Clemson Football edges out Florida State in ACC preseason poll

Clemson Football has won the Atlantic Coast Conference seven of the last eight seasons, but there has been a lot of hype around the Florida State Seminoles entering the 2023 campaign.

As such, it wasn’t a lock that the Tigers would be favored by the press when they voted in the ACC’s preseason poll, but they ended up at the top of the list…barely.

The Clemson Tigers were voted first in the preseason ACC poll with 2,370 points, edging out Florida State, who had 2,304 points.

The Tigers held a larger advantage in first-place votes, pulling in 103, while the Seminoles had 67.

The North Carolina Tar Heels were picked third and had five first-place votes. The NC State Wolfpack were fourth with one first-place vote.

Despite struggles in Mario Cristobal’s first season, the Miami Hurricanes finished fifth in the poll. The Duke Blue Devils and the Pittsburgh Panthers were tied for sixth.

The balance of the league, in order, was Louisville, Wake Forest, Syracuse, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Boston College and Virginia.

This is the first season since 2005 that the conference is not competing in two divisions. The league has adapted a 3-5-5 schedule model that has three annual opponents with the other ten rotating.

Clemson Football faces the most respected ACC teams in 2023

While the Tigers are the defending champions and defeated the Seminoles in Tallahassee last season, many prognosticators favor Florida State in 2023. The program brought in multiple transfers, such as Fentrell Cyprus and Jaheim Bell, that have convinced several that their roster has surpassed Clemson’s.

The Tigers have the next five programs in the ACC preseason poll on their 2023 schedule, with three of those games on the road. Clemson hosts Florida State in Death Valley on September 23rd. They will open the season at Duke on Labor Day, travel to Miami on October 21st and NC State on October 28th before hosting UNC on November 18th.