UNC Will Play Baylor in the Russell Athletic Bowl

The Tar Heels are going to Disney World.

UNC will attempt to win a school record 12th game of the season in the Russell Athletic Bowl versus Baylor(9-3 overall, 6-3 in the Big 12). The game is scheduled for December 29th at 5:30 PM.

Earlier in the day, the Tar Heels maintained it's spot in the College Football Rankings as the #10 team in the country. However due to the way the bowl ties work, the Tar Heels did not get selected for one of the coveted New Year's Six bowl games. After the selection of the four playoff teams led by ACC Champion Clemson, the other four bowls were selected. #5 Iowa will face Stanford in the Rose Bowl while #7 Ohio State will go against #8 Note Dame in the Fiesta Bowl.

After that, the bowl tie-in shenanigans kicked in. #9 Florida State got a spot in the Peach Bowl and will face #18 Houston since there had to be a Group of Five team presenting the non-Power 5 conferences. That left the Sugar Bowl and thanks to league tie-ins, #12 Old Miss will face #16 TCU.

The problem for UNC is the fact the Orange Bowl, which has ACC tie-ins,  is being used as one of the playoff semifinal games. If that wasn't the case, it's possible UNC could have grabbed a spot in one of the top tier bowls.

As it stands the Tar Heels will face Baylor in a battle of the top two teams in the country in offensive yards per play. That stat comes with a caveat. Baylor has been bit hard by the injury bug and lost its #1 and #2 quarterback for the season. On Thanksgiving weekend, Baylor lost 28-21 to TCU in overtime generating only 3.53 yards per play in what could best be described as a monsoon. On Saturday, the Bears fell to Texas 23-17 and had just 5.10 yards per play.

Still the game pits two teams that love to score as quickly as possible and even with Baylor's problems should yield a highly entertaining game.