- Jun 10, 2014
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Founding Member
I posted a tweet earlier in the thread, but if UVA fell out of the rankings, the Orange Bowl would choose from UVA/VT/Wake. In that scenario, I'd say VT would get the nod for the traveling fanbase.Yes, the orange bowl is designed to be for the ACC what the Sugar Bowl is for the SEC. when it isn’t part of the playoffs, it is intended to be where the top ranked ACC team that isn’t going to the playoffs goes.
the interesting wrinkle to me is that I assume Clemson is on the CFP after easily beating Virginia. Virginia is currently the next highest ranked ACC team, so they would go to the Orange. But everywhere I read about the ACC tie-Ins to the orange bowl mention the highest RANKED ACC team (per CFP rankings). If Clemson beats #23 Virginia so badly that they drop out of the rankings, there will be no ranked ACC team besides Clemson. Does that open the door for the Orange Bowl to select a ranked non-ACC team? I don’t know if that’s addressed in the contract. But it does make me wonder.
Having said that, I think the committee will keep UVA at like #25 to avoid that situation and reward them for making the ACCCG.