UNC Football: Bowl projections for Tar Heels entering final week

We take a look at some bowl projections for the UNC Football program ahead of their finale vs. N.C. State on Saturday night

For the North Carolina Tar Heels football program, it’s simple. Beat N.C. State on Saturday and you are bowl eligible. Lose and you will miss out on a bowl game for the third-straight year.

The Wolfpack are in a down year and enter the game with just four wins and not eligible to go to a bowl game, so they will try to play the role of spoiler on Saturday.

UNC enters the game as eight-point favorites on the road, a big number, but they can’t take a rivalry game lightly. Anything can happen and last season UNC was pretty bad and almost pulled off the upset.

But as we continue to inch closer to that game, the Tar Heels are being included in some bowl projections as the experts think they will pull off the win.

Stewart Mandel of The Athletic was one of those experts and has the Tar Heels winning on Saturday, filling one of the 78 bowl spots. With the win, Mandel projects UNC to play in the Military Bowl on December 27th vs. Navy in Annapolis, Maryland. That’s virtually a home game for Navy in that bowl.

While Mandel has the Tar Heels in the Military Bowl, ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach have UNC as bowl eligible but in two different locations.

Bonagura has UNC going to Detroit to take on Michigan State in the Quick Lane Bowl as the Atlantic Coast Conference representative. That game is to be played at 8 p.m. on ESPN on Dec. 26th.

Schlabach has UNC playing on the same day but in a different spot. He has UNC matched up Louisiana Tech in the Walk On’s Independence Bowl played in Shreveport.

While the Tar Heels still need that one to become bowl eligible this year, it’s still good to see that the experts are picking them to win on Saturday.

For more on the UNC Football program, please check back with Keeping It Heel.