Well, its that time of year again. We're going bowling!
So the obvious question is, where? Well, here's the current ACC lineup that we're going to be placed into. And I'm going to guess a lot of this has to do with how the ACC bids into the playoff plays out. There's still an outside (very remote) chance that Miami sneaks in as an at-large so we could potentially see anywhere from 1-3 ACC teams included, which means Tech could slot into a wide array of games depending on how the next week or so goes.
Anyway, here's the lineup. Where do you think we'll land?
ACC Bowl Game Affiliations – Game Times and TV Designations
Friday, December 20, 2024
Gasparilla Bowl (Tampa, Florida) – 3:30 p.m. ET / ESPN
Friday, December 27, 2024
Birmingham Bowl (Birmingham, Alabama) – Noon or 3:30 p.m. ET / ESPN
Holiday Bowl (San Diego, California) - 8 p.m. ET / TBD
Saturday, December 28, 2024
Fenway Bowl (Boston, Massachusetts) – 11 a.m. ET / ESPN
Pinstripe Bowl (The Bronx, New York) – Noon ET / ABC
Pop-Tarts Bowl (Orlando, Florida) – 3:30 p.m. ET / ABC
Military Bowl presented by GoBowling.com (Washington DC) – 5:45 p.m. ET / ESPN
Tuesday, December 31, 2024
Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl (El Paso, Texas) – 2 p.m. ET / CBS
Thursday, January 2, 2025
Gator Bowl (Jacksonville, Florida) – 7:30 p.m. ET / ESPN
Friday, January 3, 2025
Duke's Mayo Bowl (Charlotte, North Carolina) – 7:30 p.m. ET / ESPN
The only one I don't believe we'll end up in is the Military Bowl, since we just played in that last year.
Comments
Dukes is the obvious good choice. Local enough to be worth the travel. I'll go to Florida this winter but not to watch us play football.
Probably Fenway or Pinstripe. We're so far down the picking list we'll be going cold weather destination. Military doesn't want same teams consecutive years.
I love the ridiculousness of the edible Pop-Tart mascot so the Pop-Tarts bowl gets my vote.
Which Hokie will be game MVP and get to eat the mascot?!?
Well, Pop (Tart) Watson, of course!
There are at least 3 this year!
I will be near tampa on the 20th so selfishly that would be cool, but I dont want us to play so early in bowl season
I'll take early in the season for the warm destination!
Outside of fan preference I'd be really interested to know what the players think...do they have preference over date/time, location, opponent, or the notoriety of the bowl itself?
247Sports is predicting playing Tulane again in the Fenway Bowl
Please no.
Cold weather 💩💩
Repeat matchup💩💩
Also don't think we beat Tulane.
Think its time to Axe the cold-weather bowls....Fenway, Pinstripe. They had a certain nostalgic niche..that's now long gone
At least it's in a major city with public transit 🤷♂️
You can fly in for cheap, not need a car, easily find a hotel, easily find bars, etc
We need a Wrigley Bowl. Everyone can come stay at my house two blocks from the stadium.
Commanders' practice field bowl
Apparently they completely overhauled it recently. They talked about it for almost five minutes on the broadcast of the Commanders game today. It's no longer 1970s Astroturf.
Well, I now know where I'm staying when I do my midwest ballpark motorcycle trip.
Amen. All bowl games are meaningless now. The fucking Rose Bowl doesn't really exist FFS... so why make fans freeze their asses off? Fuck that. Put EVERY bowl in a warm weather place or a dome. It could easily be done.
Rose Bowl should host Oregon Penn State this week.
ew, I hate that.
Odds of the Gator Bowl? I live just south of Jacksonville, so a local bowl would be awesome. Although I had been planning on visiting the 'rents up in VA through the 4th of January, so the Militry Bowl Might be cool.
I'd think pretty low. Gator is a good, medium-to-high level game. Doubt they would take a 6-6 team with so many having better records. Granted, VT fans travel well, but not that well. But who knows?
Zero. The gator is not skipping over 9 teams to take VT in the pecking order. It's Birmigham is I had to guess.
Yeah, I knew there was a pecking order but it wasn't in the original post and was apparently feeling too lazy to look it up and rather rely on my peeps here.
IIRC, Gator gets first pick after any playoff teams. That means likely 10-2 Miami or 9-4 Clemson
Ah, thanks. I knew we'd been in the running before, but had forgotten it was back when we were good.
Speaking of post season - looks like the BC defensive end got 3.5 sacks (and 10 tackles) on Saturday to eek out the regular season sack title at 16.5 to APR's 16 so I have a feeling that APR's chances at ACC DPOY are pretty slim. Still pretty amazing to be 2nd overall in sacks, shame that the first is in the same conference.
I hope Pinstripe since I live in NYC lol, I haven't been to Yankee Stadium yet either
I am so sorry for you.
I know I have said it before, but the ACC has the worst bowl game affiliations
correct- Ironic since that was supposed to be the ONE benefit to the ACC's bullshit football agreement with ND- better bowls. Oh well. The ACC got nothing out of that deal- nothing and I said it at the time.
