The Athletic writers Scott Dochterman and Stewart Mandel released their bowl projections for the 2024 college football season on Tuesday, and the Blue Devils once again found themselves on the outside looking in.
Despite filling out the entire bowl schedule, Dochterman and Mandel didn’t include Duke football anywhere on the bowl calendar.
The publication is hardly the first to leave first-year head coach Manny Diaz off the board. CBS Sports and Sporting News both didn’t have the Blue Devils in their postseason projections either, and a CBS Sports panel actually saw some writers debate whether Duke would be the worst team in the ACC.
In The Athletic’s projection, Miami took the No. 4 seed as the conference champion. The Hurricanes have gained more steam as an ACC favorite since Florida State, last year’s victor, lost to Georgia Tech in the first game of the year.
No other team from the conference made the 12-team playoff bracket. The Seminoles, Clemson, Virginia Tech, NC State, North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Syracuse, and Wake Forest all made a bowl game of some kind, meaning Duke was one of seven ACC teams to miss out.