USA TODAY Sports updated its college football bowl projections on Monday, and the new changes after Week 10 included a pretty stunning development for the Duke Blue Devils.
One week after the Blue Devils were slotted for the Duke’s Mayo Bowl for a battle with the Iowa Hawkeyes, head coach [autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag] and his team completely disappeared from Erick Smith’s updated field.
Duke built an 11-point lead over the Miami Hurricanes on Saturday, but five late touchdowns from the most prolific offense in the country put the game out of reach. Between the second-half collapse, an overtime loss to the SMU Mustangs, and two late Georgia Tech touchdowns in Week 6, the Blue Devils have now lost three of their past four games, but Duke already reached the six-win threshold needed to qualify for a bowl game.
A handful of other ACC teams who haven’t reached six wins yet, most notably the North Carolina Tar Heels and NC State Wolfpack, found their way into Smith’s projected matchups. Duke beat UNC to open conference play, overcoming a 20-0 lead in the second half, and the Blue Devils play the Wolfpack in Raleigh this coming Saturday.