1998 Gator Bowl - Team Selection

Team Selection

During the 1997 college football season, the Gator Bowl selection committee held contracts with both the Big East and Atlantic Coast Conferences. In exchange for guaranteeing to pay a total of $3.2 million to the participating teams, the committee held the right to the second pick of bowl-eligible teams from each conference. Each conference's champion was awarded an automatic spot in a Bowl Alliance game, and it was expected that the Gator Bowl would select each conference's second-place team unless other circumstances arose.

Prior to the final week of the regular season, it appeared that circumstances might indeed throw that plan into confusion. North Carolina, the ACC's second-place team, had risen to No. 5 in the USA Today Coaches Poll and No. 7 in the Associated Press college football poll, and was considered to be a candidate for an at-large Bowl Alliance selection. If North Carolina was selected for a higher-tier bowl game, the door would be opened for Notre Dame to play in the 1998 Gator Bowl—a circumstance provided for if neither the first nor second-place ACC team was available to play. In the end, however, ACC runner-up North Carolina was bypassed by Bowl Alliance officials, leaving the team available for the Gator Bowl. Facing the Tar Heels were the Virginia Tech Hokies, second-place finishers in the Big East Conference. Gator Bowl officials considered inviting Big East third-place West Virginia due to its reputation for bringing large numbers of fans to bowl games, but decided against inviting the Mountaineers out of recognition that North Carolina and West Virginia played each other in the 1997 Gator Bowl.