WRAL Sports Fan

North Carolina State University

N.C. State not eligible for bowls with ACC ties

By Dane Huffman

Dec 1, 2008

N.C. State is out of the running for one of the nine bowls with ACC ties after the NCAA held a lengthy teleconference with conference and bowl officials Monday to go over the selection process.

An NCAA rule does not allow a conference to send a 6-6 team to one of its tie-in bowls if a team with seven wins has not been selected for a bowl.

That would mean the Wolfpack is not eligible for the EagleBank Bowl on Dec. 20 in Washington, D.C.

The ACC has 10 teams that are eligible for bowls. Nine have winning records, but the ACC had a question about the status of 7-5 Clemson. The Tigers have two wins over teams from the Football Championship Subdivision, which is the former Division I-AA. Dave Horning, NCSU’s senior associate athletics director for men’s sports, said the school had been in contact with the ACC about the bowl pecking order.

But Ken Hoffman, the executive director of Detroit’s Motor City Bowl, told WRAL he was on an hour-long conference call with NCAA and bowl officials Monday. Hoffman said the bowls were told that a Football Bowl Subdivision school like N.C. State could count one FCS win, but not two. Thus, Clemson would be 6-5 for bowl purposes, a better record than State’s 6-6.

Michael Kelly, the ACC’s associate commissioner for football operations, was also on the call and confirmed that N.C. State would not be eligible for the ACC’s tie-in bowls.

“At this time, that is how I understand it,” Kelly said.

The EagleBank is a new bowl that will feature a ninth selection from the ACC against Navy. The bowl had been eager to consider N.C. State if the Wolfpack were available at No. 9. A bowl source said late Monday that the EagleBank is still hoping State is in play for that bowl.

Where N.C. State could land from here is hard to guess. Even Hoffman said he isn’t sure how this will play out and what teams will be available, but he did say the bowl was definitely interested in the Wolfpack.

He said he expected at least three and possibly four teams could finish 7-5 and be awarded at-large slots. He said he expected at least six and maybe seven at-large slots to be available.

“Let’s see where the 7-5 teams end up, and then we’ll know,” Hoffman said.