Cal Sports Report

Cal Picked to Finish 10th in ACC Football Preseason Media Poll

Florida State is the preseason favorite; Stanford is picked to finish last

Jake Curtis

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ACC logo / Scott Taetsch-USA TODAY Sports
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The 170 media members who voted in the ACC football preseason poll don’t have a lot of respect for Cal.

The Golden Bears were picked to finish 10th in their first season in the ACC in the media poll released on Wednesday.

One thing that’s interesting, though, is that Cal received two first-place votes.

Florida State, the 2023 ACC champion, was picked to win the 2024 Atlantic Coast Conference football title again. The Seminoles, who went 13-1 overall last season, including 8-0 record in conference play, received 81 first-place votes.

Cal’s first ACC game is against Florida State in Tallahassee on September 21, so the Bears will get a first-hand look at the conference favorite in their ACC debut.

Clemson, which went 9-4 in 2023, was picked to finish second, with Miami third and North Carolina State fourth.

SMU and Stanford are the other two schools besides Cal that will play in the ACC in 2024. SMU was picked to finish seventh, and Stanford was picked to finish 17th and last.

Cal began its preseason training camp on Wednesday, and plays its season opener on August 31 against UC Davis.

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Jake Curtis

JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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