The preseason Associated Press top-25 poll is out, and Syracuse football isn't ranked nor receiving votes.
No worries. The preseason polls are fun to discuss, but they don't mean much at all. Case in point, ahead of the 2024 campaign, fellow Atlantic Coast Conference school Florida State was No. 10 nationally. The Seminoles would finish last year at 2-10.
While the Orange did receive votes last week when the preseason Coaches top-25 poll came out, this wasn't the case on Monday in the preseason AP ballot. What does this tell us about the 'Cuse?
Candidly, not much, other than that college coaches are higher on Syracuse football ahead of the 2025 term than AP voters are. Again, this means nothing, but since the AP top 25 was disclosed on Monday, I'm writing about it on Monday.
That being said, while I could care less that the Orange wasn't in the preseason AP top 25, I did see a few squads in there receiving votes that, to me, were head-scratchers.
Syracuse football doesn't reside in the preseason AP top-25 poll.
Okay, so in the others receiving votes category, you'll see teams such as Toledo, with 13 votes, James Madison at nine votes and Louisiana-Lafayette with one vote. I mean no disrespect whatsoever to these teams, but are you really telling me that they're better than the Orange?
Louisiana-Lafayette went 10-4 last year and got blasted by TCU in a bowl game. Toledo sported an 8-5 mark and did beat Pittsburgh in a bowl game, I'll give the Rockets that. James Madison had a 9-4 record in 2024.
My point here is that I have a hard time believing any of those groups will be better than the 'Cuse in 2025. Then again, Syracuse football isn't getting a lot of respect from national and ACC media members ahead of the upcoming campaign, in large part because Syracuse football has a brutal schedule and also must replace a lot of key players on both offense and defense from 2024.
Regarding the Orange's 2025 foes, here are the ones that are ranked in the AP top-25 poll and are receiving votes:
No. 4 Clemson (road)
No. 6 Notre Dame (road)
No. 10 Miami (road)
No. 16 SMU (road)
No. 24 Tennessee (neutral site)
Georgia Tech (road), 63 votes
Duke (home), 6 votes
Pittsburgh (home), 3 votes
Eight of Syracuse football's 2025 opponents are ranked or receiving votes. The Orange's four other foes this coming stanza are UConn (home), Colgate (home), North Carolina (home) and Boston College (home).