Media? Pfff…what do they know anyway?
The 2024 ACC Preseason Poll is here, which means the Syracuse Orange football team possesses its projected finish for the upcoming season.
In coach Fran Brown’s first year at the helm, the Orange were picked to finish 12th in the new-look ACC in 2024. The preseason poll, which was released on Wednesday, was conducted by a panel which included 170 media voters.
With 1,035 points, Syracuse is sandwiched in-between Duke (1,056 points) and Pittsburgh (1,016 points). The Orange are also ahead of Boston College (890 points), Wake Forest (784 points), Virginia (629 points) and Stanford (477 points).
Florida State, the defending ACC championships, leads the way with most first-place votes (81) and total points (2,708). The rest of the top-five includes Clemson (55 first-place votes), Miami (17 first-place votes), NC State (8 first-place votes) and Louisville. Rounding out the top-10 is Virginia Tech (5 first-place votes), SMU, North Carolina, Georgia Tech and Cal.
⭐️
The 2024 ACC Preseason Poll has arrived.
https://t.co/otqscuOeSD pic.twitter.com/j9eUB3UZi0
— ACC Football (@ACCFootball) July 31, 2024
Last season, Syracuse was projected to finish 10th in the 2023 ACC preseason poll. The Orange concluded last year finishing 11th out of 14 teams in the standings with a 2-6 record versus the ACC, notably ending the year with losses in seven of their final nine games.
In 2024, the Orange will fortunately avoid the projected top-two teams in the conference but will end up playing NC State on the road and The U in their regular season finale. Five of Syracuse’s 8 ACC games this season will be against programs ranked ninth or worse in the ACC preseason poll — Georgia Tech (home), Stanford (home), Pitt (road), Virginia Tech (home), BC (road) and Cal (road).
Syracuse will also have the benefit of playing what is projected to be the easiest 2024 schedule among all Power Four schools.
The preseason poll projected, at first glance, does appear to have the Orange finishing lower than what the betting markets are forecasting. Previously, Syracuse’s over-under win total line was set at seven per DraftKings, which was good for ninth in the ACC back in May.
Syracuse currently sits at +1500 to make the 2024 ACC Championship, which is currently ninth in the conference, per DraftKings.
One other note: the distribution of first-place votes was clearly different this year compared to 2023. Last season, only four teams (Clemson, FSU, UNC and NC State) received at least one first-place vote. A whopping eight teams received a first-place vote this time around, including two for Cal and one for both Georgia Tech and BC.
Roughly a month from now, the Orange will kick off their 2024 season at home versus Ohio followed by back-to-back home games against Georgia Tech and Stanford.