N. Carolina - W. Virginia

the Meineke Car Care Bowl Saturday, December 27th, 1:00pm Detroit, Michigan

North Carolina (8-4)______ACC______231.66 Wk Opp oPts Score 1 McNeese State -418.12 W, 35-27 3 Rutgers 118.18 W, 44-12 4 Virginia Tech 274.79 L, 17-20 5 Miami (FL) 126.74 W, 28-24 6 Connecticut 103.31 W, 38-12 7 Notre Dame -7.99 W, 29-24 8 Virginia 36.10 L, 13-16 9 Boston College 253.65 W, 45-24 11 Georgia Tech 276.75 W, 28-7 12 Maryland 52.23 L, 15-17 13 NC State 102.87 L, 10-41 14 Duke -80.04 W, 28-20

West Virginia (8-4)______BigEast_____144.18 Wk Opp oPts Score 1 Villanova -423.32 W, 48-21 2 East Carolina 198.86 L, 3-24 4 Colorado -63.26 L, 14-17 5 Marshall -148.36 W, 27-3 6 Rutgers 118.18 W, 24-17 7 Syracuse -173.35 W, 17-6 9 Auburn -77.38 W, 34-17 10 Connecticut 103.31 W, 35-13 11 Cincinnati 331.88 L, 23-26 13 Louisville -82.22 W, 35-21 14 Pittsburgh 277.72 L, 15-19 15 South Florida 82.51 W, 13-7

Both of these two played a lot of solid teams throughout the year, going 8-4 against them. But UNC had the harder SoS and one of the toughest in the nation, so they get the edge.

Stats Matchup
Team	North Carolina	West Virginia
Points (rank)	231.66 (#18)	144.18 (#38)
Record	8-4	8-4
Opp. Points (rank)	838.47 (#16)	144.56 (#48)
Opp. Record	75-60	72-63
Points (% of Opp. Avg)	27.5 (135%)	24.0 (101%)
dPoints (% of Opp. Avg)	20.3 (100%)	15.9 (74%)
Rush Yds (% of Opp. Avg)	125.1 (94%)	217.2 (166%)
dRush Yds (% of Opp. Avg)	140.8 (100%)	134.8 (99%)
Pass Yds (% of Opp. Avg)	192.3 (102%)	135.3 (65%)
dPass Yds (% of Opp. Avg)	217.2 (120%)	190.7 (102%)
Tot Yds (% of Opp. Avg)	317.3 (97%)	352.5 (102%)
dTot Yds (% of Opp. Avg)	357.9 (111%)	325.5 (99%)
ST Yds (% of Opp. Avg)	140.0 (119%)	111.4 (90%)
dST Yds (% of Opp. Avg)	114.3 (95%)	122.9 (96%)
Penalties / Pen. Yds	4.9 / 42.8	4.8 / 43.8
TO's / TO Margin	1.8 / +6	1.2 / +12

I was all set to go with the Tar Heels here, but then I looked closer at the D stats - not too good. The only area they allow under their opponent's average is dST at 95% - everything else is over 100%. The Mountaineers D isn't stellar, but it's better than that. They're pretty disciplined teams too, which bodes well for a clean game. I don't like this pick much at all...

The Line: West Virginia -1.5

The Call: West Virginia by 4

The Result: West Virginia 31-30

The whole game I was wondering why Butch Davis wasn't ever going for the 2-pt conversion. You score a TD to go up 22-21 - what good is an extra point going to do for you? You score again to go up 29-24 - same situation, same bad decision. Argh. At any rate, you can't take anything away from West Virginia. What a way for Pat White to end his career. Solid.