Week 9:The Official Football From Mass Two Miami Bowl Predictions

Last night on the podcast FFM2M released our first ever ACC football bowl predictions. Going forward that will be a weekly fixture, both here on the website and in the FFM2M podcast.
To listen to the previous podcasts, including this weeks just use the "Talk Shoe" tool bar to the right or click here.

Before we lay down The Official Football From Mass Two Miami Bowl Predictions lets take some time to outline the bowl games rank in order of selection.

Orange (Miami, FL)
Chic-Fil-A (Atlanta, GA)
Gator (Jacksonville, FL)
Champs (Orlando, FL)
Meineke Car Care (Charlotte, NC)
Music City (Nashville, NC)
Emerald (San Francisco, CA)
Humanitarian (Boise, ID)
Eagle Bank (Washington DC)

Spots number 1-4 as well as 8 and 9 are pretty much set in stone by the ACC overall standings.

Bowl games 5-7 have a little flux within their selection process. The Meineke Car Care, Music City and the Emerald Bowl have their pick of 5-7 between themselves. This means that depending on the teams available each bowl game is going to offer a bid to the team most attractive to them. Issues including date of the game, fanbases' reputation for traveling and opponent match ups all will factor into the Bowl Committees' and the Athletic Departments' decision on which bids to offer and accept.

Now with that cleared up here are Football From Mass To Miami's Week 9 ACC Bowl Predictions:

Orange Bowl: Virginia Tech
The Hokies finally dropped a game in the league, relinquishing their iron fisted grip over the conference and again showing vulnerability on special teams. Frank Beamer's team is still among the conferences elite and the Hokies should end up in Tampa to compete for a chance to redeem themselves in the Orange Bowl.

Chic-Fil-A Bowl: Maryland
Early season the Terps looked to be an unlikely choice for the ACC title game but they're coming on strong with the maturation of Chris Turner and the explosion of Da'Rel Scott and stand out wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey.

Gator Bowl: Florida State
The 'Noles will be served well finishing ahead of the carnage in the middle of the ACC but missing out to a tough Maryland squad. Playing right in their backyard of Jacksonville will definitely serve the fighting Bobby Bowden's justice. Getting Ponder and the rest of the young squad a good bowl game possibly against Notre Dame, renewing an old rivalry.

Champs Sports Bowl: Georgia Tech
Paul Johnson's squad is probably the most overachieving of the bunch in the ACC and they will definitely show Orlando what option football is all about. Set against a Big 10 team this could be a pretty exciting inter-sectional match up.

Meineke Car Care Bowl: North Carolina
A true match made in heaven, Charlotte is essentially Chapel Hill south and the Heels would bring plenty of fans just as they did in 2004. This may be a disappointing finish for the Heels who have started out 5-2 but with the logjam in the middle of the ACC going to this bowl wouldn't be a serious let down. It'd be a nice end to Butch's season and give the young Heels a base to build off of.

Music City Bowl: Wake Forest
Wake will be another team stuck in the middle tier of the ACC and although the Deacons had a decent showing in Charlotte the Tar Heels are a more appealing partner. The Deacs don't have a massive fan base to command the courting of bowls but they do a play an exciting brand of football and would be a good fit for the Nashville area.

Emerald Bowl: Boston College
A team with almost know real following outside of alums and family members will get the short end of the stick when it comes to the bowl bids. This bowl lacks a lot of the luster associated withe the Gator Bowl the Eagles went to last season but Coach Jags has still got a winner in Chestnut Hill.

Humanitarian Bowl: Miami
The Canes fans only travel to BCS games. The Blue Turf Bowl isn't a BCS game. Ergo the Canes fans won't travel. Randy Shannon getting the Canes to any bowl is a major step after a couple poor seasons in Coral Gables. This will be a good building block for the Canes and barring a drastic turn around it'll be the first time most of the those Miami boys see snow.

Eagle Bank Bowl: Virginia
The Hoos are surging but with their emergence on the ACC scene comes the toughest stretch of their schedule (GT, Miami, Wake & VT). Hopefully Al Groh's troops can battle through this stretch to claim the final bowl spot in the ACC. Going to DC would be a perfect fit for the Cavaliers as they've got a strong fanbase in the DC and northern Virginia area.

On The Outside Looking In:
Clemson, Duke, NC State