Where Duke Football Projects to Play Bowl Game This Season
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The Duke Blue Devils return from their bye week with a perfect 4-0 record through the first five weeks of the season. Duke has looked good in their first four games, winning three non-conference games as well as their lone conference game to start.
That win over Stanford a few weeks back put them at 1-0 in Atlantic Coast Conference play but now the meat of that schedule is here.
Duke comes out of the bye week by playing two of their next three games on the road, all against ACC opponents. First up is a trip to Atlanta to face off against Georgia Tech before hosting North Carolina and then playing on the road at Virginia.
But for Duke, the next three weeks provide a chance to make a statement in the conference. Aside from Miami, the rest of the ACC appears to be wide open at least for the second team to go to the conference championship.
As we are a few days away from kickoff, the latest bowl game projections are out from ESPN. Each week, the site puts out projections from Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach, including the College Football Playoff bracket.
Duke wasn't included in the playoff projections despite being unbeaten, which isn't surprising as the strength of schedule so far hasn't been too tough. Now, the more they win, that will change but right now, the focus is on getting as good of a bowl game as they can.
In the latest projections, Schlabach has the Blue Devils facing off against the Northwestern Wildcats from the Big Ten in Duke's Mayo Bowl. The two teams are familiar with each other, most recently playing in 2024. They played four times from 2021-24, with Duke winning all four of those matchups.
As for Bonagura, he has Duke facing off against Oregon State out of the PAC-12 in the Trust & Will Holiday Bowl in San Diego. That's a little bit of a disappointing bowl game matchup for the Blue Devils but at this point, it is what it is.
The good news is that these projections will certainly change.
The best thing for Duke right now is to keep winning games and the rest will take care of itself. That starts on Saturday at Georgia Tech.
Duke and Georgia Tech will kickoff at 3:30P PM on Saturday as the Blue Devils look to remain unbeaten and move to 5-0 overall and 2-0 in ACC play.
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