Bowl Games Will Change

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- After Boston College finished 9-3 in its first season in the ACC last season and ended up playing Boise State in the MPC Computers Bowl in not-so-balmy Boise, the ACC spent the offseason reviewing how its teams would be selected for future bowl games.

The league is expected to announce a new bowl order Tuesday during its annual ACC Kickoff news conferences at Sawgrass Resort & Beach Club. According to bowl game officials familiar with the order, the lineup will go something like this: ACC champion to the Bowl Championship Series, No. 2 selection to the Peach Bowl in Atlanta, No. 3 to the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, No. 4 to the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, No. 5 to the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl in Nashville, No. 6 to the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, N.C., No. 7 to the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco and No. 8 to the MPC Computers Bowl.

Under the new agreement, the ACC championship game loser can't fall below the Music City Bowl, and a bowl game can bypass a team for another team with a lesser record only if the teams are within one game of each other in the ACC standings.

So if the new agreement were in place last season, for instance, the Music City and Meineke Car Care bowls couldn't have selected Virginia and NC State, which both finished with 3-5 ACC marks, over Boston College and Georgia Tech, which were both 5-3 in league play.

"Unfortunately, we were the guinea pigs that had to suffer going to a bowl that people didn't think we deserved to go to," Boston College guard Josh Beekman said. "Fortunately, the ACC is changing things so it won't happen again."

Mark Schlabach covers college football and men's college basketball for ESPN.com.