NC/ACC Week 15 College Football Preview:

Duke-UVa ACC Title Game In Charlotte
Offers Rare Opportunity For Both Programs
(DG’s “This Week In CFB” YouTube Show = Posted Below)

By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
(last updated Dec. 3, 2025)

The 2025 college football campaign continues Friday and Saturday via a compelling “Championship Week” schedule in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), including a Duke-Virginia matchup for the Atlantic Coast Conference title, as bracket-style playoffs continue at the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), Division Two and Division Three levels.

The most prominent Championship Week matchups nationally are the title games in the Big Ten, Southeastern Conference and Big 12 on Saturday: #1 Ohio State versus #2 Indiana in Indianapolis (8 p.m., FOX), #3 Georgia against #9 Alabama in Atlanta (4 p.m., ABC), and #4 Texas Tech versus #11 BYU in Arlington, Texas (noon, ABC).

Among the 32 NCAA football teams in North Carolina (see full list below, with 2025 results), only four are still playing.

After Duke takes on Virginia in Charlotte (preview below), the Blue Devils will join East Carolina, NC State and Wake Forest on this year’s bowl schedule. Each team will learn its specific destination next week.

ACC Championship Game

#17 Virginia (10-2) vs. Duke (7-5), Sat., 8 p.m. (ABC) in Charlotte
(An “Old North State Tailgate & Traveling Sports Circus” Game)

Before exploring the details of this Virginia-Duke matchup itself, let’s remember — and, if you’re inclined, celebrate — the Big Picture here.

In 13 of the past 14 seasons, the ACC football champion was either Clemson or Florida State. Under coach Dabo Swinney, the Tigers won the title nine times during that 14-year stretch, including an incredible six in a row from 2015-20. The Seminoles won it four times in that same span — including three straight from 2012-14, all of those under coach Jimbo Fisher.

The only exception over the past 14 seasons came in 2021, when coach Pat Narduzzi and quarterback Kenny Pickett led Pitt to a 45-21 title-game victory over Wake Forest.

If you’ve always liked the famous quote “Variety Is The Spice Of Life,” then this game is for you, because whether Virginia or Duke wins at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte on Saturday night, someone is going to be crowned the ACC football champion for the first time in a long time.

The Cavaliers have only two ACC titles in their 72 years as an ACC member; both came under legendary coach George Welsh, in 1989 and 1995, and each reflected a first-place tie in the league standings, well before the creation of the ACC championship game.

Duke does have seven all-time ACC football titles, but six of them came in the 1950s and early 1960s, just after the creation of the league, and the only more recent example came in 1989, under legendary coach Steve Spurrier.

Obviously, unlike in 1989, when the Wahoos and Devils were declared co-champions because of their first-place tie in the standings, there will be only one winner this time.

Regarding the matchup itself on Saturday night, the logical starting point is to remember that these two teams played each other just three weeks ago, at Duke’s Wallace Wade Stadium, and Virginia absolutely dominated the Blue Devils during a 34-17 victory for the Cavaliers.

At the end of the third quarter in that game, the score was 31-3 in favor of the Wahoos, and there was nothing fluky about it. Virginia had twice as many yards as Duke. Virginia had twice as many first downs as Duke. UVa ran the ball well against the Devils, and UVa threw the ball well against the Devils.

UVa running back J’Mari Taylor (an NC Central transfer), a first-team All-ACC player who led the ACC in rushing this season, had 18 carries for 133 yards and two touchdowns against Duke. Quarterback Chandler Morris (North Texas) threw for 316 yards and two touchdowns. Wide receiver Trell Harris (Kent State) had eight receptions for 161 yards and a score.

The UVa defense, led by end Mitchell Melton (Ohio State), sacked Duke quarterback Darian Mensah four times in what was probably Mensah’s worst game of the entire season. He completed barely half of his throws (18 of 35) for just 213 yards and one touchdown, and he lost a fumble; no other defense even came close to limiting Mensah, an All-ACC quarterback, in that sort of manner.

Duke also couldn’t run the ball effectively in that game — 23 carries for only 63 yards, even after discounting the sack losses — and seven of the Devils’ 17 points came on defense (a pick-six by veteran linebacker Tre Freeman).

Everyone from fourth-year UVa head coach Tony Elliott to his defensive coordinator John Rudzinski to obviously the Cavaliers’ entire defensive unit deserved kudos for that amazing accomplishment in Durham last month.

That still leaves an important question: Can they do it again?

Will it be different this time? If so, there are two main paths forward for Duke.

The first — winning with better play on defense — will be difficult. There’s no need to discount second-year Duke head coach Manny Diaz’s credentials on defense; during his time at Penn State, he was considered one of the top defensive coordinators in the entire country.

However, this Duke defense has suffered a number of key injuries — mostly notably, the loss of All-ACC safety Terry Moore, an NFL prospect, to a serious knee injury — and the Blue Devils are giving up almost 30 points per game, while allowing their opponents to complete almost 70 percent of their passes.

Maybe the weather will help both defenses on Saturday night — game-time temperatures are expected to be in the low 40s, and there’s a possibility of rain — or maybe the Devils can create some turnovers, but that’s a best-case scenario for the boys in blue.

