Changing of the guard? Clemson football not the favorite to win the ACC in 2024

There’s a new preseason ACC champion in town.

Florida State has beaten out Clemson as the favorite to win the league’s football championship in 2024, according to a preseason poll released on Wednesday.

After going undefeated in ACC play and winning the conference title in 2023, coach Mike Norvell and the Seminoles got 2,708 poll points and 81 first-place votes in the poll, the ACC announced. The Tigers and coach Dabo Swinney finished a close No. 2 after drawing 55 first-place votes and 2,657 overall points (51 points short of FSU).

It’s the first time in seven years that Clemson and Swinney are not the preseason ACC champions. The last non-Clemson pick was Florida State heading into 2017.

The Tigers had also been the preseason ACC champion in eight of the last nine years dating back to 2015 and nine of the last 11 years dating back to 2013.

But there’s been a changing of the guards of sorts at the top of the ACC’s preseason poll after Clemson went 9-4 last year, snapped a 12-year streak of 10 or more wins and finished in a shocking tie for sixth in the ACC with UNC and Duke at 4-4.

Florida State, meanwhile, was a perfect 8-0 in the ACC and 12-0 in the regular season before beating Louisville in the league’s title game and narrowly missing out on the College Football Playoff (mostly because of QB Jordan Travis’ injury).

Miami had 17 first-place votes and finished third in the 2024 preseason poll. NC State was fourth (8 first place votes), Louisville was fifth and Virginia Tech was sixth.

Swinney, quarterback Cade Klubnik and the rest of the Clemson football team start spring practice on Thursday and have their season opener against Georgia in Atlanta on Aug. 31 (12 p.m., ABC). The Tigers are currently a 13.5-point betting underdog.

ACC 2024 preseason football poll

1. Florida State (81 first-place votes) - 2,708 total points

2. Clemson (55 first-place votes) - 2,657 total points

3. Miami (17 first-place votes) - 2,344 total points

4. NC State (8 first-place votes) - 2,318 total points

5. Louisville - 1,984 total points

6. Virginia Tech (5 first-place votes) - 1,968 total points

7. SMU - 1,798 total points

8. North Carolina - 1,712 total points

9. Georgia Tech (1 first-place vote) - 1,539 total points

10. Cal (2 first-place votes) - 1,095 total points

11. Duke - 1,056 total points

12. Syracuse - 1,035 total points

13. Pitt - 1,016 total points

14. Boston College (1 first-place vote) - 890 total points

15. Wake Forest - 784 total points

16. Virginia - 629 total points

17. Stanford - 477 total points

First-place votes in parentheses; 170 total media voters