North Carolina’s loss to Notre Dame last week was the third defeat in nine games for the Tar Heels, but they actually moved up two spots to No. 17 in the College Football Playoff poll. Not only did the Heels get that little positive jolt, but they’re now positioned to possibly end up in the Orange Bowl.
They’d have to earn their way in while getting a little bit of help, though. Here’s how it would have to work out:
*Notre Dame is No. 2 and Clemson is No. 3 in the CFP poll. Both have games this weekend before facing each other Dec. 19 in the ACC championship game. Since the Fighting Irish defeated the Tigers last month in South Bend, another Notre Dame win against them would eliminate the Tigers from the CFP conversation. A Clemson win, however, likely would mean both teams get into the playoff.
*The ACC bowl agreement mandates the next highest ranked conference team would get the nod for the Orange Bowl, thus if Miami wins at Duke this weekend and UNC takes care of Western Carolina, the winner in Miami Gardens, FL, on Dec. 12 between the Tar Heels and Hurricanes could be headed to the Orange Bowl.
Needless to say, this is a rather tantalizing possibility for a UNC program in just the second year of Mack Brown’s second stint.
“The biggest thing I’ve told them is the opportunities are out there,” Brown said earlier this week. “Last year, we were sitting here and had to win the last two games to get to a bowl and they did that. So, we're in a much different position right now than we were last year and it shows the tremendous progress that we've made over a short period of time.
“The question is, they just had opportunities against a great team in Notre Dame, and we didn't finish. Miami's a top-10 team, so we've got the same challenges in two weeks that we had last Friday.”
And that’s the task. Carolina can’t worry about what happens with the Tigers and Fighting Irish, it can only worry about WCU this weekend and the Hurricanes the following week, adn then hope to finished ahead of Miami in the CFP poll.
“Are we going to do our job on Saturday, and are we going to be ready to go on the road, which we haven't done very well,” Brown asked. “It'll probably be a night game, I would think. And have we improved enough to put ourselves in the position to be considered for an Orange Bowl?
“All of those are question marks that aren't answered yet. And right now, we haven't proven that we deserve that. We're making progress, we are getting more respect, but can we can we finish? Can we play a full game as a team? We haven't done that yet. So that’s a question mark that will be answered here in the next two weeks.”
If either Notre Dame beats Clemson a second time or the Tar Heels lose one of their remaining games, the bowl scenario gets murkier, especially with four bowls tied into the ACC having been canceled. The Pinstripe, Sun, Holiday and Fenway will not take place, considerably cutting the ACC’s allotted slots.
The ACC no longer has relationships with the Independence, Music City and Citrus bowls but remaining are the Orange Bowl in Miami, Duke’s Mayo (Formerly Belk) Bowl in Charlotte, Cheez-It Bowl in Orlando, FL, Military Bowl in Annapolis, MD, and Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, FL. A few other smaller bowls remain options for the league, but UNC is too high in the pecking order to end up in Tampa, Dallas or Birmingham, as examples.
On Tuesday, Brett McMurphy of WatchStadium.com projected UNC will face Missouri in the Gator Bowl, which will be played Jan. 2. The Sporting News has the same projection. CBS Sports projects the Tar Heels will face Arkansas in the same bowl. ESPN.com’s Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach both have UNC facing Oklahoma State on Dec. 29 in the Cheez-It Bowl in Orlando. College Football News, interestingly, pits UNC versus Texas in the Cheez-It Bowl.
If UNC were to play in the Orange Bowl, it would be the program’s first upper-tier bowl, once long referred to as “New Year’s Day bowls” since 1949, when the Tar Heels lost to Rice, 27-13, in the Cotton Bowl, which was actually played Jan. 2, 1950. It was Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice’s senior season.
Carolina has played in the Gator Bowl seven times but not since Brown’s last season during his first period as UNC’s coach. The 1997 Tar Heels blasted Virginia Tech, 42-3, on Jan. 1, 1998.
For now, this is just a possibility for the Tar Heels, with much to still be decided.
