Can the Orange overperform and prove voters wrong once again?
The 2025 ACC preseason poll is now out and the Syracuse Orange for a second straight year will be looking to prove voters wrong.
Voters picked the Orange to finish 12th in the ACC in the 2025 season, Syracuse is sandwiched in-between Virginia Tech and Boston College in the poll. Over 180 media members credentialed for last week’s ACC Football Kickoff were the ones who made the picks.
The Clemson Tigers, the reigning conference champions, are the favorites in the eyes of voters to win the ACC this year. Over 160 of the ballots had Clemson as the winner. The Miami Hurricanes, Florida State Seminoles, SMU Mustangs, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and Virginia Tech Hokies all received first-place votes.
All eyes on kickoff
The 2025 ACC Preseason Poll has arrived. pic.twitter.com/kGdWOF7mp6
— ACC Football (@ACCFootball) July 30, 2025
After Clemson, Miami took the second spot while SMU finished third. Georgia Tech and Louisville rounded out the top-five.
Here are the full results from the ACC preseason poll:
- Clemson: 3083 (167 first-place votes)
- Miami: 2679 (7 first-place votes)
- SMU: 2612 (2 first-place votes)
- Georgia Tech: 2397 (2 first-place votes)
- Louisville: 2370
- Duke: 1973
- Florida State: 1920 (4 first-place votes)
- North Carolina: 1611
- Pitt: 1571
- NC State: 1505
- Virginia Tech: 1412 (1 first-place vote)
- Syracuse: 1381
- Boston College: 953
- Virginia: 871
- California: 659
- Wake Forest: 576
- Stanford: 426
The poll obviously can only predict so much, and this will likely not be the final ACC standings for the 2025 season. That being said, it does show that a successful year for Syracuse will once again mean beating the initial expectations.
In 2024, Syracuse was also picked to finish 12th in the ACC. The Orange ended up going 10-3 overall and 5-3 in the ACC, good for fourth in the conference standings by the end of the season.
It also reinforces just how difficult the 2025 schedule projects to be for the Orange.
According to the 2025 ACC preseason poll, Syracuse will play the top-four teams in the conference, with each of those games being on the road. Syracuse’s home games are against Duke (No. 6), North Carolina (No. 8), Pittsburgh (No. 9) and Boston College (No. 13).
For the Orange’s conference schedule, the Eagles are the only opponent who rank outside the top-10 in this poll. And of course, two tough non-conference opponents are also lingering in Tennessee (neutral-site) and Notre Dame (road).
The key question to take away from this: do you think Syracuse will once again outperform its preseason expectations?