The Atlantic Coast Conference gave me an explanation this morning of how the Humanitarian Bowl might NOT take an ACC school such as Maryland for the Dec. 30 game.

The Humanitarian Bowl is under contract to take an ACC school for the game in Boise, Idaho. "At this point, we absolutely expect them to take us per our contract," said Michael Kelly, the ACC's associate commissioner for football operations.

The Humanitarian Bowl may try to opt out of the contract so it can select Ball State instead of an ACC school. The bowl wants to match undefeated Ball State against undefeated Boise State.

"The Humanitarian Bowl has informed us that if a Boise/Ball State matchup became possible they would get back in touch with us by the end of the week and would potentially seek our consideration to vacate the spot," Kelly said.

The ACC suggested it wouldn't allow the contract to be broken unless satisfied that an alternative game could be found.

Said Kelly: "If they did pursue it and sought our consideration for vacating our spot there, we would of course expect options laid out for us as to where our team we go. We would then share those options with the potentially affected schools and make a decision from there."

In other words, the ACC doesn't want Maryland or another ACC team to be left with no game.