wilson wrote:CameronBornAndBred wrote:From HD's blog on ESPN..she explains it well enough..
because NC Central is still in the provisional phase of becoming an FCS school, it doesn't count towards bowl eligibility
A win over NCCU would NEVER have counted, so that's why 7 wins is the magic number. A victory over Richmond would have counted, and now we would only need 3 more..but that didn't happen.
Well that just makes
no damned sense...because NCCU is a step closer to D-1 than Richmond, it doesn't count, whereas Richmond, playing on an ostensibly "lower" level (to say nothing of the teams' true relative quality) would have counted? That's dumb.
Wilson, I think your overall understanding is correct re: wins over 1-AA teams and bowl eligibility. IIRC, a 1-A team can count a victory over a 1-AA team once every few years (I think it's once every 4 years). Since Duke hasn't used any wins over a 1-AA team towards bowl eligibility in recent years, the win over Richmond would have counted. Apparently because NCCU is "probationary", that game doesn't count (news to me; thanks to CB&B for posting the HD ESPN blog info).
But, if my understanding is correct, if Duke were to get to 6-6 and be allowed to count the NCCU victory, we would not be able to count a win over a 1-AA team for the next few seasons (I'd like to see Duke get beyond scheduling 1-AA teams, but I doubt that will happen; the entire SEC does it every year).
MORE IMPORTANTLY, back-to-back conference wins! Great win for the Devils. Against State we pulled away late. Today, we won a close 4th quarter game. These are the types of wins Duke wasn't getting in years past. Last year, Coach Cut taught the team to compete. This year he's taught them to win. Go Devils!