Whichever team comes out on top, we’ll have a first-time Atlantic Coast Conference championship game winner this weekend.
No. 17 Virginia (10-2) has never won an outright ACC football title, last winning a share in 1995, a decade before the first ACC title game.
Unranked Duke (7-5) has won seven ACC titles, but just one of them (1989) has come since 1962.
The two teams will face off in Charlotte on Saturday night for the ACC crown and a possible College Football Playoff spot just 21 days after Virginia beat Duke 34-17 in Durham, N.C, on Nov. 15.
Cavaliers coach Tony Elliott knows the first win over the Blue Devils means nothing for this rematch.
“You’ve got to throw out what you did in the previous game,” Elliott said Sunday on an ACC media teleconference. “This game is going to come down to execution, and I’m sure we’re going to get Duke’s best effort. Since our game, (Duke) has gotten back into rhythm offensively and been able to score a bunch of points.”
For much of the season, Virginia was living on the right side of the edge. The Cavaliers rattled off four straight one-score wins, including consecutive overtime wins over Florida State and Louisville, before taking their only ACC loss to Wake Forest on Nov. 8.
But Virginia bounced back from that well, finishing the regular season with resounding wins over Duke and rival Virginia Tech to finish atop the conference.
Virginia can set a school record for wins by beating Duke, having only recorded one other 10-win season (10-3 in 1989).
The Cavaliers are a balanced team, third in the ACC in total offense (433.2 yards per game) and total defense (311.7). Chandler Morris (2,586 passing yards, 14 passing touchdowns, five rushing TDs) and J’Mari Taylor (997 rushing yards, 14 TDs) anchor the offense.
ACC officials certainly won’t be playing favorites Saturday but it would certainly be better for the league if Virginia wins the game. The Cavaliers would comfortably be in the CFP with an automatic bid.
If the Blue Devils were to win, an ACC CFP team would be at least marginally in doubt. Duke was one of five teams that finished ACC play with a 6-2 record, somewhat controversially beating out Miami — the highest-ranked ACC team at No. 12 — on a conference opponent win percentage tiebreaker to earn the spot in the title game.
While Duke largely ran through conference play, it picked up nonconference losses to Illinois and on the road against Tulane and UConn, which would likely keep the Blue Devils out of the rankings even with a win Saturday.
The current CFP format awards automatic bids to the five highest-ranked conference champions.
With American Conference title game competitors Tulane (20th) and North Texas (24th) as well as 12-1 Sun Belt team James Madison (25th) all ranked this week by the CFP committee, the ACC needs a James Madison loss this weekend or it could be left out of the CFP entirely if the Blue Devils win.
It’s safe to say Duke coach Manny Diaz does not agree with this potential outcome.
“Absolutely,” Diaz said when asked if his team deserves a CFP spot with a win this week.
” … The whole argument of should a Group of 5 conference be in the playoff at the ACC’s expense? Well, you can forget about ever booking a home-and-home game and encouraging teams to go play good competition.”
Duke quarterback Darian Mensah leads the ACC in passing yards (3,450) and touchdowns (28). Nate Sheppard has rushed for 865 yards and nine scores.
Both teams were pounded in their only previous appearances in the ACC championship game: Florida State routed Duke 45-7 in 2013 and Clemson thrashed Virginia 62-17 in 2019.
