Terps to play in Military Bowl despite No. 3 finish in ACC

After a win in its regular-season finale against N.C. State pushed the Terrapin football team to a surprising tie for third in the ACC on Nov. 27, the Terps' feel-good story of conference resurgence seemed to bode well for a coveted warm-weather bowl.

But it was ultimately ticket sales, not wins, that decided the Terps' postseason destination: Washington's Military Bowl, the conference's lowest-tier bowl game, against Conference USA's East Carolina.

Kickoff against the Pirates is set for 2:30 p.m. Dec. 29 at RFK Stadium.

"We're disappointed in the process," Athletics Director Kevin Anderson said in a teleconference yesterday shortly after the team accepted the bowl invitation. "We're disappointed with how things were determined, and it has nothing to do with the bowl game and where we're playing.

Despite finishing behind only Virginia Tech and Florida State in the conference standings, the Terps (8-4) dropped below four teams with worse records - Clemson, Georgia Tech, Miami and North Carolina -- in the pecking order for bowl selection.

Bowl organizers often have the leeway to choose teams they feel will most positivey benefit their event's profitability or marketability. As a result, bowl order rarely matches the final conference standings.

So even with the country's second biggest turnaround this season, the Terps didn't have enough to escape the Washington area.

"We're going to make the best of it," coach Ralph Friedgen said. "The toughest thing for our guys is that it's in our own backyard."

In a video released by the athletics department last night, Anderson urged fans to make the trip to the nation's capital to support the team and "the change to participate in something larger than football."

It will be the Terps' seventh bowl appearance in the past 10 years and first in program history in Washington.

"For the thousands of Terrapins fans in the region, this will be a great opportunity to support their team in a bowl game in their own backyard," said Steve Beck, the executive director of the Military Bowl.

Poor fan support likely damaged the Terps' bid for more prominent bowls such as the Orlando, Fla.-based Champs Sports Bowl, which selected N.C. State. The Terps fell more than $500,000 short of season ticket-sales projections in each of the past two seasons, and only one game at Byrd Stadium this season was at 75 percent capacity.

The bowl announcement did not sit well some of the Terps' players.

"This is bullshit," defensive lineman Drew Gloster wrote on Twitter yesterday. "[H]ow n the hell do we go 8-4 and still have to play n the bumass military bowl against east carolina, I'd rather not play! [sic]"

Offensive tackle R.J. Dill wrote: "[W]hy do we even play the games lets just pick the teams that travel the best and send them to bowls."

The matchup against the Pirates, if far from glamorous, should at least prove exciting for the fans who do attend. East Carolina (6-6) has the 12th-best scoring offense in Divison I but ranks last in the country in total defense. They have dropped five their past six games, including a 76-35 rout against Navy.

While Anderson and Friedgen both expressed excitement for the chance to support bowl sponsor United Services Organization, which helps troops and their families, they couldn't quite explain the Terps' tumble down the bowl ladder.

"We thought [the N.C. State win] would determine where we placed in the league and that we would be rewarded for that placement," Anderson said, "and evidently, that last win wasn't good enough."

ceckard@umdbk.com