Tennessee making a bowl game is just another way of putting. On the other hand, North Carolina has had a disastrous season, because this team was to possibly be the best Tar Heel team in school history, but Marvin Austin and others were busted for interacting with agents which cause for many Tar Heel players to be suspended or kicked off the team.
North Carolina did rebound to have decent season by winning seven games and making a bowl game. The saving grace for North Carolina was quarterback T.J. Yates. Yates was expected to be a game manager, but he became more then that by passing for 3,184 yards, 18 touchdowns and eight picks.
As for Tennessee, they made a switch at the quarterback spot where Tyler Bray took over the starting job full time from Matt Simms with four weeks to go in the regular season and improved each week as the season ended.
Whatever quarterback that has the better game will be the team that wins, yes that is obvious, but for UNC Yates is a top 20 passer and stopping Yates will be Tennessee's top priority. As for Tennessee, they will need to protect Bray and give him time to throw the ball since their passing game is how Tennessee has been winning games over the past month of the season.
The line on this game has North Carolina as a one point favorite, but expect the crowd to be more pro-Tennessee since Knoxville is a quick drive to Nashville.
Now onto the predictions for the game.
Rivals - The Rivals writers are split on North Carolina and Tennessee at two a piece while North Carolina is the choice chosen by 51 percent of Yahoo users in the Pick'em game.
CBS Sports - Three writers go with North Carolina while two go with Tennessee.
USA Today - Five of the eight writers pick North Carolina to sneak by Tennessee.
Fanhouse - Brett McMurphy makes his picks by the spread and takes Tennessee to cover the spread.
AccuScore - The computer takes the other side of the coin as the majority with Tennessee, and they have Tennessee winning 55 percent with an average score of 26.1 to 24.2.
ESPN Bloggers - SEC blogger Chris Low takes Tennessee 27-21 over North Carolina while ACC blogger Heather Dinich takes here league's team she covers with North Carolina winning 21-17.
The Music City Bowl will kick off at 4:40 p.m. (MT) on ESPN in Nashville, Tenn.