Updated Tech bowl scenarios II
If Georgia Tech is unable to pull the upset in the ACC Championship game against Florida State, it appears more than ever that the Yellow Jackets would head for the Sun Bowl. With a win, of course, Tech would go to the Orange Bowl.
In the event of a loss, Saturday’s results make it more likely that the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, would be Tech’s destination. Clemson’s loss to South Carolina Saturday dropped the Tigers to No. 14 in the BCS standings, so they’re still eligible for an at-large bid, but with two losses and their Orange Bowl showing last year, it doesn’t seem likely.
That would make Clemson the automatic pick for the Chick-fil-A Bowl. The Russell Athletic Bowl, which has second pick in the ACC bowl selection order after the BCS bowls, can choose between Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech and N.C. State.
N.C. State just fired coach Tom O’Brien, so I’m guessing this isn’t a fan base ready to celebrate anything. If the Yellow Jackets are available, it will mean they’ll have lost two games in a row, one by a wide margin, and have fallen to 6-7. Tech will have a better league record than the Hokies (5-3 to 4-4), but Virginia Tech will have won its last two games, have a non-losing record (6-6) and a win over the Jackets. Further, Virginia Tech has never been to the Russell Athletics Bowl.
As I noted in a post last week, having a winning record (or at least not a losing record) is not a small matter of importance to the Russell Athletic Bowl folks. The bowl, formerly the Champs Sports Bowl, is used to getting eight- or nine-win teams.
Prior to the Georgia game, Citrus Bowl Sports CEO Steve Hogan said that “I think the Georgia game is a big game just because of that, because of the overall winning record.”
One or the other will go to Orlando, I think. That would leave Tech at the Sun Bowl, its destination last year. The Sun Bowl is required to take the ACC title-game runner-up if it’s available. Two ESPN projections pair Tech up with Southern California.
I’ve read that Tech would not be bowl eligible at 6-7 and that the waiver that UCLA received last year will not be granted. BCS guru Jerry Palm tweeted it, for instance. I don’t believe that to be the case, largely because, as I’ve written, Tech, ACC and bowl officials all expect the waiver to be granted. The other reason is that the NCAA process instituted that addresses 6-7 teams that lose their championship game was put in place for a situation in which there weren’t enough bowl-eligible teams.
As I understand it, because there are enough bowl-eligible teams, there isn’t a need to use the protocol that could potentially keep Tech out. It’s conceivable that the waiver could be denied, but on a teleconference Sunday night, coach Paul Johnson said that acting athletic director Paul Griffin told him that Tech will go to a bowl.
One other thing: Should Tech pull the upset, it’s likely Orange Bowl opponent will be the Big East champion, either Rutgers or Louisville. The two teams play Thursday night to decide the title. There’s also a possibility that Kent State, which hasn’t played in a bowl game since 1972 but is playing against Northern Illinois for the MAC title, could make it the Orange Bowl.
Ken Sugiura, Georgia Tech bowl
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218 comments Add your comment
headley lamar
November 26th, 2012
5:38 pm
Nothing excites me about it. Personally I think our offense played terrible against UGA. But they still put up well over 400 yards of offense without much of a problem. To make the assertion that GT cannot compete with UGA’s amazing bionic size and strength on defense is just absurd. UGA’s defense didn’t look all that great against GT.
This is spin of the highest order.
UGA had a plan to give up some yards but stay away from the big plays.
And that’s exactly what they did.
You eliminate the big ones from CPJ offense and make them go the length of the field, eventually you are going to get them off schedule with the down and distance and then they are toast.
Its just a matter of when.
rip
November 26th, 2012
5:51 pm
The game Tech played Saturday was an embarrassment. they (Tech) don’t deserve an invitation to a bowl game and Paul Johnson should be relieved of his duties today
GTBob
November 26th, 2012
5:54 pm
The fact he cant even get along with the media in Atlanta most notably the flagship radio station for Tech football says all you need to know.
Yeah, I wish we had a coach who seems like he is asleep in every interview like Richt. He is the epitome of excitement.
GTBob
November 26th, 2012
5:55 pm
UGA had a plan to give up some yards but stay away from the big plays.
Funny, BYU just shut us down completely, but I guess UGA’s strategy of letting us run wild for a while was another way to go.
jeffjacket
November 26th, 2012
5:56 pm
I am on the record right now , I support CPJ , you guys are back-stabbers!
