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Somebody's Going to Charlotte, Somebody's Going to Get Screwed

The ACC's top two sub-BCS bowls have gone ahead and picked their teams, with Georgia Tech going to the Peach and Clemson headed to the Gator. That's 7-5, bowl-eligible only after its final game, coach-firing, technically 5th in the Atlantic Division Clemson, taking one of the ACC's most prestigious slots, and the only one against a Big 12 team for the next two years. Just a friendly reminder that the football postseason is just broken at the top, it's rotten all the way down the line; Clemson leapt at least three more worthy teams because a bowl organizer somewhere thinks it's 1982. 

And this isn't sour grapes from a Carolina fan; UNC played their way out of a Gator Bowl slot weeks ago. It's more embarrassment for the ACC, who will now send the loser of the conference championship to at best Orlando, (the 4th bowl in the pecking order) although more likely one of the three bowls that follow it.

(A digression to explain that last bit: Due to previous years where embarrassingly overqualified teams were shunted off to meaningless bowls for financial considerations, the ACC reached a compromise similar to the "Everyone's a Winner!" mentality of youth rec sports. The Music City, Meineke and Emerald bowls all simultaneously pick teams, and everyone kind of just hopes they all want different teams and that the ACC is cool with it. If anyone turns out to be a buzzkill, the bowls choose in order of Music City, Meineke, and Emerald.)

UNC, by the way, is pretty much a lock for Charlotte, where they'll meet Pittsburgh. Unsurprisingly, the ACC Championship game is looking to be a bigger financial failure than last year, due to it featuring the exact same two teams and the fact that it is pretty much meaningless as far as these things go; either your team of choice will win and you'd rather go to the Orange Bowl, or you'll face the double ignominy of a loss and an exile to Nashville. Can't imagine why no one's snapping up those ducats.