Duke football has been around for 138 years, but the Blue Devils still have a surprisingly long way to go if the goal is to say they’ve played everybody in FBS.
The numbers make the gap pretty clear. Duke has faced 68 of the 138 current FBS programs, which means there are still plenty of names left off the list.
That stands out even more for a program that has been playing since the late 1800s and has nine ACC championships, including its first in the 21st century last season. The Blue Devils are also close to evening out their all-time record, sitting at 555-565-31, but the scheduling footprint still looks a lot more like a basketball school than a football program that has been around this long.
Among Power Four teams, Duke has never played 16 programs. That group includes nine Big 12 teams: Arizona, BYU, Colorado, Houston, Iowa State, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU and Utah. The Blue Devils also have never met five Big Ten teams - Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota, Oregon and Penn State - along with two SEC schools, Mississippi State and Texas.
A few of those omissions are easy to explain, but a few really jump out. Arizona and Michigan State stand out because of the schools’ basketball connections, while Mississippi State is a curious holdout for another reason. Duke has played every other SEC team that has been around for a while, but not the Bulldogs.
The bigger hole is in the Group of Six. Duke has played only 16 of the 70 teams in that tier of FBS football, which leaves a massive chunk of the map untouched.
One reason is simple: Duke has not been a frequent bowl team, and that has limited the chances to pick off some of those matchups in postseason play. If there are three Group of Six programs Duke ought to get on the schedule, the names that fit best are Appalachian State, Coastal Carolina and Old Dominion, all of which are in the region.
The only team with any Mountain West ties Duke has played is Northern Illinois.
For now, the only future opponent already lined up to come off the list is TCU. The Blue Devils are scheduled to open a home-and-home with the Horned Frogs in 2028, with the first game at Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham and the return trip at Amon G.
Carter Stadium in Fort Worth in 2029. That series has been on the books since 2017, though there is still a chance it never happens.
TCU has played a nine-game conference schedule since joining the Big 12 in 2012, and Duke along with the rest of the ACC will be moving to nine games soon as well. Looking ahead at Duke’s non-conference slate, the pattern stays familiar: lots of Notre Dame, Rice and UConn. The Blue Devils have not exactly been eager to branch out.
The contrast is striking. Duke’s all-time football winning percentage is .496, while the percentage of current FBS teams the Blue Devils have played is .493.
That’s a difference of just three-tenths of a point. For a program with this much history, that’s a pretty wild place to be.
So yes, Duke has been playing football for 138 years. But if the mission is to truly work through the whole FBS neighborhood, there’s still a lot of ground left to cover.
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