Duke gets new regular ACC opponents in schedule overhaul
Blue Devils will play each Big 4 rival in every season from 2023-26
Duke will see plenty of its Big Four rivals in football from the 2023-26 seasons.
The ACC announced Tuesday morning that starting in 2023, the league is eliminating divisions and going to a 3-5-5 schedule model. That means that each team in the league has three primary opponents it’ll play every season, and that it’ll play the other 10 teams twice (once at home, once on the road) in a four-year cycle.
Duke’s three primary opponents are the three in-state rivals: North Carolina, N.C. State and Wake Forest.
“The future ACC football scheduling model provides significant enhancements for our schools and conference, with the most important being our student-athletes having the opportunity to play every school both home and away over a four-year period,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said through a news release.
The elimination of divisions means that the top two teams will reach the ACC championship game.
Duke has had UNC and Wake Forest as opponents in every season under the scheduling model that’s been used, but has played N.C. State just twice since 2009 – beating the Wolfpack in 2013 and losing to it in 2020.