Does NC State legitimately have a chance at playing in the Orange Bowl on New Years Day?
Well, I guess you could say there’s a chance.
Here’s how that chance would play itself out. NC State would need a good bump in the CFP Rankings (currently #22) on Tuesday night after beating UNC convincingly, and Louisville would need to suffer a decent slide backwards after losing 31-38 to an unranked Kentucky team. Currently the Cardinals are ranked 10th in the CFP rankings.
How far will they fall on Tuesday night? I don’t know, but they fell 6 spots in the AP Poll yesterday.
The next thing that would need to happen in the ‘Wolfpack plays in the Orange Bowl scenario,’ would be FSU beating Louisville in the ACC Championship game next weekend. It would probably need to be a dominant FSU win over the Cardinals. I’m not sure I see this happening after Seminoles Quarterback Jordan Travis was lost for the remainder of the season due to injury, but anything can happen.
Here’s why all this matters. If FSU makes the College Football Playoff, the Orange Bowl will take the next ACC team ranked the highest in the CFP Rankings.
Even though Louisville has 10 wins, could losing to unranked Kentucky, and suffering a lopsided loss to FSU, ultimately lead them to fall behind NC State in the rankings? Even though they beat NC State head-to-head? I don’t know. To be quite honest, if I was a Louisville fan, I’d be upset if this scenario played itself out.
With that being said, maybe in this scenario, the CFP Rankings committee favors an NC State team who has won 5 straight, instead of a Louisville team on a 2-game losing streak.
Whether it’s Louisville or NC State, Ohio State is pretty much a lock to be the other team playing in the Orange Bowl on January 1st down in Miami.
Tune in on Tuesday night on ESPN to see how many spots NC State jumps, and how many Louisville falls.