If we win more games, we would have been picked for a better bowl. 6-6 teams shouldn't be complaining about their destination.
FTFY
I am old school. Way too many bowl games.
Cut a bunch of the BS bowls...go back to the "good 'ol days" of named bowls (not branded)...e.g. Sugar, Fiesta, Rose, etc. By lowering the number of bowls, you lower the number of teams going to bowls. For those not picked by those "elite" bowls, allow them to have roughly the same number of extra practices and perhaps a team trip to somewhere fun as the reward.
No need to have embarrassingly empty stadium games branded by some random company for 2-3 years then rebrand again, again, again...
At least those 6-6, 7-5, etc. teams will get those extra practices that coaches always cream their pants about, but the fans & companies won't be wasting their time and money on something that will be forgotten in a few weeks.
Tough cycle to break - Sponsors make money, bowl organizers make money, ESPN makes money, coaches don't get fired typically if they make a "bowl", Hotels and airlines like them, etc etc. A lot of things to break before you go back to a handful of meaningful/, major bowls again.
I think the best way to break it is to establish 4 team bowl game "pods". You have 5 additional bowls after the playoffs, each of these bowls would consist of a 4 team "playoff" and the first round would be on campus sites.
This format puts 32 teams in the post season. The 10 conference champs are guaranteed a post season birth.
12 competing for the national championship and then 20 more competing for 5 different bowl championships.
With you 100%. I've wanted half the bowls removed for a long time so that bowl games actually meant something. Bowls should be for good teams and not 6-6 or 7-5 ones. Of course (1) I'm old and traditional and (2) the playoffs may have made even the decent non-playoff bowls not mean much anyway. Shame that all the traditional and most things that made the game special have been killed.
That's because a third of our teams are above the mason dixon line (so they're fine going to cold weather games on the east coast) and another third are basketball schools. Oh, also, the ACC has been legitimately interesting only thrice in the last 20 years (2013, 2016, 2020).
"That's because a third of our teams are above the mason dixon line"... OK switch the pinstripe bowl to detroit- a dome, switch the fenway bowl to minneapolis- a dome, switch the military bowl to Indy- a dome. Done and Done.
I like the military bowl but I get it. Also, football on a baseball field sucks.
Number 25 in sp+ has to count for something though!
It reminds us that we were in the mix in every game, regardless of W-L.
Is the Bahamas, Hawaii or the Caribbean options?
If there are my wife wants me to go to that bowl.
Wife and I agreed that the '95 Sugar Bowl was fantastic, though we could scarcely afford such luxuries in those days. We talked about future bowls then and both agreed that we couldn't do that every year, but also agreed that if the Hokies were ever playing for the National Championship and it was in New Orleans, we'd go if we had to sell our house to afford it. As a consequence, we've been to one bowl game since '95, and while it was inarguably a bigger game, we agreed afterward that we both enjoyed the '95 experience much more, and not all because of the loss. Something about that first time in NO was so sweet, and the game was definitely more fun. Riding the wave of VT's surprising season after losing those first two was magical for me after years of cheering in sparse attendance and mediocrity. Luckily, today's crowd seems to travel well, and I still have friends that can be relied upon for bowling though most of us are old enough to enjoy the game from the comfort of our heated homes, endless supply of food and drink, and that big ol' HDTV.
New Orleans is one big party every night for not that much money; it's great when you're younger. Find a hotel room on bourbon street for $50/night. Eat Street food while hopping between bars. Party til 4am. Wake up at 10am, grab some brunch, go tailgate. That part of the city is so walkable.
Now the hangovers last longer, and a $50/night room on bourbon street will be too noisy and the beds will hurt my back. So it's a few hundred a night to stay somewhere nice. And now I'm boujee and want to eat at nice restaurants by influencer chefs (in addition to the street food...).
I maintain that New Orleans is a magical place, but it will never hit the same way as it did in my early-to-mid-20s.
2nd time I visited NO, we stayed at an airBandB with 2 locals (husband installed high end commercial stereo systems in upscale bars and wife owned an art gallery in the Quarter); did NON-touristy stuff and had great time visiting local dive bars!
(1st time was fun too! Went after the 2015 Independence Bowl. Went with my best friend's girlfriend(he couldn't go for legal reasons). Had a great time visiting the WW2 museum (highly recommend it and it's walkable distance from the Quarter or downtown). First night we were walking toward the bars and stopped by Coyote Ugly; they had a bar pool table which turned out to have 400+ free games on it. Played all night and finished 3/4 bottle of Jack Daniels in bourbon and cokes. Next night we returned and told the bartender about the previous night. She glanced at the bottle at the bar, went to the back and returned with a fresh bottle, cracked the seal and said "we're gonna finish this bitch tonight!" and we did (and I have the bottle signed by her at my house to this day).b Next night we finished a whole bottle of vodka there. Great times- never back at the hotel til 3-4am!
