On Saturday night, the Go Bowling Military Bowl ended with the kind of fireworks that you don't want to see at the conclusion of a football game. The closely-contested matchup between NC State and East Carolina finished off with a massive brawl that saw eight players get ejected and an official end up bleeding after getting hit in the face with the helmet.
The fight overshadowed a great game that saw the two teams go back-and-forth all night long before Rahjai Harris took a shocking run play 86 yards to the house to put East Carolina on top with less than two minutes to play. The brawl followed shortly after, and it ended up overshadowing the entire contest.
After the game, NC State head coach Dave Doeren didn't hide his feelings about the incident, according to the Associated Press via ESPN.
“I'm embarrassed as a coach,” Doeren said. “I know our players are too. That is not how people of this program, the players of this program, staff of this program, want anything to do with something like that. To me, it was a terrible response to something that happened to one of our players, and there's no excuses for it. So I apologize to ECU and their team for the way we responded.”
The two teams will meet again very soon as they open the 2025 season against each other on Aug. 30.
ACC having nightmare bowl season after NC State loss

NC State's stunning last-second loss only added to the ACC's bowl game woes this postseason. The conference as a whole has not performed up to par against the rest of the college football world, and the conference is facing a lot of scrutiny as a result.
After NC State's loss, ACC teams are just now 1-9 in bowl games this season with three teams still to play. The only win came courtesy of Syracuse, who knocked off Washington State with a backup quarterback as nearly a three-touchdown favorite.
For those that are more into the Vegas side of things, ACC teams are amazingly 0-10 against the spread in these bowl games. Regardless of wins or losses, these teams aren't performing up to expectations on the field this postseason and it's a bad look for the conference.
Some of the losses have been loud ones. SMU was demolished by Penn State in the College Football Playoff after throwing a pair of pick-sixes in the first half. Clemson was competitive in its CFP game against Texas, but it still ended ups losing by two touchdowns.
Other teams have lost to opponents that should be inferior on paper. NC State lost to East Carolina to cap off a day that started with North Carolina falling to UConn. Pitt lost to Toledo in six overtimes after one of the most puzzling coaching decisions you'll ever see.
Now, only Virginia Tech, Duke and Louisville have a chance to do some sort of damage control for the ACC. If they can't, this could go down as one of the worst bowl seasons for a conference ever.