Dukes fans suddenly turned into the biggest Duke fans on Saturday night.
There was one domino left to fall in an action-packed championship weekend to set the College Football Playoff bracket. Four of the five conference champions — Indiana, Georgia, Texas Tech, and Tulane — already sealed their bids into the 12-team bracket. Determining the fifth conference champion was the 2025 ACC Championship Game in Charlotte, pitting a unique matchup of Virginia and Duke.
The teams’ records made the pairing particularly
unique. Virginia entered at 10-2 and 7-1 in conference play while Duke strolled into Bank of America Stadium at 7-5 and 6-2 in conference play, emerging out of a 5-team tiebreaker that included SMU, Georgia Tech, Miami (FL), and Pittsburgh.
But just as much as the ACC title game was Virginia vs. Duke, it was also Virginia vs. James Madison. If the No. 17 Cavaliers won, they would have locked up the 11-seed as the fourth-highest ranked conference champion. But if the unranked Blue Devils prevailed, a full chaos scenario was in the works where No. 25 James Madison could crash the field as one of the five highest-ranked champions.
Duke, which never trailed once in Charlotte, held a 20-10 advantage with under five minutes remaining, giving life to the James Madison dream scenario. However, Virginia made a rabid comeback in the final four minutes, notching a 42-yard Will Bettridge field goal with 3:54 to go, forcing a Duke punt, and knotting the game at 20 apiece on a spectacular Eli Woods grab on the left boundary of the end zone.
But the Blue Devils regrouped in overtime, immediately pushing the ball to the goal line through hard-nosed running by freshman tailback Nate Sheppard. Reaching the goal line was easy, but crossing it proved even harder. After three Virginia stops, Duke kept the offense on the field for a critical fourth down. A slow-developing play saw quarterback Darian Mensah scramble for quite some time, but he ultimately found Jeremiah Hasley in the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown. Due to a roughing the passer penalty on the play, Virginia was forced to start its overtime possession from its own 40.
Due to the Cavaliers’ unideal field position, they schemed up a trick play where quarterback Chandler Morris handed off to Jamari Taylor, and Taylor pitched the ball back to Morris. The sixth-year senior quarterback fired a downfield shot in double coverage, and Duke’s Luke Mergott firmly secured the game-sealing interception.
When Mergott arose from the field to celebrate, the Duke Blue Devils were ACC champions for the first time since 1989 and outright conference champions for the first time since 1962 — commencing an on-field party for the underdogs in white jerseys.
While many ACC championships would be associated with College Football Playoff bids in the 12-team era, this one was a bit more complicated. Duke entered this matchup unranked with five losses, faring 1-3 in non-conference play with blemishes against Illinois, Tulane, and UConn. The 8-5 Blue Devils will still throw their hat in for a College Football Playoff bid, as all conference champions are eligible. But in order to crash the field they must surpass No. 25 James Madison in the rankings unveiled Sunday.
After defeating Troy 31-14 in the Sun Belt Championship Game on Friday night, JMU boasts a 12-1 record, only slipping up in Week 2 at Louisville — an ACC team Duke did not play — in 28-14 fashion. Given the vast discrepancy in the overall records due to Duke’s non-conference struggles, all oddsmakers and playoff predictors currently point to a JMU playoff appearance as No. 12 seed and fifth highest-ranked conference champion.
James Madison will learn of its fate Sunday during the 12 p.m. ET selection show on ESPN, but the ACC Championship Game result cleared a perfect path for the first-ever Sun Belt berth in the CFP.
