Updating NC State football’s bowl projections entering Week 12
NC State continued its winning ways with a 26-6 victory at Wake Forest this past weekend, which was the Wolfpack’s seventh win of the 2023 campaign. Entering Week 11, NC State’s new bowl projections include Duke’s Mayo, Holiday, Military, Pinstripe, Pop-Tarts, ReliaQuest and Sun Bowls.
Two games were most commonly projected: the Military and Sun Bowls.
The Athletic and Yahoo Sports both have the Wolfpack playing against Memphis in the Military Bowl on Dec. 27 in Annapolis, Md. The Sun Bowl projections, however, are different. Fox Sports projects NC State to play Oregon State on Dec. 29 in El Paso, Texas, while Sporting News has the Pack playing UCLA in the contest.
Action Network believes NC State will play Kansas State in the Pop-Tarts Bowl, which is held on Dec. 28, while Athlon Sports has the Pack playing against Rutgers in the Pinstripe Bowl on the same day at Yankee Stadium.
CBS Sports projected the biggest bowl for the Wolfpack, a date with LSU in the ReliaQuest Bowl on New Year’s Day in Tampa, Fla. Both of ESPN’s experts, Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach, placed the Wolfpack in the Holiday Bowl against Arizona on Dec. 27 in San Diego, Calif. NC State was previously scheduled to play in the Holiday Bowl in 2021, but the game was canceled due to COVID-19 concerns within the UCLA program.
USA Today rounds out this week’s projections with a somewhat local postseason contest. It has NC State playing in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl against Florida on Dec. 27 in Charlotte, N.C. The Pack played in that contest a year ago, and it lost 16-12 to Maryland at Bank of America Stadium.
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NC State has appeared in 34 bowl games since 1946, including 16 since 2000. Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren is 3-4 in his seven bowl appearances at the helm of the red and white, and his last postseason victory came in the 2017 Sun Bowl, a 52-31 win over Arizona State.
Since Doeren took over as the Pack’s coach, NC State has played in the Gator Bowl twice, with losses to Kentucky in 2021 and Texas A&M in 2018. His teams have also appeared in the Independence Bowl, Belk Bowl and St. Petersburg Bowl.
The Wolfpack have most commonly played in the Peach Bowl with seven previous appearances, but it has not appeared in that contest since 1994.
