NC State football weekly bowl projections
On Sunday, NC State football will find out where the Wolfpack will be bowling. If the projections across the web prove correct, the Duke’s Mayo Bowl in Charlotte at noon on Dec. 30 and televised by ESPN is becoming the heavy favorite as the landing spot for the Wolfpack.
The Wolfpacker also projected Charlotte as the destination.
That is a change from a week ago when the various bowl projections were more mixed about where NC State would end up.
Steve Lassan of Athlon still has the Wolfpack in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl for the fourth straight week, but he has his third different opponent facing NC State. For the first two checks of his projections, Maryland was the Big Ten representative. Last week, Lassan switched to Purdue.
This time, he has the Wolfpack playing Minnesota.
That 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.
CollegeFootballNews.com also maintains its consistent projection of sending NC State to Charlotte. It has also switched back to its pick from two weeks ago for the opponent — Iowa. Last week, CFN had chosen Minnesota to be in Charlotte.
ESPN.com’s Kyle Bonagura joined the chorus in sending NC State football to Charlotte, offering up Maryland as the opponent in what would be a renewal of an old ACC rivalry.
That is also the pick from The Athletic.
However, Bonagura’s counterpart, Mark Schlabach, has Duke playing Maryland in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.
Instead of Charlotte, Schlabach has NC State playing in the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, on Dec. 30, a 2 p.m. kickoff on CBS. His projected opponent is a juicy matchup: a rematch of the game that never happened last year against UCLA.
The Bruins pulled out of the Holiday Bowl hours before kickoff due to COVID-19 reasons, leading to the cancellation of the bowl in a decision that still does not sit well with the NC State football program. The Wolfpack felt they were falsely assured by UCLA officials in the days leading up to kickoff that the game was being played.
CBSSports.com’s Jerry Palm’s updated bowl projections kept NC State in the Military Bowl in Annapolis, Md., on Dec. 28. The game is a 2 p.m. kick on ESPN.
Last week, Palm had the Pack facing Central Florida. The latest update has Cincinnati, who lost head coach Luke Fickell to the Wisconsin opening this week. The Bearcats are playing their final season in the American Athletic Conference before joining the Power Five ranks next year with a move to the Big 12 Conference.
NC State was scheduled to host Cincinnati in 2023 as part of a home-and-home, but that series was canceled due to the Bearcats’ pending conference move. Marshall has replaced Cincinnati on next year’s slate for the Wolfpack.
Palm had Florida State playing in Charlotte for the ACC.
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).
