Over the past few years, power has consolidated in a big way throughout the college football world. Even the most tuned-out fans can notice that.
The Pac-12 almost entirely dissolved over the offseason. Teams like the Oregon Ducks, Washington Huskies, USC Trojans, and UCLA Bruins now play for the Big Ten, and the ACC picked up remnants like the Stanford Cardinal, California Golden Bears, and SMU Mustangs. With Division I football trending farther and farther toward one or two mega-conferences, would the Blue Devils have a chair when the music stopped?
The past three seasons have made that less of a concern. Former head coach Mike Elko won nine games in his first season and finished with a 7-5 regular-season record last year despite losing starting quarterback Riley Leonard for most of the conference schedule. With both of them gone this year, first-year head coach Manny Diaz led the team to its first 5-0 start in three decades after a massive comeback win against the North Carolina Tar Heels.
Since the start of 2022, the Blue Devils have a combined record of 22-9 with two bowl victories, a resume that’s impossible for any decision-makers and possible realignment committees to ignore.
According to a Wednesday story from Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger, this recent run stems from a Duke athletic department entirely focused on making sure they remain a part of the national picture.
“We do not want to be left out,” athletic director Nina King told Dellenger. “We want to make sure our program is in the next iteration, whatever it is. We are in a good position right now. Not sure you could have said that 5-10 years ago. We will be attractive.”
It remains to be seen when any further changes come to the sport’s power structure, although some amount of change seems inevitable. It doesn’t sound like the Blue Devils are at risk of an effective demotion through any fault of their own, however.