I don’t care how we got there, we are going to the ACC championship for the second time in 5 years. Name me another coach with such an accomplishment. I do admit , the terrible defense gave the appearence of a team giving up last sat. Guys, there is a reason you fire your DC in the middle of the year , this defense is severely flawed! Lets move on and make the best of the last 2 games! I guess you guys don’t remember the early 80’s shame—– 1 and 10 , 3 and 8 , come on!
GO JACKETS!!!! I STILL SAY TO HELL WITH GEORGIA!!!
Stinger 1
November 26th, 2012
6:12 pm
headley lamar = GTBob GTBob = headley lamar
gtforever
November 26th, 2012
6:14 pm
Doginsewer wrote”Bamers bastes unssx by es 50.” Is this the same person who had a poster that stated”Go Dwags”.
What is the meaning of this statement? Can another dwag translate please?
GT1990
November 26th, 2012
6:15 pm
@Headley
If i was ken, i would write some article bashing him.
1 4 GT
November 26th, 2012
6:22 pm
Bob, so what! What the hell good are yards if they don’t result in points for your side? Quit it! Doofus!
Clearing up the confusion
November 26th, 2012
6:24 pm
for GTBob. Bob the object of the game is to SCORE POINTS not move the ball up and down the field.
Ghost
November 26th, 2012
6:29 pm
Chan never had a losing season while playing tougher schedules. Firing Chan wasn’t a mistake(he had lost interest in GT as much as GT had lost in him) but the hiring of Paul Johnson , a coach who had never recruited or coached(in any capacity) at a major conference was. DRad bought into the notion that PJs system would work with better athletes. His assumption was partially correct it did work well with Gaileys (Giff Smiths) 2006 and 2007 recruiting classes filling the roster. Drad didn’t realize PJ shortcomings in recruiting (PJ reaches on far too many marginal recruits) and his inability coaching up better athletes . PJ and the staff he’s hired are in way over their heads.If Tech doesn’t make a change soon it will take a new regime years to clean up the mess that’s been created. PJ isn’t a bad coach he’s just out of his element , he will work wonders for a Southern Conference program.
GT Lee
November 26th, 2012
6:29 pm
So hedy lamar (or USMC Jacket or whatever you’re calling yourself these days), you claim your father and grandfather were Marines. I guess they would know what words like Duty, Honor, Courage, Loyalty, etc mean. So tell us hedy, how do the men in your family go from being honorable Marines to a chickensh1t scumbag lowlife Internet Troll who hides behind a keyboard and hurls insults because he’s too much of a coward to say it to someone’s face? I wonder if your Marine forefathers are more disgusted with you or more ashamed of you.
Milk Bone Underwear
November 26th, 2012
6:44 pm
UGA=My employees!
1 4 GT
November 26th, 2012
6:57 pm
To Whom It May Concern: the average time needed for a student, that’s “student”=non athlete, to earn a bachelor’s degree at the Georgia Institute of Technology is 5 2/3 years. Tech has a program that helps athletes earn their degree after their athletic eligibility is used up. So shut up about Tech not caring. You don’t know what you’re talking about.
dry dirt road
November 26th, 2012
6:58 pm
can you imagine Tech going to the Orange Bowl and losing this year to Mid Tenn St who lost to Mcneice St this year? or imagine Tech catching the flu when free shots from the infirmary were available during Pink Powder Puff month up until now? or not wearing the white helmets against Georgia, instead wearing the gold helmets that correspond to the losing win-loss record against Georgia?
GT1990
November 26th, 2012
7:03 pm
@14 GT
How do you feel about CPJ these days? Do you see a bright future for this program?
GT1990
November 26th, 2012
7:07 pm
@14 GT
Remember a few months ago when you and a few more guys stood up for TW and CPJ? I tried to tell you what was going to happen and you refuse to believe me. It’s ok though. Hopefully you will listen next time
Looking for tickets
November 26th, 2012
7:09 pm
I have been searching the various ticket outlets for ACC and SEC titles games and discovered something monumental.
The cheapest SEC Championship ticket I have found is $300 – the cheapest ACC Championship ticket is $3. Holy cow the SEC is 100 times better according to the ticket prices.
1 4 GT
November 26th, 2012
7:14 pm
Calling people garbage….then turn around & call that same person’s Mother garbage=a surefire guaranteed way to win friends & influence people. Selah!
GT1990
November 26th, 2012
7:20 pm
Answer my question please. I don’t care to argue with you. TW is GARBAGE as a FBS QB! You know where i stand with him and CPJ. I want to know how you feel about the two.
