Duke football receives no votes in recent Associated Press Poll

Duke football is now off to a 5-0 start in year one under new head coach Manny Diaz after a thrilling 21-20 victory over rival North Carolina on Saturday. It seemed if the Blue Devils could open up ACC play with a victory at home against a solid opponent, it would put the team in the conversation to be ranked in the next AP Poll.

Still, Duke did not receive a single vote and is still on an uphill climb to find the ranks for the first time since that 1994 season.

Duke now has two solid power conference wins on its resume after beating North Carolina and taking down Northwestern on the road in another comeback fashion win in week two. It seems the Blue Devils will just have to keep winning to begin garnering attention in the polls, but there won't be too many more matchups that can totally swing the perception of just how good Duke is in an ACC that is proving to be fairly weak this season.

Duke is one of two ACC teams with a 5-0 record on the season along with Miami who came in at #8 in the most recent AP Poll. Miami's biggest wins so far this season came at Florida in week one in a dominant 41-17 victory and a thrilling 38-34 win against Virginia Tech this past Saturday.

The next matchup for the Blue Devils comes against Georgia Tech (3-2) on the road this coming Saturday. Duke finishes the season against Florida State, SMU, Miami, NC State, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest.

With really only the Hurricanes proving to be a College Football Playoff contender, maybe with #15 Clemson on the outside looking in, Duke will have trouble proving itself to the national media unless it can begin dominating these next games.

Besides Clemson and Miami, the only other ACC team featured in this week's poll was #23 Louisville. Pittsburgh, Boston College, and SMU also received votes.