Duke will carry a five-game winning streak in bowl games into a matchup against an SEC team that, at one point this season, looked bound for the 12-team College Football Playoff.

The Blue Devils will play Mississippi in the Gator Bowl. The game will be played at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 2 in Jacksonville, Fla.

It’s a trip south, and to one of the ACC’s Tier I bowl affiliations, for a Duke team that went 9-3 in Manny Diaz’s first season as head coach.

The Blue Devils were in a group of three ACC teams for two Tier I bowl spots, along with Syracuse (which was also 9-3 this season) and Louisville (which was 8-4). Miami, given it was 10-2 and a CFP contender for most of the season, was guaranteed a Tier I bowl and is in the Pop-Tarts Bowl.

Syracuse — also with a first-year coach in Fran Brown — got the other Tier I bowl bid and is headed to the Holiday Bowl in San Diego. Louisville fell into the Tier II bowls and is going to the Sun Bowl.

Ole Miss also went 9-3 this season and already beat one team from North Carolina, winning at Wake Forest 40-6 in the third week of the season. Lane Kiffin’s team is one of two that beat SEC champion Georgia this year; but Ole Miss missed out on a CFP berth because it lost to Kentucky, LSU and Florida.

The nail in Ole Miss' coffin was, seemingly, following up the 28-10 thrashing of Georgia with a 24-17 loss at Florida. Ole Miss was also the only SEC team to lose to Kentucky this season.

Duke hasn’t lost a bowl game in 10 years. Since the Blue Devils lost to Arizona State in the 2014 Sun Bowl, they’ve won: Pinstripe Bowl (2015 vs. Indiana), Quick Lane Bowl (2017 vs. Northern Illinois), Walk-ons Independence Bowl (2018 vs. Temple), Military Bowl (2022 vs. UCF) and the Birmingham Bowl (2023 vs. Troy).

This is the first time Duke is playing in a post-New Year’s Eve bowl since the Hall of Fame bowl after the 1994 season. Duke lost to Wisconsin 34-20 in that one, also played Jan. 2.

It’s the first time Duke is playing an SEC team in a bowl since the Peach Bowl loss to Texas A&M in 2013.