Are these legal reasons New Orleans related or something else? Because I would be curious what the hell someone had to do to get New Orleans to tell them to not come back lol
LOL- it was Virginia related- not allowed to travel outside the state
I had a friend get a job in NO and visited a few times for Mardi Gras. His only advice before we hit the streets was "If a cop asks you to do something then do it, if they tell you not to something then don't do it. That's it."
First cop we saw was calmly talking to an obviously hammered citizen and what we caught as we walked by was "No ma'am, the first thing I want you to do is go pick up that barrier you knocked over with your car, and then I want you to come back so we can call someone to come get you." It was amazing to see.
A friend that frequented NO told us the main rules to remember. Don't fire up a doobie if a cop's around, don't walk on the street with glass bottles and never ever ever try to take a leak on the street. Don't want to be up early in the morning with a hangover and have to go out and clean those streets you pissed on. What they tolerate is quite a bit, but what they don't, they just plain old don't.
I went to all of the Sugar Bowls. I thought the Auburn one was the best in terms of party, travel, etc. I had a massive hangover for FSU, and terrible seats for Texas.
We were 4 rows from the top of the dome for the Texas game, so we thought it was going to be horrible, but there was a bathroom up there and between us and the bathroom was a beer stand - so it ended up being incredible. Yes, it took us forever to get out after the game, but then it was NYE in the quarter and nary a Texas fan to be seen.
You were close to me then, because I remember that bathroom- lol.
That's hilarious! We probably high fived after the B. Still punt return because we were literally running around everywhere finding VT fans to celebrate with.
Bama gets in over Miami. Seriously, fuck this sport. It's completely corrupt and falls in the category of entertainment not competition
I hope Clemson wins. The committee said they weren't going to penalize teams for losing in an extra game but they are going to really have to test that decision when it comes down to Alabama vs SMU for the final spot.
Man I hope SMU kicks their ass. They're our best team and I don't want there to even be a chance they aren't included for this garb Clemson outfit.
Dabo had that SC game in hand and decided to go conservative play call on offense until SC was ahead, when he could've put the dagger in and ended the game earlier.
Also he said specifically that there is a chance SMU could fall behind Alabama with a loss (which means it will happen)
The CFP Playoff Committee makes modern day politicians look like Mother Teresa or Abe Lincoln. Maybe a 2% chance SMU won't drop below Alabama if they lose to Clemson.
So is the best case scenario to have SMU & Clemson both look really good, go head-to-head most of the game, but SMU takes the late lead to win? That way it is a W and a good one against a "solid" opponent? Nothing for the committee to take negatives from?
If you are pulling for 2 ACC teams, no way they take Clemson with 3 losses, including the last 2 games. If it is a close, tight game and maybe SMU loses in OT or on a bad bounce, or whatnot, maybe SMU can sneak in ahead of Alabama or Indiana. Will be tough to overcome the SEC bias and I just cannot see an 11-1 Big 10 team left out even if - as several have pointed out here - they really did not beat anyone good. If SMU wins, obviously they are in.
As I stated in July, no matter the resume Alabama is in this field for the foreseeable future. It's like St. Mary's in hoops. No matter that their best win is Utah state and they lose to Gonzaga 3 times, they are in. Bama football is the same. Lose 3 games, 2 to bad teams? No problem- you are in.
I'm honestly surprised this didn't happen.
Well we won't be playing WVU or Memphis. They are going head to head in Frisco Bowl.
Well, it's decision day and the ACC did all it could to get 2 teams in.
This is going to go just like last year. The ACC won't be ready to get jobbed by the committee and we won't know the ACC bowls until this evening.
My gut says we'll wind up in the Fenway Bowl, my heart hopes...not that
With 2 ACC teams in, rumor has it we are very much in play for the Belk bowl on Jan 3rd.
If they can somehow get us there matched up with WVU, that will be a sellout.
Charlotte has a large number of WVU fans and it's easy to get to for many VT fans, it's just makes sense
EDIT: I meant in thr larger sense that this never happens the bowl selection have been terrible for years in getting interesting match ups. I did know WVU already accepted
WVU already lined up against Memphis in Frisco bowl
WVU is playing Memphis in the Frisco Bowl
Well womp womp
Bring on Bama in Charlotte! /s
I would love to play Oklahoma somewhere. Both 6-6 teams
Oklahoma or Florida would both be really strong SEC matchups. Bama will get picked up by the Capital One or Citrus Bowl.
Florida's freshman QB is really, really good. Since he has started the Gators are a different, much better team. I'm not sure our D wants to face that.
Lol I don't really think our d wants to face anyone. I'm pretty sure cornelsen could score at least 28 on our defense
Cuse vs Florida in the Taxslayer BowlWrong, Cuse is going Holiday
Miami in Pop Tarts Bowl seems appropriate
How many of their players opt out?!
Ward almost certainly...after that none of it may matter.
only Ward's and their recievers ability to catch everything stood out while watching they were pedestrian every where else
ESPN has us Duke's Mayo vs. Minnesota.