Duke left out of College Football Playoff. Where will ACC champs play bowl?
While Duke won the ACC football championship for the first time since 1989, its nonconference losses prevented the Blue Devils from adding a College Football Playoff appearance to its accomplishments.
On Sunday, around 12 hours after Duke finished off a 27-20 overtime win over Virginia in the ACC championship game at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium, the College Football Playoff committee left the Blue Devils out of its 12-team field.
While going 7-2 against ACC opponents this season, Duke (8-5) suffered nonconference losses to Tulane, Connecticut and Illinois. The Blue Devils never appeared in any College Football Playoff rankings, nor the Associated Press Top 25 poll this season.
The ACC did get a team in the field, though, as Miami (10-2) received the final at-large berth, with Notre Dame (10-2) getting left out.
So, instead of competing for the national championship, Duke will play in the Sun Bowl against Arizona State on Dec. 31 in El Paso, Texas. The teams also met in the Sun Bowl in 2014, which is the last time Duke has played in that bowl game.
Duke coach Manny Diaz said the team, which gathered to watch the playoff selection show, felt real pain to be left out of the field. At the same time, while schools like Notre Dame, Kansas State and Iowa State chose not to play in bowls this season, Diaz said the Blue Devils relish the opportunity to play one more game together.
The sting of the playoff decision and the dismissal of his team’s chances prior to winning the ACC championship are plenty of fuel for the players.
“There wasn’t a bogus tie breaker,” Diaz said. “We were objectively deserving of being in Charlotte and, in their opinion, we were objectively deserving of being in the College Football Playoff. There’s real data that proved that we should have been one of the 12. So that’ll be our you know, that’ll be an easy point for us to find an edge.”
The College Football Playoff committee bracketing rules call for the top five-rated teams that are league champions to make the field. The champions from the Big Ten (Indiana), SEC (Georgia) and Big 12 (Texas Tech) were all ranked among the CFP committee’s top 10, with Indiana (13-0) the No. 1 team in the field. They all made the field, with No. 3 Georgia (12-1) and No. 4 Texas Tech (12-1) joining Indiana earning first-round byes into the quarterfinals.
The committee opted to include American Conference champion Tulane (11-2) as the No. 11 seed and Sun Belt Conference champion James Madison (12-1) at No. 12 to leave out Duke.
After those five were placed in the field, the committee selected the seven at-large teams to fill out the bracket. They had relatively easy choices in No. 2 Ohio State (11-1), No. 5 Oregon (11-1), No. 6 Ole Miss (11-1) and No. 7 Texas A&M (11-1) and No. 8 Oklahoma (10-2). Ohio State joined league champions Indiana, Georgia and Texas Tech earning first-round byes.
Oregon, Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Oklahoma will have first-round home games.
The tough decision came between the final two at-large spots. The committee placed Alabama (10-3) at No. 9, sending the Crimson Tide to play at Oklahoma, then placed Miami at No. 10, sending the Hurricanes to play at Texas A&M.
College Football Playoff schedule
First round (on campus sites)
Dec. 19
Alabama at Oklahoma, 8 p.m. (ABC)
Dec. 20
Tulane at Ole Miss, 3:30 p.m. (TNT)
James Madison at Oregon, 7:30 p.m. (TNT)
Miami at Texas A&M, noon (ABC)
Quarterfinals
Dec. 31
Miami-Texas A&M winner vs. Ohio State, 7:30 p.m. (ESPN) at Cotton Bowl
Jan. 1
James Madison-Oregon winner vs. Texas Tech, noon (ESPN) at Orange Bowl
Alabama-Oklahoma winner vs Indiana, 4 p.m (ESPN) at Rose Bowl
Tulane-Ole Miss winner vs. Georgia, 8 p.m. (ESPN) at Sugar Bowl
Semifinals
Jan. 8 at Fiesta Bowl and Jan. 9 at Peach Bowl
CFP championship game
Jan 19, at Miami Gardens, Fla.
This story was originally published December 7, 2025 at 12:40 PM.