Peach Picks Tar Heels After Win

Chancellor James Moeser walked around the sidelines with a small but detailed peach pin and shook hands with the three Peach Bowl executives attending Saturday's game.

And when the game was over, Moeser and the Peach Bowl officials climbed on a makeshift stage with UNC Director of Athletics Dick Baddour, defensive end Julius Peppers, other players and the man of the hour, John Bunting, to announce that North Carolina will be playing in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta's Georgia Dome on Dec. 31 at 7:30 p.m. The game will air on ESPN.

"This is an outstanding selection for us," said Gary Stokan, the bowl's president. "Carolina has all the elements we're looking for to create another great bowl game."

Last year, the Peach Bowl sold out its 73,614 tickets for the game between Georgia Tech and Louisiana State. North Carolina fans can get their tickets through the UNC Department of Athletics or from the Peach Bowl Web site.

Tickets through the University go on sale 8 a.m. Monday at the Smith Center. Students need to bring a UNC ONE Card to the box office and might purchase as many of the $55 tickets as they want. The University gets 20,000 tickets from the Peach Bowl but can get more if it sells out. UNC Director of Ticket Operations Clint Gwaltney said he expects the University to sell 20,000 to 25,000 tickets.

"We need as many people to go down and sit in the Carolina section as possible," said Gwaltney, who added that UNC has an advantage because fans have more time to buy tickets than the Southeastern Conference school UNC will face.

A ticket package being offered by UNC student Burgess Foster also is on sale. There are two plans, one with travel arrangements to Atlanta and one without.

Going to the Peach Bowl guarantees the University a healthy payout. Last year, Georgia Tech and LSU each received a record $1.8 million payoff for their game. It also is the last bowl game of the year and is the only game being played at the time.

North Carolina will not know which of four SEC teams it will play in the bowl until Dec. 9. Stokan said UNC's possible opponents are Auburn, Georgia, LSU and South Carolina. Which team wins the SEC Championship Game and how many SEC teams are selected for Bowl Championship Series games will factor into which SEC team will face UNC.

While the Tar Heels will pay close attention to how the SEC shakes out, for now they are basking in the glow of winning seven of their last nine games and earning themselves one more contest.

Bunting said, "It's a great bowl game, and I think there's no better team than the University of North Carolina in its class and in its tradition to go down there and playing a big ballgame on New Year's Eve."

Assistant University Editor Stephanie Horvath contributed to this article.

The Sports Editor can be reached at sports@unc.edu.