Syracuse football finishes 10th in 2023 ACC Preseason Poll; Clemson predicted to win conference

Syracuse, N. Y. — Syracuse football is projected to finish 10th in the ACC in its first year without divisions.

The 2023 ACC Preseason Poll, voted upon by 176 media members, was released Tuesday by the conference. Clemson is projected to be conference champion, garnering 103 first-place votes, with Florida State and University of North Carolina rounding out the top 3. Dino Babers had just begun his first press conference of the season previewing fall camp when the 2023 poll was released.

“We’ve normally been ranked in certain places, and normally the media’s not that accurate, so we’re fired up about that,” Babers said when asked for his reaction. The ACC is switching to a different scheduling model this year, scrapping its Atlantic and Coastal Divisions in favor of a 3-5-5 format that sees teams across the conference play each other more frequently. Last year, Syracuse was selected to finish last (No.

7) in the Atlantic Division. It finished tied for third with Louisville and N. C.

State; all three had 4-4 conference records. Five of the six other teams SU previously occupied the Atlantic Division with are ranked ahead of it in this year’s poll. No teams outside of the Top 5 received first-place votes.

Syracuse, which had 826 points in the poll, was 355 points behind 9th-place Wake Forest and 148 points ahead of 11th-place Virginia Tech. “They love to doubt us every year,” Justin Barron, one of the Orange’s 2023 captains said Tuesday. “Just keep proving ‘em wrong, right?” Syracuse will play the top 3 teams and two more ranked above it — Pittsburgh and Wake Forest — in ACC play this fall.

The full poll, plus syracuse. com beat writer Emily Leiker’s ballot, can be viewed below. First-place votes are in parentheses next to point totals.

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