GT1990
November 26th, 2012
7:26 pm
Do you honestly feel like CPJ and TW could beat any top 25 team this year?
killerj
November 26th, 2012
7:27 pm
Tech-ly this team is 6-6,because of a pumpkin eating team we are left with the bag of wrong doings by another,why are we made out to be the bad guy,s?,this will be taken into consideration.Roll Wreck!
Rooty Tooty
November 26th, 2012
7:31 pm
Truly, I wish Gt had opted out of the ACC CG. To win by default is like kissing your sister. What could have been a decent year went down the drain simply because we have nobody that can stop anybody. Tell me it ain’t so, Joe. If we had any kind of defence, we could easily been 9-3.
tony
November 26th, 2012
7:32 pm
lol usc? so end a dismal season with 3 straight losses and a 6-8 record
time to extend and increase pj offense right! he’s a genius!
tony
November 26th, 2012
7:36 pm
if we do play usc, then the overall score for the final 3 games will be something like 115-37
blackandwhitestripes
November 26th, 2012
7:38 pm
dawfan! and Bama will surely do the work against the leg-humpers.
1 4 GT
November 26th, 2012
7:44 pm
It was Me and my Mother I was referring to, but you have obviously forgotten. I have nothing else to say to you.
GT man
November 26th, 2012
7:46 pm
It dosent look like Mr. PJ will resign or be fired, so hope FSU beats them 100-0. Maybe PJ cen embarass GT even more than against ga. # years of Al Groh, then 2 years that GT had a better team than Ga, and PJ still sticks with stupid choices. At least our first team out scored Ga’s third string 7-0
Bananajacket
November 26th, 2012
7:57 pm
CPJ certainly deserves some criticism, but I do seem to remember a few weeks back (and the last several years) a great number of Dawg “fans” calling CMR and his staff losers, stupid, stubborn, etc. after losing a game. Guess when you win, you are “genius” and when you lose, worthless! Expert fans and expert bloggers—you got to love ‘em!
CC
November 26th, 2012
8:13 pm
So let’s let the Tech Basketball team and Coach Gregory (at least as far as they’ve played this year) be an example of what’s to happen concerning Paul Johnson… or, at least, should happen.
Coach Gregory has gained the respect of his players, has a STRONG pulse, has gotten some great recruits, and —- at this point —- makes us fans feel like the uproar that occurred until Paul Hewitt was canned (mega-dollars be danged!) contributed greatly to a better basketball program already.
Let’s hope for football. — It could happen.
NtheNo
November 26th, 2012
8:15 pm
Has any program expressed interest in PJ since he’s been @ Tech? I think you guys got a solid High School coach but no more. Can’t recruit and refuses to change other than to totally screw up your tradition with those outlandishly silly honeycomb thingys.
Dawg1
November 26th, 2012
8:27 pm
Good Luck this Saturday guys…
As for the UGA game, we’ll see what happens. Win or lose; I think the Tech folks who believe that UGA will get blown out will be disappointed. I expect this game to be a fight to the finish.
Again – good luck on Saturday against a very talented FSU team.
JB
November 26th, 2012
8:43 pm
Richt is a good man. He could of stayed up tempo offense the entire game with the starters and really made it bad. ( There ARE coach’s who would do that, in fact, I believe your coach would smirk and keep scoring on UGA if he could). Tech deserves better than what this Dawg fan saw Saturday. It really looked like AA Ball. Hope you hire a decent AD and get back on track. Not a good year to be coach hunting, but it’s coming for Tech. Good as it’s gonna get with him. He’s a dead man walking with a big contract, but hey, next year knocks off 2.4 mil off the payoff to get him to leave.
Bryan
November 26th, 2012
8:51 pm
With any luck they won’t grant GT the waiver. Let’s be honest, 6-8 will be our record as CPJ can’t win a bowl no matter who they play. Before Gailey, GT had the highest bowl winning percentage in college. Where are we now?
GT. Fan
November 26th, 2012
8:53 pm
Let’s all cut the garbage….we were killed by UGa and the ACC was totally destroyed Saturday. The ACC’s top 3 teams and Wake lost to the SEC EAST by almost 100 points and 75% of the games were on the ACC teams home fields. Vandy and UGa started putting in subs in the 3rd qtr so it could have been much worse. We were totally humiliated….thank goodness we didn’t face teams from the SEC West. We are just totally out of our league against the SEC!
