Written By
Written By
The season is in its final week, but chaos in the ACC is at an all-time high. Six schools enter the final weekend with a chance to compete in the ACC Championship Game. Surprisingly, 6-5 Duke is one of those schools. Duke must beat 8-3 Wake Forest, 8-3 Pitt must lose to 9-2 Miami, and 8-3 SMU must lose to 6-5 Cal for the Blue Devils to make the ACC Championship Game. If the Blue Devils win the ACC, they likely will not make the College Football Playoff, especially with close losses to Tulane and UConn and a 26-point home loss to 7-4 Illinois. This then begs the question: where would 8-5 ACC Champion Duke go bowling?
The ACC uses a tiered bowl selection process (more details here), dividing its bowl partners into three tiers listed below:
Duke is likely eliminated from Gator Bowl contention after participating in the bowl last season, leaving the Holiday and Pop-Tarts Bowl as the only tier-one options. Realistically, the Holiday Bowl would take Miami given its brand power and its appearance in the Pop-Tarts Bowl last year. This leaves the Pop-Tarts Bowl as the most realistic option for Duke. The Pop-Tarts Bowl would be a fitting destination in this scenario, since Orlando's Citrus Bowl hosted the ACC champion from 1987 to 1991.
However, there is a possibility the Pop-Tarts Bowl instead opts for 9-3 or 10-2 Georgia Tech by virtue of their closer proximity to Orlando. This scenario bumps Duke down to the ACC's tier two bowl games.
If Duke slides down to tier two, the Duke's Mayo Bowl would be a natural destination. The Blue Devils have not appeared in the only bowl in their home state since 2012 and have not played at Bank of America Stadium since the 2013 ACC Championship Game. However, Duke would have already played at Bank of America Stadium less than a month before, making a trip to the Queen City redundant.
In this scenario, the Sun Bowl would likely opt for SMU, leaving Duke to appear in the Pinstripe Bowl. Despite the geographic concerns Duke raises for the tier one bowls, it seems illogical for any of them to pass on a Power Four champion due to the credibility it would give the bowl.
Although unlikely, this possible scenario with Duke could create one of the most intriguing and nearly unprecedented conference bowl pictures in recent memory.
