West Virginia Vs. Clemson: Orange Bowl Loses Importance In BCS Era

The Boston Herald writes that, after somewhat recent changes to the bowl system, the Orange Bowl has lost some of its juice.

Even fans of Clemson and West Virginia aren’t rushing to see the match-up the Orange Bowl will serve Wednesday night at Sun Life Stadium. Both schools are coming up well short of selling out their allotments of 17,500 tickets.

The BCS era has stripped much of the luster from the traditional bowls.

National champions used to come from the Orange Bowl, but now that isn’t possible. Now it’s just one among many.

Fans of Clemson and especially West Virginia can’t rightly complain about this, of course. WVU lost to UConn and Louisville this year – the Mountaineers deserve to be going to a lower-tier bowl. They’re lucky that the Big East has a BCS tie-in in the first place. And the Orange Bowl is hardly the only bowl that’s been affected – none of the many bowls on Monday felt particularly relevant.

For more on WVU football, check out the Smoking Musket.