The team competes in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) and is a member of the Northeast Conference (NEC).

The Dukes have qualified for the NCAA Division I Football Championship playoffs three times, earning automatic bids as NEC champion in 2015, 2018, and 2023.

The signal system was put to use for the first time on November 11, 1928, when Duquesne hosted Thiel College at Pitt Stadium.

In 1929, graduate student manager John Holohan conceived the idea of the first night game at Pittsburgh's Forbes Field.

Duquesne defeated Ohio University in the fall of 2021 for the program's first victory over a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent since the divisions were created in 1978.

From 1933 to 1942, Duquesne was among the elite college football teams in the United States, garnering the sixth-highest winning percentage (71-22-2, .762) in the nation behind Alabama, Tennessee, Duke, Fordham and Notre Dame.