CFA Bowl President denies rumors that politics were behind Duke's selection

A visit from Chick-fil-A Bowl CEO and President Gary Stokan was meant to be a symbolic occasion for the official invitation of Duke to participate in this year's game against Texas A&M.

But when Stokan opened his press conference sitting next to head coach David Cutcliffe and Vice President and Director of Athletics Kevin White, he began by addressing rumors that one of college football's most prestigious bowl games had to be guilted into inviting the Blue Devils in the first place.

Stokan said that the decision to pick Duke for the game was made long before Sunday's bowl announcement, and close to a done deal before Saturday's ACC championship game in Charlotte.

"On Friday night at the function in Charlotte, that I told [Cutcliffe and White] that if Clemson ended up in the Orange Bowl, which I thought they would be, then Duke was going to be our selection," Stokan said.

Following Duke's 45-7 loss to Florida State in the ACC championship game, early reports indicated that the Chick-fil-A Bowl had a last minute change of heart and were going to pass up the Blue Devils for Miami. Speculation indicated that Texas A&M had been a surprise pick to play in the Outback Bowl, which would have led the Chick-fil-A Bowl to pick Georgia and need a different opponent to help fill the 80,000-seat Georgia Dome.

The Chick-fil-A Bowl has been sold out for 17 consecutive seasons, which is the longest active streak of any postseason game except for the Rose Bowl. The game is expected to be a sellout, and White said that as of yesterday, more than 8,000 of Duke's 18,500-ticket allotment had been sold.

Selecting Miami would have sent Duke to the Russell Athletic Bowl in favor of a team that the Blue Devils had beaten by 18 points last month, a slap in the face for a program that had just completed its most successful season ever.

False rumors went as far as to say that ACC Commissioner John Swofford called Chick-fil-A Bowl representatives to persuade them to take Duke. Stokan said these reports were false.

"Other than the conversion with John Swofford Friday night asking him if he thought the Orange Bowl was going to take Clemson, that's the only conversation I had with John Swofford and the ACC," Stokan said. "There were no politics. That denigrates the season that Duke had, and how we thought about Duke."

Stokan cited the Blue Devils' historic 10-win season, Coastal Division championship, BCS ranking, eight-game winning streak heading into the conference title game and victories against two ranked opponents as reasons why the Chick-fil-A Bowl chose Duke instead of division foes Miami and Virginia Tech.

"We, in our bowl game, take great pride in letting teams play themselves into our game and play themselves out of our game," Stokan said. "It's the players that are making the decisions... Duke played their way into the game and are very deserving."

White and Cutcliffe agreed that the rumors did not phase them when addressing the Blue Devils' Chick-fil-A Bowl selection. White even went as far as to describe the feeling as "euphoric" when hearing the news that they would participate in the game.

"I was never politically uncertain about the invitation," White said to Stokan. "Our kids earned the right to be in this bowl, and by the way you will never have a more enthusiastic group of young people competing."