NC State Most Likely Heading to FL for Bowl Game

According to Joe Giglio of the News & Observer, and all his bowl sources, the odds are very high NC State takes a trip back down to Florida for their Bowl Game.

The two most likely bowls for the Wolfpack:

Camping World Bowl (Orlando/December 28)
TaxSlayer Gator Bowl (Jacksonville/December 31)

Big 12 Scenarios

#5 Oklahoma beats #14 Texas in Big 12 Championship Game. Result: Sooners go to CFP when #4 Georgia loses to #1 Alabama in SEC Championship

#14 Texas goes to the Sugar Bowl as the runner-up in the Big 12

The Alamo Bowl gets the #1 choice at a Big 12 school that isn’t in a CFP Bowl, and they would take #23 Iowa State or #16 West Virginia.

They can have their pick between the two schools, because they will likely both finish the season with 8 wins. As far as I understand the rules, if there were two wins separating the two schools, the Alamo Bowl would have to take the team with the most wins.

#23 Iowa State is set up to beat Drake on Saturday, and could inch closer to West Virginia’s ranking. Also, the Cyclones beat the Mountaineers 30-14 back on October 13th. With that being said, WVU will likely be the higher ranked team after the weekend, and could be the Alamo’s choice.

If that were to be the case, the Camping World Bowl would get Iowa State.

Obviously, from the above reasoning, the Alamo Bowl could take West Virginia as well.

ACC Scenarios

The Camping World Bowl gets the #1 pick of an ACC  school not in a CFP Bowl.

Giglio thinks that the most likely scenario ends with Iowa State going to the Camping World Bowl, and if that’s the case, they would prefer them matched up with the Wolfpack.

His sources also believe that if West Virginia is picked up for the Camping World Bowl, their ACC choice would be Syracuse, reuniting two former Big East foes.

Like the Alamo Bowl, the Camping World Bowl gets the #1 choice at an ACC school after the CFP Bowl tie-in selections, but they aren’t forced to go with Syracuse because of their higher ranking. If two wins separated the Orangemen and the Wolfpack, the Camping World Bowl would be forced to take Syracuse, but that’s not the case.

The Camping World Bowl’s official website has been tracking all the bowl projections, and it’s almost split down the middle between Syracuse and NC State after Week 13.

According to Joe, if NC State doesn’t end up in the Camping World Bowl, they are most likely to end back in the Gator Bowl (ACC vs. SEC) against either Texas A&M or South Carolina. The last time the Wolfpack played in the Gator Bowl, they beat #11 Notre Dame 28-6 in 2002, finishing with an 11-3 record (school best).

The last time NC State played a bowl game in Florida was in 2014, when they beat Central Florida 34-27 in the BitCoin Bowl in St. Petersburg.

The Wolfpack is 6-5 in bowl games in the state of Florida.