Five Atlantic Coast Conference teams, including No. 3 Florida State, No. 5 Clemson and No. 21 Virginia Tech, are ranked in the preseason college football Top 25 poll released Monday by the Associated Press. FSU received four first place votes.
Also included in the poll are No. 16 Louisville and No. 18 Miami. NC State and Pitt received votes outside the Top 25.
The ACC is the only conference with two top five selections and is tied for second with five teams in the poll. This marks the second consecutive season (and second time overall) two ACC teams have been included in the top five. Last year, Clemson and Florida State also were ranked in the top five.
The league has now had a pair of top 10 teams in the AP preseason poll on seven occasions, beginning with its first year of existence in 1953 when Maryland was ranked ninth and Duke 10th. The ACC also had two top 10 teams in 1991 (No. 8 Georgia Tech, No. 9 Clemson), 1997 (No. 3 Florida State, No. 7 North Carolina), 2001 (No. 6 Florida State, No. 10 Georgia Tech), 2004 (No. 8 Virginia Tech, No. 9 Miami), 2005 (No. 8 Virginia Tech, No. 9 Miami) and 2016 (No. 2 Clemson, No. 4 Florida State).
Alabama was picked No. 1 in the AP poll and will face the third-ranked Seminoles on Saturday, Sept. 2, in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in Atlanta. Those are the highest-ranked teams in a season opener since the AP started a preseason poll in 1950. It is the fourth season-opening matchup between two top five opponents. The others were No. 1 Pitt against No. 5 North Carolina in 1982, No. 1 Nebraska against No. 4 Penn State in 1983 and No. 1 Oklahoma against No. 4 UCLA in 1986.
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Chris Graham
