Clemson football picked as preseason ACC champion. Here’s the full 2025 poll
Once again, Clemson football is preseason king of the ACC.
The Tigers were the overwhelmingly favorite to win the league championship in 2025, according to a preseason poll of media members released Wednesday.
Clemson, the reigning ACC champion, received 167 of a possible 183 first-place votes (91%). Miami (seven first-place votes) was picked to finish second in the ACC, and SMU (two first-place votes) was picked to finish third.
Georgia Tech (two first-place votes) was picked to finish No. 4. No. 5 Louisville, No. 6 Duke and No. 7 Florida State (four first-place votes) rounded out the the top seven.
Coach Dabo Swinney’s team went 10-4 last year and 7-1 in the ACC, beating SMU in the ACC championship game to earn an automatic bid to the 12-team College Football Playoff. Clemson was the No. 12 seed and lost in the first round at Texas.
Star senior quarterback and two-time ACC championship game MVP Cade Klubnik is among 16 starters back from that Clemson team. The Tigers ranked No. 2 in ESPN’s post-spring Way Too Early Top 25 poll and currently have the fifth-best national championship betting odds in the country.
This marks the 10th time in the past 13 seasons that Clemson was picked as the preseason ACC champion and 16th time overall. Clemson was the preseason ACC favorite six years in a row from 2018-23 before league media members predicted Florida State as the preseason champion in 2024 (FSU finished 2-10 last year).
In 15 previous instances of being picked as preseason ACC champ, Clemson has won the league 10 times. The Tigers were picked to finish second last year.
The ACC will announce its preseason player of the year and preseason all-conference team Thursday. Klubnik is the favorite to win ACC Preseason Player of the Year.
The Tigers also kick off preseason practice Thursday.
2025 ACC football preseason order of finish
Listed by total voting points; first-place votes in parentheses
No. 1: Clemson (167) - 3083
No. 2: Miami (7) - 2679
No. 3: SMU (2) - 2612
No. 4: Georgia Tech (2) - 2397
No. 5: Louisville - 2370
No. 6: Duke - 1973
No. 7: Florida State (4) - 1920
No. 8: UNC - 1611
No. 9: Pitt - 1571
No. 10: NC State - 1505
No. 11: Virginia Tech (1) - 1611
No. 12: Syracuse - 1381
No. 13: Boston College - 953
No. 14: Virginia - 871
No. 15: Cal - 659
No. 16: Wake Forest - 576
No. 17: Stanford - 426
Clemson 2025 football schedule
Aug. 30: vs. LSU, 7:30 p.m. (ABC)
Sept. 6: vs. Troy, 3:30 p.m. (ACC Network)
Sept. 13: at Georgia Tech, noon (ABC or ESPN)
Sept. 20: vs. Syracuse
Sept. 27: OPEN
Oct. 4: at UNC
Oct. 11: at Boston College
Oct. 18: vs. SMU
Oct. 25: OPEN
Nov. 1: vs. Duke
Nov. 8: vs. Florida State
Nov. 14: at Louisville (Friday game)
Nov. 22: vs. Furman
Nov. 29: at South Carolina, noon (ABC or ESPN)
This story was originally published July 30, 2025 at 4:03 PM.
