Well that was weird.
After a much speculation that UNC would end up in the Military Bowl in Washington, DC some last minute selection surprises up the food chain moved UNC from the D.C. bowl to the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, LA to play Missouri.
Apparently what happened is Virginia Tech was taken to play in the Sugar Bowl putting two ACC teams into the Bowl Championship Series for the first time in history. Clemson was already slated for the Orange Bowl by virtue of their 28 point win over the Hokies to take the ACC Championship. The original assumption was Virginia Tech would then go to the Chick-fila Bowl and the ACC teams would fall into order from there with UNC in the ACC's 8th bowl tie-in, the Military Bowl. With Virginia Tech moving up the East Side, everyone else slid up one spot including the Heels who go to Shreveport instead of D.C.
All things considered UNC would be better off in the Military Bowl. D.C. is an easy trek from Chapel Hill and coming three days after Christmas it would be much easier to attend. The Independence Bowl is the day after Christmas in a place no one wants to go on a normal day much less right after Christmas. It is too far from Chapel Hill to drive and airline tickets are a tad expensive. In other words, not many UNC fans are going to this game. I have no idea how much Missouri fans travel but chances are this is not going to be a well attended game.
Then again it really doesn't matter. When you operate in the 7-8 win range, like UNC has for the past four years the bowl choices are going to be pretty thin. The only benefit UNC gleans from this game is the extra month of practice for the underclassmen which actually may not be as beneficial as normal considering there will be a new coaching staff next season.
For what its worth, UNC will be going for a fourth straight eight win season on December 26th, which is still better than the Bunting-Torbush years regardless of what anyone else says.