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Olympic Fan
05-27-2010, 02:03 PM
Sporting News recently released its preseason top 100 for next football season:

http://www.sportingnews.com/college-football/article/2010-05-26/college-football-on-clock-sns-preseason-top-100

Duke came in at No. 70 ... which I don't have a big problem with (unlike basketball, where we have earned respect over the years, the football team -- no matter how optimistic I am -- has to prove it itself before outsiders will buy it. About my only quibble is ranking us two places behind a Virginia team we've beaten in each of the last two seasons. On the other hand, they rank us 16 places ahead of a Wake Forest team that we haven't beaten in ages.

Overall, based on their rankings, we have a chance to get off to a great start again, but then it gets tough. Indeed, I believe our schedule has to be on of the best in the country as we play No. 1, No. 4, No. 12, No. 18, No. 23, No. 34 and No. 37 in their ranking -- four of the top 20 and six of the top 40.

In order (with rankings):

UNR -- Elon
No. 86 Wake Forest
No. 1 Alabama
No. 79 Army
No. 89 Maryland

So, we almost have to be be 4-1 at this point if we hope to accpmplish anything. Then we get:

No. 4 Miami (can they really be this good???)
No. 12 Virginia Tech
No. 37 Navy
No. 68 Virginia
No. 34 Boston College
No. 18 Georgia Tech
No. 23 UNC

I still say a 6-6 finish against this lineup would be a great accomplishment. Optimistically (my reasonably optimistic view, anyway), I'm hoping we can get four of those first five, add Virginia and Navy again, then steal one more somewhere along the way.

But in my more realistic moments, I realize that there's not a lot of margin of error on that schedule.

jimsumner
05-27-2010, 02:36 PM
How many bowl games are there, again? Only takes 35. :)

OldPhiKap
05-27-2010, 03:17 PM
Thanks for the analysis, Olympic. No doubt that, if we want to go bowling, we need to exceed the expecations of the general sports-watching public.

Good thing we have the coaching staff who can do it.


RIP 'EM UP, TEAR 'EM UP, GIVE'M HELL DUKE!

Bob Green
05-27-2010, 03:43 PM
Overall, based on their rankings, we have a chance to get off to a great start again, but then it gets tough. Indeed, I believe our schedule has to be on of the best in the country as we play No. 1, No. 4, No. 12, No. 18, No. 23, No. 34 and No. 37 in their ranking -- four of the top 20 and six of the top 40.

Our schedule is definitely going to be challenging this coming season. Four of the six ACC Coastal teams are ranked in the Top 25: Miami #4, Virginia Tech #12, Georgia Tech #18, and UNC #23. And as Olympic Fan pointed out, the Sporting News has Virginia ranked #68 ahead of Duke's #70, which leaves Duke as the lowest ranked team in the ACC Coastal.

Two of four out-of-conference opponents are ranked higher than Duke in #1 Alabama and #37 Navy.

Overall, eight of 12 opponents start the season ranked higher than we are so achieving six wins in 2010 will require our Blue Devils to play better than expected and take it to higher ranked opponents. I'm looking forward to cheering on our Blue Devils as they face the challenging season ahead.

Duvall
05-27-2010, 03:46 PM
How many bowl games are there, again? Only takes 35. :)

35! (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5129612) Piece of cake.