Details of College Football Playoff are set -- mostly -- but other non-playoff bowl arrangements are still being sorted through.
Not immune to change is the ACC, which ESPN’s Brett McMurphy reports will turn to the Russell Athletic Bowl to select its next top team after the Orange Bowl. Provided that report comes to fruition -- an announcement is expected to be made in the coming weeks -- it would mix up the conference’s current bowl pecking order. In 2013, the final year for several of the ACC’s bowl contracts, the Chick-fil-A Bowl will have the second choice of ACC teams followed by the Russell Athletic Bowl.
The Chick-fil-A Bowl will serve as one of the six rotating semifinal sites in CFP.
McMurphy reports that, as of two weeks ago, it appeared the Gator, Belk and Music City bowls would share the ACC’s next pick after the Orange Bowl. However, the Russell Athletic Bowl has apparently made a push in the ACC’s bowl pecking order. If the Russell Athletic Bowl does get the second pick of an ACC team, it would end an exclusive deal the ACC had with the Gator and Music City bowls. As a result, those two bowls would each get an ACC and Big Ten school three times over a six-year agreement.
ESPN also reported previously that in years when the Big Ten plays the ACC in the Orange Bowl, the ACC would receive the Big Ten’s slot in the Capital One Bowl against the SEC.
The ACC is also expected to pick up a tie-in with the New Era Pinstripe Bowl in New York City.