Navy has accepted an invitation to play in the Meineke Car Care Bowl and will match up against an opponent from the Atlantic Coast Conference, bowl executive director Will Webb said Monday.<br>
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The Midshipmen (6-3), who became bowl-eligible Saturday by beating Duke, will play in a bowl game for the school-record fourth straight year.<br>
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``Navy adds a lot of pageantry, certainly a very good record they're going to have coming in this year, a lot of fans and this will be their first bowl on the East Coast in a long time,'' Webb said.<br>
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The Charlotte, N.C.-based bowl had matched teams from the Big East and ACC every year since its inception in 2002. But before this season, bowl officials announced a one-time agreement that would allow them to choose Navy instead of a Big East team.<br>
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``(Navy) wanted to make sure they had a home to go to, and to get a deal done with them, we had to say, 'If you are bowl-eligible, then we will select you,''' Webb said. ``They didn't want to be waiting around and have us not select them, and then possibly not having any place to go, if there were more teams that every conference has to fill their slots.<br>
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``We're not at all unhappy with the Big East,'' Webb added. ``We're very happy to be with them, and we would have had a good team and a great travel team if we had the Big East this year. But it was just the way the contract worked out. ... Next year and every year afterward, as far as we know at this point, we've got Big East (affiliations), and we're very pleased with that.''<br>
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The Meineke bowl gets the fifth, sixth or seventh choice from among the ACC's bowl eligible teams under a deal worked with the Music City and Emerald bowls. Last year, North Carolina State beat South Florida 14-0 in the bowl and each team got a $750,000 payout.<br>
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Navy's unique option offense leads the nation in rushing, averaging 325 yards on the ground, but ranks last in Division I-A in passing with a per-game average of 50 yards.<br>
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Navy also has a history of drawing large crowds. Last year, the Midshipmen sold 20,000 tickets for the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego and the year before brought 18,000 fans to the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco. In 2003, Navy brought 25,000 fans to the Houston Bowl, leading to a record crowd of 51,068.<br>
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``We are grateful for their confidence in Navy and, as has been the case over the past three postseasons, their community can count on Navy to deliver both on and off the field,'' Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk said.<br>
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The announcement also creates a homecoming for Midshipmen coach Paul Johnson, who grew up 115 miles northwest of Charlotte in Newland, N.C., and is a graduate of Western Carolina.<br>
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``I'm excited the team has achieved one of their goals, to have a chance to go to a bowl game, and I'm excited to be going to Charlotte. It's a great city and I'm sure the kids will have a great time,'' Johnson said.<br>
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The Meineke Bowl kicks off at 1 p.m. on Dec. 30 at Bank of America Stadium.
