There are four ACC teams that are 6-6 — UNC, Miami, Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh — but only three guaranteed bowl slots for them. An extra bowl game might become available for an ACC team depending on where bowl-eligible teams from the Big 12 conference end up.
“We put so much work in, so I’ll feel pretty bad if we don’t get to play in a bowl game,” said Kendrick Singleton, a junior wide receiver.
While UNC fans and players could potentially be disappointed, dropping down a tier or not going to a bowl at all will not significantly affect UNC financially.
“We set our budget in February, March or April, the year before, based on a projected amount of money that the ACC tells us we’ll get, regardless of if we’re in a bowl game,” said Rick Steinbacher, the senior associate athletic director for external communications.
The bowl games are a major source of revenue for the ACC and its schools, and each school receives the same bowl payout amount from the ACC if it plays in a Tier 1 bowl, Tier 2 bowl or no bowl at all.
Steinbacher said each of the 14 ACC schools receives an equal split of the bowl revenue allotment. This year, each school received slightly less than $5 million for a bowl payout.
Each school that makes it to a bowl game also receives an expense allotment to cover its travel costs, but the expense allotment is not intended to be a financial gain. All bowl teams receive the same expense funding, except for the teams that make it to the college playoffs and the Orange Bowl — they receive more funding.
