Duke Football is Projected to Play in This Bowl Game by ESPN
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The Duke Blue Devils are coming off a 2025 season in which they won the Atlantic Coast Conference by upsetting Virginia. Due to tiebreakers, the Blue Devils earned a spot in the title game and took advantage.
From there, they beat Arizona State in their bowl game and had some momentum going into the offseason. But a lot of that momentum went away when quarterback Darian Mensah opted to enter the transfer portal and commit to Miami at the very last minute.
That left a big question mark at the quarterback position with a battle between two players.
As that battle rolls on and the season approaches, not many national media members are high on the Blue Devils this season. Duke finished low in the ACC preseason poll by media members and not many believe they can contend this season.
But as the season approaches, ESPN has released its updated bowl projections for the upcoming season. Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach made predictions for every bowl game and included Duke in it.
Bonagura has Duke in the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl in Tampa Bay, facing off against the Wisconsin Badgers. That game will take place on Friday, December 18th.
As for Schlabach, he has the Blue Devils in the JLab Birmingham Bowl facing Auburn out of the SEC. That game will take place on Tuesday, December 29th in Birmingham, Alabama.
It's good to see the Blue Devils getting some love in the preseason bowl projections. While it's not the College Football Playoff or anything big like that, reaching a bowl game is still important for Manny Diaz and his team.
Obviously, things could change for better or for worse depending on how the season goes for the Blue Devils. But getting some love in the preseason projections is never a bad thing.
Duke will kickoff the season by hosting Tulane in Durham on Saturday, Sept. 5th. It will be a rematch of last season's thrilling game that Tulane won. The Blue Devils will be looking for some revenge this season and hope to get off to a 1-0 start in this new campaign.
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