Projecting The ACC Bowl Teams After Week 8, Where Boston College Is Headed To The EagleBank Bowl

With the college football season hitting the midpoint this week, several college football sites (including ESPN and College Football News) are updating their 2010-11 bowl projections based on the first half. Sitting at 2-4, Boston College didn't make either site's bowl projections.

To that, I say nonsense.

It is the position of this writer that Boston College will, in fact, go bowling this season. The Eagles need to win just four of their final six games of the season to become bowl-eligible for the 12th straight season. I believe the Eagles will do just that, or even exceed expectations in the second half of the season by going 5-1 or 6-0 down the stretch.

Seriously. I mean, if nothing else, look at the remaining schedule. I know the Eagles haven't been world beaters through six games of the college football season, but Wake Forest? Duke? Virginia? Maryland? Syracuse? The Eagles close with the four worst programs in the ACC and a middle-of-the-road Big East opponent.

Here are this week's ESPN predictions:

Orange Bowl: Virginia Tech
Chick-fil-A Bowl: Florida State
Champs Sports Bowl: Miami
Sun Bowl: Clemson
Meineke Car Care Bowl: N.C. State
Music City Bowl: Georgia Tech
Independence Bowl: North Carolina
EagleBank Bowl: Maryland

And here are the predictions from College Football News:

Orange Bowl: Florida State
Chick-fil-A Bowl: Virginia Tech
Champs Sports Bowl: Miami
Sun Bowl: N.C. State
Meineke Car Care Bowl: North Carolina
Music City Bowl: Georgia Tech
Independence Bowl: Clemson
EagleBank Bowl: Maryland

The Eagles should be favored in five of their last six games this season. With a convincing win over Maryland this weekend, combined with a Georgia Tech win over Clemson, BC could even be favored or a pick'em against the ACC's most enigmatic team, Clemson.

The best case scenario is BC gets things rolling and rattles off six straight wins to end the season. At 8-4 (5-3 ACC), that would probably be good enough to get the Eagles to the Sun Bowl or the Car Parts Bowl. More realistically, the Eagles will be either 7-5 or 6-6, which will probably be good enough for a trip to Shreveport, Louisiana, or Washington, DC for the Independence or Eagle Bank Bowls, respectively. 

After seven weeks of the college football season, here are my predictions for this year's ACC bowls (with my preseason prediction in parenthesis):

Orange Bowl: Florida State (Miami)
Chick-fil-A Bowl: Miami (Virginia Tech)
Champs Sports Bowl: Virginia Tech (Florida State)
Sun Bowl: North Carolina (Boston College)
Meineke Car Care Bowl: N.C. State (North Carolina)
Music City Bowl: Georgia Tech (Georgia Tech)
Independence Bowl: Clemson (Clemson)
EagleBank Bowl: Boston College (N.C. State)
Fight Hunger Bowl: Maryland (N/A)

Besides, isn't it only fitting that the Boston College Eagles play in the EagleBank Bowl? I think so.