Looming Miami decision could benefit Duke

Despite not playing this week, there is a chance that Duke's path to the ACC Championship game could become significantly clearer.

Miami may opt to self-impose a bowl ban for the second straight season, interim athletic director Blake James told Michael Casagrande of the South Florida Sun Sentinel after the Hurricane's win over Virginia Tech. Blake said he and University president Donna Shalala will make the decision and added that, "It's not a decision that we have to make right now."

"It's an institutional call, so it will be Donna and myself and consultation with the people we have involved with the NCAA case," James said.

Miami (5-4, 4-2 in the ACC) is in sole possession of first place in the Coastal. In fact, if Duke loses its Nov. 16 game at Georgia Tech, Miami could clinch its first-ever Coastal Division crown. If Duke wins, then there's a real chance that the final regular season game between the Hurricanes and the Blue Devils could be for the right to go to the championship game.

That is, if Miami is still eligible.

When the Hurricanes decided to self-impose a bowl ban last year, that decision didn't come until Nov. 21, the day after Miami won its sixth game. With that as a precedent, it wouldn't a huge surprise to see this decision drag on until late in the season.

Now, Miami was 6-6 last year, so the stakes were much lower than they are presently. For that reason, David Teel of the Newport News (Va.) Daily Press wrote that it would make little sense for the Hurricanes to self-impose this season. Both esteemed colleague Joe Giglio and yours truly voiced agreement with Teel via Twitter. But we shall see.

- Laura Keeley