Georgia Tech was picked to finish 12th in the 14-team ACC, according to the league’s preseason poll released Tuesday. The poll was voted on by 176 media members who cover the conference.

Tech is coming off a 5-7 season. First-year coach Brent Key led the Yellow Jackets in eight of those games and went 4-4 before he was giving the job full time in November. Tech opens preseason practice Tuesday afternoon.

The ACC announced in 2022 that there no longer would be divisions, scrapping the Coastal and Atlantic divisional format it had used since 2005. Thus, the top two teams in the standings this season will advance to the ACC title game in December.

Tech was picked to finish ahead of Boston College and Virginia, respectively. Clemson, the defending ACC champion, was projected to finish first ahead of Florida State.

The Jackets face Louisville (predicted to finish eighth), Wake Forest (ninth), Miami (fifth), Boston College, North Carolina (third), Virginia, Clemson and Syracuse (10th) this season in league play.

2023 ACC preseason poll

1. Clemson (103), 2,370 points

2. Florida State (67), 2,304

3. North Carolina (5), 1,981

4. N.C. State (1), 1,662

5. Miami, 1,553

T6. Duke, 1,511

T6. Pitt, 1,511

8. Louisville, 1,344

9. Wake Forest, 1,181

10. Syracuse, 826

11. Virginia Tech, 678

12. Georgia Tech, 633

13. Boston College, 561

14. Virginia, 365

Note: First-place votes in parentheses

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Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

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