It's time for our second-to-last round of bowl predictions, and I have some bad news for Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets fans. The ACC has eight bowl tie-ins and nine bowl eligible teams. The 7-5 Miami Hurricanes, 6-6 Tech, the 6-6 Clemson Tigers, and the 7-5 Boston College Eagles will be the least desirable teams to bowl selection committees. That means one of those teams will have to take another conference's bowl spot.
Wait, I haven't gotten to the bad news yet. Here's the sorta good news: The PAC-10 won't be able to fill all of its tie-ins, thanks to the USC Trojans being ineligible and the in-conference dominance of the Oregon Ducks and Stanford Cardinal. They only have three eligible teams as is, and are likely to gain only one more. They could get two if the Oregon St. Beavers upset Oregon, which probably isn't going to happen. So the ACC's odd team out can take one of the PAC-10's bowls, either the Dec. 22 Maaco Bowl in Las Vegas or the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl in San Fran on Jan. 9.
Wait, still not the bad news. The Kraft thing, in addition to being just about the least prestigious bowl, also welcomes one of the WAC's two teams. The Boise St. Broncos and Nevada Wolf Pack are the top two WAC teams. While the flexbone vs. the pistol would be pretty fascinating, the average Tech fan wants exactly zero part of a pissed-off Boise team that has never really been pissed off before.
Miami's firing of Randy Shannon last night could be good news, though. Miami fans don't travel very well anyway, and its losing a coach popular among players could discourage a bowl thinking of taking the Canes. In that event, Tech could sneak into the Military Bowl against a Conference USA team, likely the East Carolina Pirates. What a difference a win last night would've made.