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NC State football updated bowl projections after regular season ends

MattCarterby:Matt Carter•11/29/21•

TheWolfpacker

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NC State football tight end Trent Pennix (left) and quarterback Devin Leary hope to celebrate a lot in the bowl game. (Photo by William Howard/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Where will NC State football be bowling in 2022?

A combination of ACC bowl rules and guidelines plus common sense lead to two likely destinations: San Diego or Orlando.

This year the ACC’s bowl tie-ins have changed, and so have the tiers.

Per Joe Giglio of WRALSportsFan.com, the tier system begins with the Cheez-It Bowl in Orlando on Dec. 29, the San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl in San Diego on Dec. 28 and the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla., on Dec. 31.

The ACC champion — Wake Forest or Pittsburgh — will head to the New Year’s Six bowl. The loser of the league title game Saturday in Charlotte will join NC State and Clemson in playing one of the three Tier I bowl games previously listed.

That’s because all four of those teams finished 9-3 or better, and the rest of the league were no better than 7-5. ACC rules prevent teams from leaping anyone more than one game ahead of them in the win column.

A 7-5 team cannot jump ahead of a 9-3 squad in the choosing order for bowls, meaning the Tier I bowls are locked in to which teams they can select.

The common sense comes into play with the Gator Bowl. NC State football has gone there twice in the past three years — 2018 against Texas A&M and 2020 vs. Kentucky. It would be highly unusual for a football team to be invited back for a third time in four years.

That’s why Orlando and San Diego are the most likely destinations for the Wolfpack.

If it’s Orlando, the opponent will likely be either Iowa State or Kansas State from the Big 12. If the Pack is headed to San Diego, they’d likely face UCLA, if bowl predictions prove correct.

Here are where some are projecting NC State to be:

• Giglio: Cheez-It Bowl in Orlando

• Mark Schlabach of ESPN: Cheez-It Bowl vs. Iowa State

• Kyle Bonagura of ESPN: San Diego Credit Union Holiday Bowl in San Diego vs. UCLA

• Brett McMurphy of Action Network: Cheez-It Bowl vs. Kansas State (with Wolfpack favored by six points)

• CollegeFootballNews.com: Holiday Bowl vs. UCLA

• Richard Johnson of SI.com: Holiday Bowl vs. UCLA

• Stewart Mandel of TheAthletic: Duke’s Mayo Bowl in Charlotte on Dec. 30 vs. South Carolina (note above reasons why this is unlikely)

• Steven Lassan of Athlon: Cheez-It Bowl vs. Iowa State

• Jerry Palm of CBS Sports: Holiday Bowl vs. UCLA

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