NC State football bowl projections: Where the Wolfpack could play this postseason after 7-win campaign

NC State coach Dave Doeren has made history. He is the first coach in program history to lead a team to six straight bowl appearances. And now after the Wolfpack beat UNC 42-19 to close the regular season, the 13th-year coach has a chance to earn an eighth win for the eighth time in his tenure. 

The possible final victory will come in a bowl game, which experts around the country haven’t been able to come to a consensus on where the Wolfpack will end up in December. Though there are multiple true possibilities, NC State was projected to play in the Birmingham, Duke’s Mayo, Gasparilla, Fenway or Military Bowls after the regular season.

While there’s a lot of scenarios on the table, the Gasparilla Bowl was the most-common pick for the Wolfpack to play in on Dec. 19 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla. Athlon Sports and ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura had the Pack facing off with USF, while On3’s Brett McMurphy placed Old Dominion as the opponent.

The Fenway Bowl, which is scheduled for Dec. 27 at the home of the Boston Red Sox, has been another popular pick for NC State to land in as ESPN’s Mark Schlabach projected the Wolfpack to face off with USF, while Jerry Palm had Memphis as the foe. 

If NC State were to play in the Fenway Bowl, it wouldn’t be the first time Doeren took the Wolfpack into a baseball stadium for a postseason contest. He guided the Pack to a 34-27 win over UCF in the 2014 St. Petersburg Bowl, which was held at Tropicana Field, the home of the Tampa Bay Rays.

Outside of the two main postseason games that the Pack has been tied to, The Athletic projected NC State to the Birmingham Bowl against Tulane (Dec. 27, Birmingham, Ala.), while CBS Sports had it in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl against UConn (Jan. 2, Charlotte, N.C.) and Pro Football Network placed the red and white in a return trip to the Military Bowl against USF (Dec. 27, Annapolis, Md.).

The Pack has appeared in nine bowl games (qualified for 10, but the 2021 Holiday Bowl was canceled due to positive COVID-19 tests within UCLA’s program) under Doeren, but NC State has not won in the postseason since it beat Arizona State 52-31 in the 2017 Sun Bowl. The Wolfpack most recently lost the 2024 Military Bowl to ECU in 26-21 fashion at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium in Annapolis, Md.

NC State has also played in the Belk, Duke’s Mayo, Gator, Independence and Pop-Tarts Bowls during Doeren’s tenure.