The first major preseason poll is out, and Notre Dame is in its top 10.
The Fighting Irish are ranked No. 10 in the preseason coaches poll, released Thursday. They earned 1,012 points in the poll of 65 coaches. They will face the preseason No. 1 team in the poll, Clemson, on Nov. 7. The Tigers earned 38 first-place votes.
One other Notre Dame opponent is in the top 25. North Carolina, which hosts Notre Dame Nov. 27, is ranked No. 19. No. 24 Virginia Tech is the only other ACC team in the top 25. Louisville and Pittsburgh, both of which the Irish will play in 2020, also received votes.
This year marks the ninth time in the last 10 years Notre Dame has been ranked in the preseason coaches poll. The one exception was in 2017, when the Irish were coming off a 4-8 season. They went 11-2 in 2019 and ended the year with six straight wins.
Clemson, Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Oklahoma, Penn State, Florida and Oregon were the nine teams ranked above Notre Dame.
The rest of the top 25 is: Auburn at No. 11, followed by Wisconsin, Texas A&M, Texas, Michigan, Oklahoma State, USC, Minnesota, North Carolina, Utah, Central Florida, Cincinnati, Iowa, Virginia Tech and Iowa State.
Tennessee and Boise State each received the highest point total for an unranked team.
Brian Kelly, Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, Louisville’s Scott Satterfield, Boston College’s Jeff Hafley, Virginia Tech’s Justin Fuente, Duke’s David Cutcliffe, Miami’s Manny Diaz and Syracuse’s Dino Babers were the ACC’s voters.
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