A more likely path to victory for Duke, if it’s going to happen, would be for Mensah and the Devils’ offense to play more like they did all season, when they came close to leading the ACC in scoring offense, at almost 35 points per game.

Duke has a pretty solid offensive line, led by All-ACC right tackle Brian Parker II, and two very reliable running backs in slippery true freshman Nate Sheppard and the rugged, experienced App State transfer, Anderson Castle. The Devils also have an All-ACC wide receiver in Harvard transfer Cooper Barkate and one of the ACC’s best tight ends in Jeremiah Hasley.

Virginia has played very good defense all season — in the ACC stats, the Cavaliers are behind only Miami in scoring defense, at 20 points per game — but the Cavaliers very recently lost their best defensive player, junior linebacker Kam Robinson, to a torn ACL, so perhaps that will make this rematch a more even matchup than what took place in Durham just three weeks ago.

One very important final note here: If UVa (a three-point favorite) wins this game, the Cavaliers will be 11-2 and on their merry way to the 12-team College Football Playoff. On the other hand, if Duke wins this game, the Blue Devils will be only 8-5, and the ACC will be inviting its biggest disaster scenario of the entire playoff era.

Even during the four-team playoff era, remember, the ACC was left out of the bracket in 2021, 2022 and 2023. That was bad.

Now that there’s a 12-team bracket, a Power Four league being left out entirely would be truly embarrassing.

The College Football Playoff rules now direct the inclusion of the five highest-ranked conference champions. Then the CFP committee extends at-large bids to the seven additional teams it considers most worthy.

It’s already clear that the champions of the Big 12 (12-1 Texas Tech or 12-1 BYU), Big Ten (13-0 Ohio State or 13-0 Indiana) and SEC (12-1 Georgia or 11-2 Alabama) — whoever they turn out to be — will be very highly ranked teams because of their truly outstanding records.

It’s also a virtual certainty that the American Conference champion — it will be either 12-1 North Texas or 11-2 Tulane — would be ranked higher than a hypothetical 8-5 Duke squad. The Green Wave beat the Blue Devils, 34-27, in their head-to-head matchup during the regular season.

That means it could come down to 8-5 Duke and the Sun Belt champion for the fifth and final automatic qualifier slot. If James Madison — a 23-point favorite — beats Troy on Friday night in the Sun Belt title game, the Dukes would be 12-1, and they, too, could be ranked above an 8-5 Duke team.

That would be a closer call, because JMU lost its only game against a Power Four opponent (a 28-14 defeat at Louisville, in early September), but in this week’s committee rankings, the 11-1 Dukes were #25, and the 7-5 Blue Devils were (understandably) unranked.

Most of the ACC playoff conversation lately has been about the league’s best team, 10-2 Miami, possibly falling short of an at-large invitation, despite the Hurricanes’ head-to-head victory over 10-2 Notre Dame.

The ACC’s worst-case scenario, in which 8-5 Duke falls short of an automatic bid and 10-2 Miami falls short of an at-large bid, would immediately become the league’s rock-bottom moment since major college football first created a bracket-style format more than a decade ago.

NC Football Bowl Subdivision (Seven Teams)

Appalachian State — 5-7, 2-6 Sun Belt (12th of 14 teams); season over
Charlotte — 1-11, 0-8 American (14th of 14 teams); season over
Duke — 7-5, 6-2 ACC (2nd of 17 teams); playing in ACC title game
East Carolina — 8-4, 6-2 American (4th of 14 teams); awaiting bowl invitation
North Carolina — 4-8, 2-6 ACC (13th of 17 teams); season over
NC State — 7-5, 4-4 ACC (7th of 17 teams); awaiting bowl invitation
Wake Forest — 8-4, 4-4 ACC (7th of 17 teams); awaiting bowl invitation

Atlantic Coast Conference (17 Teams)

Boston College — 2-10, 1-7 ACC (16th of 17 teams); season over
Cal — 7-5, 4-4 ACC (7th of 17 teams); awaiting bowl invitation
Clemson — 7-5, 4-4 ACC (7th of 17 teams); awaiting bowl invitation
Duke — 7-5, 6-2 ACC (2nd of 17 teams); playing in ACC title game
Florida State — 5-7, 2-6 ACC (13th of 17 teams); season over
Georgia Tech — 9-3, 6-2 (2nd of 17 teams); awaiting bowl invitation
Louisville — 8-4, 4-4 ACC (7th of 17 teams); awaiting bowl invitation
Miami — 10-2, 6-2 ACC (2nd of 17 teams); awaiting bowl invitation
North Carolina — 4-8, 2-6 ACC (13th of 17 teams); season over
NC State — 7-5, 4-4 ACC (7th of 17 teams); awaiting bowl invitation
Pittsburgh — 8-4, 6-2 ACC (2nd of 17 teams); awaiting bowl invitation
SMU — 8-4, 6-2 ACC (2nd of 17 teams); awaiting bowl invitation
Stanford — 4-8, 3-5 ACC (12th of 17 teams); season over
Syracuse — 3-9, 1-7 ACC (16th of 17 teams); season over
Virginia — 10-2, 7-1 ACC (1st of 17 teams); playing in ACC title game
Virginia Tech — 3-9, 2-6 ACC (13th of 17 teams); season over
Wake Forest — 8-4, 4-4 ACC (7th of 17 teams); awaiting bowl invitation