NC State football weekly bowl projections
The outlook for the bowl game for NC State football diversified since last week’s update. Charlotte for the Duke’s Mayo Bowl had been a popular bowl pick for the Wolfpack, but now that is far less the consensus among those who make guesses about how the postseason games may shake out.
There are still those holding out that NC State will end up in the nearby bowl game on Dec. 30 for a noon kickoff on ESPN. That would be the first bowl there since 2015 for head coach Dave Doeren’s squad, when the Wolfpack lost to Mississippi State on a wet evening at Bank of America Stadium.
Steve Lassan of Athlon still has the Wolfpack in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl for the third straight week, but unlike the past two, he has changed the opponent from his previous pick of Maryland. Instead, the representative from the Big Ten conference would be Purdue.
CollegeFootballNews.com also keeps with their projection of NC State playing in Charlotte. Last week, CFN had the Pack against Iowa, but like Athlon has changed their team from the Big Ten. The latest update has NC State facing Minnesota in what would be a rematch of the 2000 MicronPC.com Bowl in Miami, when NC State rallied from being down 24-0 in the second quarter to win 38-30. A freshman quarterback by the name of Philip Rivers was the bowl MVP.
However, two other sites are gaining steam as potential bowl destinations for NC State football. One is Annapolis, Md., for the Military Bowl. The game will be played on Dec. 28 at 2 p.m. on ESPN.
ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura has NC State representing the ACC against Cincinnati. The Bearcats are playing their final season in the American Athletic Conference before joining the Power Five ranks with a move to the Big 12 Conference.
NC State was scheduled to host Cincinnati next season as part of a home-and-home, but that series was canceled due to the Bearcats’ pending move. Marshall has replaced Cincinnati on next year’s slate for the Wolfpack.
Also sending the Pack to the Military Bowl was Jerry Palm of CBSSports.com. He has NC State playing Central Florida. Doeren’s first bowl game since coming to Raleigh was the 2014 St. Petersburg Bowl in which his squad knocked off UCF.
Bonagura’s counterpart at ESPN, Mark Schlabach, was one of two projections that sent NC State to Tampa, Fla., for an earlier bowl assignment, playing UAB for a Dec. 23 noon kickoff on ESPN in the Gasparilla Bowl.
The Athletic had the Wolfpack in Tampa last week and maintained that projection, although made a change in opponent. A week ago the duo of Stewart Mandel and Scott Dochterman had NC State in a rematch with Connecticut, but now have the opponent listed as Louisiana.
The outlier still holding out that NC State can play back up the bowl pecking order is Richard Johnson of SI.com. He has NC State playing Baylor in Orlando in the Cheez-It Bowl on Dec. 29 (5:30 p.m. kick on ESPN).
The Wolfpack, 7-4 overall and 3-4 in the ACC, plays at North Carolina on Friday at 3:30 p.m. The game will be televised nationally on ABC.
