DURHAM, N.C. (AP) Whoever wins the Georgia Tech-Duke game will grab an early edge in the ACC's Coastal Division race.
Yet the loser certainly won't be out of it.
In each of the past two years, the team that lost this matchup bounced back to claim the division title and reach the league championship game.
Both the 20th-ranked Yellow Jackets and Blue Devils are coming off losses in nonconference games they could have won, and enter Saturday's game with a very real sense of urgency.
''Any time you play a division game, it's important that we try to stress to our guys it counts like two, because you want to have the tie-breakers if anything happens at the end,'' Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson said.