Duke football schedule changes again to add another game. Who will the Blue Devils play?
Duke is indeed playing its final regular season game on Dec. 12 and the Blue Devils finally know their opponent.
The ACC reworked its football schedule again on Tuesday, lining up Duke for a trip to Florida State on Dec. 12.
The coronavirus pandemic has caused numerous changes to college football schedules around the country.
In addition to Duke now playing Florida State on Dec. 12, the Wake Forest-Notre Dame game scheduled to be played that day is now off the schedule. Wake Forest will play at Louisville that day instead.
The ACC also announced Wake Forest will play Florida State on Dec. 19.
Clemson was supposed to play Florida State on Nov. 21 but that game was postponed because the medical staffs from the two schools couldn’t agree it could be played safely due to a Clemson player testing positive. The ACC has decided that game will not be made up.
Clemson had already traveled to Florida State for the game when the team had to turn around and travel home. The same thing happened to Virginia last weekend when its game at Florida State was postponed on the day of the game.
To lower the chances of such a thing happening, the ACC announced Tuesday a new protocol saying both teams must take COVID-19 tests on Thursday and the result must be available prior to the visiting team traveling to the game site. The chief medical officers from each school will review the results and determine if there is “ every expectation” the game can be safely played.
“While the Medical Advisory Group has not identified evidence of virus transmission during competition,” the ACC said in a statement Tuesday, “this adjustment will mitigate the chances of unnecessary interaction between team members and outside individuals that are inevitable during travel.”
ACC football’s regular season extended due to COVID-19
The ACC set things up for its teams to play 10 conference games, plus one nonconference game, before the top two teams in the league standings played in the ACC championship game in Charlotte on Dec. 19.
The regular season was supposed to end on Dec. 5 but so many games were postponed or canceled due to COVID-19 protocols a number of games are now scheduled for Dec. 12.
Duke had been scheduled to close its regular season at home with Florida State on Dec. 5. But, on Sunday night, the league postponed that game and decided Miami would travel to Durham to play Duke that night.
The Blue Devils had a game with Wake Forest scheduled for Nov. 21 called off due to COVID-19 issues at Wake Forest. That game will not be made up.
Instead, Duke will make up its game with Florida State, only it is now traveling to Tallahassee, Florida, for the game rather than playing it at Wallace Wade Stadium.
Who will play in the ACC championship game?
In addition, the league announced that if any games involving Miami, Notre Dame or Clemson are not able to be played this weekend they could be rescheduled for Dec. 12.
This comes after the league’s athletic directors voted Tuesday to evaluate the three teams still in contention for the ACC championship game on them playing no more than nine league games. Notre Dame (9-0, 8-0 ACC) has earned a spot in the ACC championship game, the league said.
The Irish close their regular season on Saturday against Syracuse. Miami (7-1, 6-1) plays at Duke and Clemson (8-1, 7-1) plays at Virginia Tech. Miami is scheduled to play its ninth ACC game on Dec. 12 against North Carolina.
Clemson holds a tiebreaker advantage over Miami due to its 42-17 win over the Hurricanes on Oct. 10. So, a Clemson win on Saturday over Virginia Tech would firm up a Clemson-Notre Dame ACC championship game pairing.
Miami is scheduled to play its 10th ACC regular season game of the season on Dec. 19 against Georgia Tech. That game would not be played if Miami qualifies for the ACC title game.
This story was originally published December 1, 2020 at 5:02 PM.