UNC Headed to Orange Bowl
For the first time since 1950, North Carolina is headed for a major bowl game.
The Tar Heels broke a 70 year drought, since they went to the Sugar and Cotton Bowls three times in a four-year stretch, when they were selected for the Orange Bowl.
The Tar Heels will face Texas A&M on January 2 in South Florida. It will be UNC’s first-ever trip to the bowl.
The bowl was obligated to select the highest ranked ACC team not chosen for the College Football Playoff. Carolina’s win over Miami moved the Tar Heels into third in the CFP selection committee’s rankings among ACC schools.
The Heels then needed a Clemson win over Notre Dame in the ACC Championship Game to earn both schools a playoff berth. Clemson’s blowout win cast some doubt on if the Irish would hold their spot, but the committee seeded the Tigers second and the Irish fourth, clearing the way for Carolina.
Texas A&M, who lost once, to Alabama, keeping it out of the SEC Championship game, had the best case for displacing Notre Dame. The Aggies were ranked fifth, just outside the playoff field.
That could make the Aggies a dangerous Orange Bowl foe for the Tar Heels. A&M could enter the game with something to prove to the committee and the rest of the nation.
A&M’s head coach is no stranger to the Tar Heels. Jimbo Fisher spent eight years as Florida State’s head coach before leaving for College Station in 2018. The Tar Heels beat Fisher in Tallahassee the last time the two teams met.
