2012 Orange Bowl

Discover Orange Bowl:  Predicted Finish – Clemson 45 vs. West Virginia 35 Clemson tried to do it. They tried to have another epic meltdown late in the season just like they do every year. In fact, if they would have lost to Wake Forest, like I think they should have (they got lucky with some typically shoddy ACC officiating), they would not have made it to the ACC title game, and thus would not be in a BCS bowl. In fact, we probably would have seen the end of Dabo Swinney. But somehow, after back-to-back losses to close out the regular season, the Tigers managed to come out swinging against Virginia Tech in the ACC Championship game and cruised to an easy victory right on into the Orange Bowl. The Mountaineers needed a ton of help to get into the Orange Bowl. At the end of the regular season, there was a three-way tie for first place in the Big East, which came down to the final rankings in the polls being the determining factor. There was a lot of strangeness leading up to the begi...