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Football

Three ACC Teams Ranked in Preseason AP Top 25 & Coaches Polls

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (theACC.com) – Three Atlantic Coast Conference football programs earned recognition in the 2025 Preseason Associated Press Top 25, released Monday. Two teams were ranked in the top 10, with Clemson at No. 4 and Miami at No. 10. SMU was ranked at No. 16.
 
Five other ACC teams received votes in the AP Top 25 Preseason Poll: Louisville (90), Georgia Tech (63), Florida State (8), Duke (6) and Pitt (3).
 
The three ACC teams were also ranked in the top 25 of the Preseason US LBM Coaches Poll, powered by USA TODAY Sports, last week – Clemson (No. 6), Miami (No. 10) and SMU (No. 16).

The 2025 season kicks off in Week 0 when Stanford travels to Hawai’i on Saturday, August 23 (7:30 p.m. ET, CBS). The remaining 16 ACC teams will open the following week, as the ACC remains the only conference to compete across five consecutive days (Thursday through Monday) in Week 1. That stretch includes seven non-conference matchups against peer Power 4 opponents and Notre Dame, more than any other league.
 
The conference will once again close out Labor Day Weekend on Monday night, with North Carolina hosting TCU in Chapel Hill. The primetime matchup marks Bill Belichick’s debut as Tar Heels head coach and continues one of college football’s premier traditions – the ACC’s 16th consecutive Labor Day game (excluding the Covid-2020 season) and 19th overall since Florida State and Miami first met in the spotlight in 2005.
 

ACC Football Notes
 
2025 ACC Football Championship Game in Primetime Once Again
  • The 2025 ACC Football Championship Game will kick off at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday, December 6, at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, on ABC. The league’s football championship game will showcase the top two teams based on regular-season conference winning percentage.
  • The 8 p.m. ET kickoff marks the 16th time in the last 17 years that the game will be held in primetime. Since its inception in 2005, a total of 14 different teams have competed in the championship game.
  • Bank of America Stadium, home of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, has hosted 14 of the last 15 ACC Football Championship Games. The ACC, Carolina Panthers, and the Charlotte Sports Foundation have an agreement to keep the championship game in Charlotte through the 2030 season.
  • The winner of the conference championship game has advanced to the National Championship Game or competed in the College Football Playoff in nine of the last 12 seasons, including both of the two participating teams last year, with the ACC being one of only three multi-bid leagues.
 
Strongest Non-Conference Schedule Again in 2025
  • ACC teams are scheduled to play 26 games against peer Power 4 Conference opponents and Notre Dame in 2025, the most of any conference by at least eight games.
  • ACC teams are set to play 14 non-conference games against teams ranked in both the final 2024 College Football Rankings and the 2024 Associated Press (AP) Top 25 Poll.
  • ACC teams will play 35 non-conference games against opponents that appeared in a bowl game last year, including eight against teams that made the 12-team College Football Playoff.
  • ACC teams are scheduled to play 16 non-conference games against teams in ESPN’s 2025 Way-Too-Early Top 25.
 
ACC Owns Labor Day Once Again
  • The ACC is the only league to compete across five days - Thursday through Monday - during Week 1 of the college football season.
  • Week 1 includes seven games against P4 opponents and Notre Dame – no other conference has more.
  • The ACC will once again anchor Labor Day Weekend on Monday night with North Carolina playing host to TCU, as Bill Belichick makes his North Carolina debut with the Tar Heels hosting TCU.
  •  It marks the 16th consecutive Labor Day game for the ACC (excluding the 2020 COVID season), and the 19th time since the tradition began with Florida State vs. Miami in 2005.
 
ACC Football Fridays
  • ACC football is set to dominate Fridays this fall, with a league-record 12 games scheduled for Fridays in 2025, the most of any conference.
  • 12 of the ACC’s 17 football programs will participate in at least one primetime Friday night game.
  • Georgia Tech’s season-opening contest at Colorado on August 29 is one of two ACC games set for the first Friday of play in the 2025 season.
 
ACC is the Conference of Quarterbacks
  • The ACC is the Conference of Quarterbacks, with the return of full-time starters Cade Klubnik at Clemson, Haynes King at Georgia Tech, Kevin Jennings at SMU, Eli Holstein at Pitt, Kyron Drones at Virginia Tech, CJ Bailey at NC State and Tommy Castellanos at Florida State.
  • Five ACC quarterbacks were ranked in ESPN’s Top 15 QBs in College Football in 2025 – Cade Klubnik of Clemson, Carson Beck of Miami, Haynes King of Georgia Tech, Kevin Jennings of SMU and Darian Mensah of Duke.
  • The ACC features nine of the top 30 quarterback transfers heading into the 2025 season and has seen a strong influx of talent at the position, including notable names like Carson Beck (Miami), Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele (California), Darian Mensah (Duke), Miller Moss (Louisville), Steve Angeli and Rickie Collins (Syracuse), Dylan Lonergan (Boston College), Chandler Morris (Virginia), Gio Lopez (North Carolina), Devin Brown (California), Daniel Kaelin (Virginia), and Deshawn Purdie (Wake Forest).
  • Since 2018, the ACC is the only conference to have had at least one QB drafted in the first round in six different drafts.
 
ACC is Loaded with Preeminent Players Heading into 2025
  • The ACC is stacked with preeminent players again heading into the 2025 season.
  • Five ACC players are ranked on ESPN’s list of 25 non-QB playmakers to watch.
  • ACC has 10 of the top 50 best players in college football (PFF College 50).
  • ACC has 1 of the 3 top returning players across six different positions (Pro Football Focus).
  • ACC has 3 of the top 10 teams in the 247Sports 2025 Transfer Football Team Rankings.
  • ACC has 22 of the top 100 transfers in the 247Sports 2025 College Football Transfer Portal Top Prospects.
  • Top returners include: Desmond Reid, RB (Pitt); Francis Mauigoa, OT (Miami); Isaiah Nwokobia, S (SMU); Caleb Weaver, S (Duke); Avieon Terrell, CB (Clemson); Kyle Louis, LB (Pitt); Isaac Brown, RB (Louisville); Sammy Brown, LB (Clemson); T.J. Parker, DE (Clemson); Peter Woods, DT (Clemson); Luke Petitbon, OL (Florida State); Monroe Mills, OT (Virginia); Jamal Haynes, RB (Georgia Tech); Demond Claiborne, RB (Wake Forest); Antonio Williams, WR (Clemson).
  • Impact transfers ranked in the Top 100 include: Duce Robinson, WR (Florida State); Will Heldt, DE (Clemson); Eric Rivers, WR (Georgia Tech); Ethan O’Connor, CB (Miami); CJ Daniels, WR (Miami); Charles Brantley, CB (Miami); Thaddeus Dixon, CB (North Carolina); Fa’alili Fa’amoe, OL (Wake Forest); Daniel King, OT (North Carolina); Khmori House, LB (North Carolina); Zechariah Poyser, S (Miami); Micah Pettus, OT (Florida State); David Blay, DL (Miami).
 
ACC x NFL
  • No conference blends college football and NFL experience quite like the ACC in 2025, with three former NFL head coaches now leading programs: Bill O’Brien (Boston College), Bill Belichick (North Carolina), and Frank Reich (Stanford), the most of any conference.
  • Several ACC programs also feature General Managers with deep NFL ties, including Ron Rivera (Cal), John Garrett (Duke), Michael Lombardi (North Carolina) and Andrew Luck (Stanford), along with a growing number of former NFL stars contributing across coaching staffs and player development roles.