Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner John Swofford announced Wednesday partnerships with five football bowl games which will be effective for the six years of postseason play following the 2014 through 2019 seasons.
The partnerships are in addition to what the Conference previously announced, and have the ACC providing a team in each of the six years to the Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman; the AdvoCare V100 Bowl and a new bowl game in Detroit, Mich., hosted by the Detroit Lions Football Club of the National Football League.
Additionally, the ACC also reached partnership agreements with ESPN Regional Television’s Beef ‘O’Brady’s Bowl in St. Petersburg, Fla., and the Birmingham (Ala.) Bowl games in those seasons when the games are scheduled to be played after Christmas. The ACC will provide a team to the Beef ‘O’Brady’s Bowl after the 2014 and 2016 seasons and will serve as the Bowl’s first conditional choice in the other four years if either of its primary partners are not able to provide a team. The Birmingham Bowl will be a second conditional bowl for the ACC, if it has an available team beyond the Beef ‘O’Brady’s Bowl choice. The ACC is the first conditional choice of the Birmingham Bowl, should either of that bowl’s primary partners not have an eligible team.
“It’s very satisfying to finalize our future ACC bowl partnerships that collectively provide great flexibility, matchups and depth for our 15 member schools,” said ACC Commissioner John Swofford. “We are pleased to continue our relationship with the Military and AdvoCare V100 Bowls while beginning new ones with the new bowl game in Detroit, hosted by the Detroit Lions; the Beef ‘O’Brady’s bowl game and Birmingham.”
The ACC will be extending its current partnership with the Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman, a game which has been played in Washington, D.C., from 2008 through 2012, but will be played at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Md., this December. In its new agreement with the Military Bowl, which begins after the 2014 season, ACC teams will face teams from the American Athletic Conference.
The Conference will also be extending its current four-year relationship with the AdvoCare V100 Bowl game in Shreveport, La. The AdvoCare V100 Bowl, which will hold its 38th annual game this year, is the nation’s 11th oldest bowl game and is played in Independence Stadium.
The ACC will begin a new relationship with the new bowl game slated for Detroit, which will be hosted by the Detroit Lions and played at Ford Field. The ACC will face a team from the Big Ten Conference in the new bowl game. The Lions become only the second NFL team to officially host and operate a college football bowl game.
The league will also begin new partnerships with the Beef ‘O’Brady’s Bowl, played in Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., and the Birmingham Bowl, which is played in legendary Legion Field in Birmingham, Ala.
The five new partnerships complete the ACC’s bowl lineup for the 2014-2019 seasons.
Previously announced were agreements reached with the Discover Orange Bowl in South Florida, where the ACC’s champion, if not in the College Football Playoff, will play; the Russell Athletic Bowl and the Capital One Bowl games in Orlando; the Hyundai Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas; the Belk Bowl in Charlotte, N.C.; the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tenn. and the Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla.; and the New Era Pinstripe Bowl in New York City.
The order of team selections for the bowl partnerships announced Wednesday will come after the selections of the bowl partnerships previously announced.
In all, the ACC, which will have 15 schools in its bowl mix, will have a minimum of nine guaranteed bowl berths in each of the six years after the 2014-19 seasons, with that number expanding to 10 in the 2014 and 2016 seasons. Additionally, the conference also has additional bowl berths when it sends more than one team to the College Football Playoff/New Year’s Six and/or plays a Big Ten team in the Discover Orange Bowl which triggers a berth for an ACC team in the Capital One Bowl.
Additional berths may be available after the 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019 seasons in the Beef ‘O’Brady’s Bowl and in all six years in the Birmingham Bowl. The Conference will send a team first to the Beef ‘O’Brady’s Bowl, when that game has an opening, followed by sending a team to the Birmingham Bowl game.
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