At first I thought "yeah, prime time is better than mid-day", but then I realized that Monday is NOT New Year's Eve - Tuesday is a work day (unless I take a vacation day, which I might).
The root of the problem is simple: when NBC owned the rights to the Orange Bowl, it always was in prime time - and it was up against the Sugar Bowl. Now that ABC/ESPN owns both, they don't want them played at the same time (understandable from their p.o.v.). Since the semi-finals are already on Saturday night, that didn't leave a lot of good alternatives for the Orange Bowl. It really all boils down to the ACC having to play 2nd fiddle behind the SEC in this instance. For those of you who aren't used to that feeling, welcome to the ACC!