Duke's Vote Disappears In Coaches' Poll

It was fun while it lasted.

After receiving one vote in the coaches' poll for two consecutive weeks, Duke was nowhere to be found in the "others receiving votes" section of the rankings. Apparently, the Blue Devils dropped in the eyes of our mysterious voter simply by not playing. For the record, Duke has not received a vote in the AP poll this year.

After a banner weekend, the ACC fared well in the writers' poll. No. 17 Virginia Tech leads the pack, and, most notably, North Carolina jumped four spots to clock in at No. 18 this week after beating Notre Dame 29-24 in Chapel Hill Saturday. Wake Forest rounds out the conference representation at No. 21 after its ugly win over a no-longer-impressive Clemson squad. Florida State earned 38 votes and Georgia Tech racked up 25. In the coaches' poll--The Chronicle uses the AP's--Virginia Tech is No. 17, Wake Forest is No. 18 and North Carolina is No. 21. Florida State, Georgia Tech, Boston College and Miami all received votes.

First BCS poll comes out Monday night and the next polls come out next Sunday. The good news for Duke, though, is that it might reprise its role in the bottom section with the small type if it can come out and beat Miami Saturday.

--by Ben Cohen