By BRYAN STRICKLAND

bstrickland@heraldsun.com; 419-6671

The Sun and Independence bowls are moving into the ACC bowl picture beginning next season, while the Gator, Emerald and GMAC bowls are moving out and the Champs and Meinke Car Care bowls are moving up.

The conference announced its bowl partnerships for the 2010-13 seasons Thursday.

The most notable change is the departure of the Gator Bowl and the addition of the Sun Bowl.

The Sun Bowl in El Paso, the fourth-oldest bowl game at 76 years of age, will pick third from ACC teams not in a BCS bowl beginning in 2010 to take on a Pac-10 opponent.

The Gator, which will pick second from ACC teams not in a BCS bowl after this season to face either a Big East opponent or Notre Dame, will feature an SEC vs. Big Ten matchup beginning next season.

Those changes coincide with tweaks to the pecking order beginning next season. The Champs Bowl in Orlando will move from picking the ACC's third non-BCS team to picking second in 2010, and the Meinke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte will move from fifth to fourth. The Music City Bowl in Nashville will drop down one spot, from fourth to fifth.

The Orange Bowl in Miami will continue as the ACC's guaranteed BCS bowl, and the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta will continue to pick next.

At the bottom of the order, the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La., will come onboard, picking the sixth non-BCS team from the ACC to go against a Mountain West opponent. The EagleBank Bowl in Washington D.C. will continue to pick seventh after the BCS, while the GMAC Bowl will be one-and-done with the ACC this season-- if the conference is even able to produce a ninth bowl team.

The ACC will have eight bowl tie-ins rather than nine beginning next season but will keep the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco on standby. If the ACC has a ninth team qualify for a bowl and the Emerald Bowl can't fill its spots with a Pac-10 team, a WAC team or Army or Navy, an ACC team would step in.

The ACC sent an NCAA-record 10 teams to bowls last season, but that was somewhat of a mathematical anomaly. This season, the conference is on pace to have six to eight teams earn bowl eligibility.

The winner of Saturday's showdown between Duke and North Carolina (3:30 p.m., ESPNU) will move within one victory of bowl eligibility with three to play. Bowl eligibility doesn't guarantee a spot in a bowl, but based on how the standings look right now, Duke or UNC or any ACC team for that matter almost surely would go bowling if eligible.