GT1990
November 26th, 2012
9:08 pm
If you think CPJ should be fired press 1
Yellow Jacket 89
November 26th, 2012
9:16 pm
Go Jackets!
Roll Tide Roll!!!
Bama beats UGA. Then UGA falls behind UF and thus misses a BCS bowl bid. That would be great.
cpj
November 26th, 2012
9:18 pm
I hope we can hold the Noles under 50, but I really don’t know how we can do it. Please fans, yell loud for us at the game, all 6 of you.
Tokyo jacket
November 26th, 2012
9:19 pm
Ken,
I’d love to hear from president Peterson if the Institute is committed to athletic excellence. After losing D-Rad and the UGA debacle, I think such a commitment is exactly what we need. Frankly, I question our commitment to excellence at the highest levels. I know we’re not exactly flush with cash in the AA right now, but its going to get worse before it gets better if the Institute, not the AA, doesn’t give us something to be excited about soon. It’s going to be a very long off-season and we need to make. A splash when it comes to our AD and getting a DC who can help close the very obvious talent gap between GT and the teams our fan base expects to be competitive against would go a long way to show me there is a true commitment. Without such a splash, I question how interested I’ll be next year.
Mind you, this is coming from a fan who made road trips to VT and UMD this year along with multiple 14 hr flights to atl from 2007-2010.
Any chance you could interview Bud Peterson?
Tokyo jacket
November 26th, 2012
9:22 pm
Anyone who thinks UGA is going to get blown out is flat out stupid. There was some serious talent on the filed against us. Bamas offense isn’t that scary.
Techster
November 26th, 2012
9:38 pm
ESPN is reporting that Tech is unlikely to get a waiver when (er, I mean “if”) it loses to FSU on Saturday. The way Tech is playing, Saturday will just be another embarrassment. Blow-out losses two weeks in a row isn’t likely to generate a waiver. Wouldn’t Tech just be better off telling the ACC that it will pass on the ACC Championship game and then go to a lesser bowl, like the Belk Bowl – a venue that Tech fans would actually travel to – than to play FSU, lose and get knocked out of a bowl game altogether?
UGAGrad99
November 26th, 2012
9:53 pm
Read the ESPN article on the waiver. The rules were updated over this past summer so the UCLA ruling is not precedent. Seems very likely Tech could stay home when they lose. Shows how bad the ACC is. 0-3 this past weekend and one of the championship teams is barely .500. When was the last time the ACC was relevant?
TVFan
November 26th, 2012
10:01 pm
Rumors about the Big 10 in Atlanta. We’ll see.
GT65
November 26th, 2012
10:18 pm
I have lost all faith in CPJ..if we lose against FSU– CPJ needs to do like Drads-get the hell out of town!
GT65
November 26th, 2012
10:21 pm
Tokyo jacket….I’ll take the Tide.
SCOTT A--Colorado.
November 26th, 2012
10:27 pm
Like a lot of TECH people, I bleed White and Gold. Even have a degree from that fine North Avenue Trade School. Yeller Britches looked sad on Saturday, like they didn’t even show up.
FSU’s licking their wounds from last week–maybe CPJ can rally the troops one more time in the second half…
SCOTT A--Colorado.
November 26th, 2012
10:27 pm
Like a lot of TECH people, I bleed White and Gold. Even have a degree from that fine North Avenue Trade School. Yeller Britches looked sad on Saturday, like they didn’t even show up.
FSU’s licking their wounds from last week–maybe CPJ can rally the troops one more time in the second half…
SCOTT A--Colorado.
November 26th, 2012
10:27 pm
Like a lot of TECH people, I bleed White and Gold. Even have a degree from that fine North Avenue Trade School. Yeller Britches looked sad on Saturday, like they didn’t even show up.
FSU’s licking their wounds from last week–maybe CPJ can rally the troops one more time in the second half…
SCOTT A--Colorado.
November 26th, 2012
10:27 pm
Like a lot of TECH people, I bleed White and Gold. Even have a degree from that fine North Avenue Trade School. Yeller Britches looked sad on Saturday, like they didn’t even show up.
FSU’s licking their wounds from last week–maybe CPJ can rally the troops one more time in the second half…
SCOTT A--Colorado.
November 26th, 2012
10:27 pm
Like a lot of TECH people, I bleed White and Gold. Even have a degree from that fine North Avenue Trade School. Yeller Britches looked sad on Saturday, like they didn’t even show up.
FSU’s licking their wounds from last week–maybe CPJ can rally the troops one more time in the second half…