s next tier of bowls — the Duke’s Mayo, Pinstripe and Sun bowls. The ACC informed the bowls of the remaining teams it could choose from. They included UNC, Miami … and Notre Dame.
- All three bowls submitted the Irish as their top choice. Per the ACC officials, the league then followed its prescribed process- its attorney writing each bowl’s name on a piece of paper and drawing it out of a hat. The Sun Bowl was chosen first and selected ND.
-After the Pinstripe Bowl landed Miami and North Carolina got the home-state Mayo Bowl, most of the remaining dominoes fell to ESPN Events, which owns and operates 17 bowls and absorbs some of the conferences’ surplus teams.
