Duke won the ACC championship. What that means for the College Football Playoff
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Duke won ACC title but lacks CFP ranking, jeopardizing automatic berth.
- CFP will include five league champions plus seven at-large selections on Sunday.
- Committee must rank Duke above James Madison or Tulane to secure a playoff slot.
The afterglow of an historic ACC championship still surrounded Duke’s players and coaches late Saturday night at Bank of America Stadium when the reality of what happens next demanded their attention.
Here were the Blue Devils, outright league champions for the first time since 1962, having grown from a team that went winless in eight ACC games in 2021 into the king of the hill.
Normally, winning the ACC means a sure spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff. But that’s not the case for Duke (8-5) because though it won seven games against ACC teams, it lost three nonconference games and has not been included in any CFP rankings.
The Blue Devils think they’ve earned a chance.
“I think they’ll call our name,” said Duke linebacker Luke Mergott, whose overtime interception clinched Duke’s 27-20 win over No. 17 Virginia on Saturday night. “I mean, we represent the ACC, and the ACC is a respected conference. We represent it. I’m confident, so I expect to get our name called.”
So when the CFP committee selects the 12 teams for its playoff on Sunday, revealing them beginning at noon, should Duke be included? Or any ACC team?
In addition to seven at-large teams, the playoff committee puts the top five highest-ranked league champions into its bracket from among the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC plus Group of Six leagues like the American and Sun Belt. That’s where Duke’s league championship is a problem.
No. 12 Miami (10-2) was the highest-ranked ACC team in the most recent CFP rankings last Tuesday. The Hurricanes and Duke were among five teams that went 6-2 in league play and Duke won the tiebreaker because its league opponents’ winning percentage was highest.
Since Duke was unranked by the CFP, it started Saturday trailing every conference champion: No. 2 Indiana (12-1) of the Big Ten, No. 3 Georgia (12-1) of the SEC, No. 4 Texas Tech (12-1) of the Big 12 plus No. 20 Tulane (11-3) of the American and No. 25 James Madison (12-1) of the Sun Belt.
For Duke to get into the playoff bracket, it will need to be placed above one of those teams in Sunday’s final rankings. Tulane beat the Blue Devils head-to-head, taking a 34-27 win on Sept. 15 in New Orleans. So that’s unlikely.
The committee would have to jump Duke past James Madison or else the Blue Devils will be out of the bracket.
Duke coach Manny Diaz did his best early Sunday morning to explain why his team should be in over James Madison, starting by saying he respected the Dukes and didn’t want to take away from their season.
“They don’t have a win like this,” Diaz said after the win over Virginia. “They don’t have a win against a team like that. That’s a big-time team right there in Virginia. Seven wins in this conference? Seven Power Four wins compared to zero? No, that’s a playoff team. These guys deserve to be in.”
James Madison played only one game against a Power Four opponent, losing 28-14 to a Louisville team that went 8-4 overall, 4-4 in the ACC while upsetting Miami along the way.
Duke, though, also lost 37-34 to UConn (9-3) on Nov. 8 in addition to its loss to Tulane. Still the Blue Devils have a strength of schedule rating 50 points better than James Madison.
Duke athletic director Nina King chaired two NCAA women’s basketball committees earlier this decade so she has experience helping fill out a bracket. She knows this will not be an easy decision.
“I understand it’s really complicated,” King said. “I think we’re deserving. I mean, when you look at some of these numbers, our strength of schedule, the number of power four teams we played and we won. Yeah. I mean, absolutely, I think we’re deserving, but I fully appreciate the challenge committee has in front of it.”
In the end, she said, winning the ACC should be enough for Duke.
“We are the ACC champions,” she said. “And so I think does a disservice to what this game is, what it means. I mean, I absolutely think that we should be in based on being ACC champions and the strength of our schedule.”
The other way the ACC could get a team in is if Miami is picked as an at-large team. Ohio State (11-1), Oregon (11-1), Ole Miss (11-1) and Texas A&M (11-1) and Oklahoma (10-2) were all ranked between 1 and 8 in the latest CFP rankings. They are in position to grab five of the seven at-large berths.
The Hurricanes are mainly competing with No. 9 Alabama (10-3), No. 10 Notre Dame (10-2) and No. 11 BYU (11-2) for the final two slots. The Crimson Tide lost 28-7 to Georgia on Saturday. Although Notre Dame was idle, one of the Irish’s two losses came at Miami back on Labor Day weekend. Texas Tech routed BYU, 34-7, in the Big 12 title game.
This story was originally published December 7, 2025 at 5:00 AM.