Duke-Florida State is Off, Blue Devils Now Playing Miami on Saturday

Duke’s football season took another unexpected twist on Sunday night.

The Atlantic Coast Conference announced a change to Duke's football schedule for Saturday, Dec. 5. The Blue Devils will now host No. 10 Miami, instead of their original opponent Florida State.
The Seminoles had a COVID outbreak on the team that forced the postponement of Saturday’s game against Virginia hours before kickoff. Reportedly, Florida State had just 44 scholarship players available. Many of them required a 14-day quarantine, which meant FSU’s personnel issues would have continued for next weekend’s game.

Miami also lost its opponent for next week when Wake Forest had to postpone the game due to a COVID-19 outbreak. Duke was scheduled to play Wake a week ago, but that game had to be cancelled due to positive tests and contact tracing on the Demon Deacons roster.

Duke and Miami usually play every year as members of the ACC Coastal Division. The COVID-necessitated rewriting of this year’s ACC schedule seemed to force an interruption in that series. It was going to be the first time since 2004, Miami’s last year in the Big East, that the two teams didn’t meet.

No information was given on whether the Florida State game was postponed or cancelled outright, but, with the Seminoles still needing to make up games with ACC Championship Game contender Clemson and bowl game candidate Virginia, it seems unlikely that Duke would be the choice for a Dec. 12 make-up game, and the Blue Devils have already refused to play on Dec. 19, due to the need to get players home for the holiday break.

Saturday's game will kick off at 8 p.m. and be broadcast live on the ACC Network.

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