ESPN ranks Clemson's best Playoff squads of the four-team era

Clemson had six teams in the four-team era of the College Football Playoff, and ESPN ranks two within the Top 10.

by TigerNet Staff - Tue Dec 05 10:57:03 GMT-04:00 2023

ESPN updated its ranking of the Playoff era teams over the last decade, going into what will be the last four-team CFP.

Two of the Top 4 ranked teams include involved the Dabo Swinney era, with 2019 LSU at No. 2 overall topping the ACC Tigers and Clemson's 15-0 run in 2018 at No. 4.

"Clemson barely survived September unbeaten, needing a 2-point-conversion stop to escape Texas A&M and a rousing comeback led by backup quarterback Chase Brice to beat Syracuse," ESPN's Bill Connelly said. "But once Trevor Lawrence was healthy and established in the starting lineup, no one had any hope against the Tigers. They beat Florida State by 49, Wake Forest by 60 and Louisville by 61, and they won two CFP games by a combined 74-19. Goodness."

The Alabama team that lost to Clemson in 2018 ranked eighth, and Swinney's other national title team from 2016 placed 10th.

"Clemson nearly lost to Auburn, Troy and Lamar Jackson's Louisville teams early and did lose to Pitt in mid-November. But as would become a Dabo Swinney custom, the Tigers turned into Angry Clemson after their loss, humiliating South Carolina, keeping Virginia Tech mostly at arm's reach and shutting out Ohio State," Connelly said. "Trailing Bama by 10 in the final, the Tigers played a nearly perfect fourth quarter, exhausting the Tide defense and scoring the title-winning touchdown with one second remaining."

Clemson's 2019 runner-up checked in at No. 12, and the Tigers' first Playoff team in 2015 was 18th.

"Eight years ago, Clemson was still an upstart. Quarterback Deshaun Watson was healthy and dominant, and the Tigers began to look the part of a contender. They outlasted Notre Dame in an October monsoon and blew most of a huge lead against North Carolina before surviving. In the CFP, the Tigers surged past Oklahoma in the second half and led Bama before succumbing in maybe the greatest fourth quarter in CFP history," Connelly said.

The other Clemson Playoff teams were ranked 22nd (2020 Clemson, 10-2) and 30th (2017 Clemson, 12-2).

2020 Alabama's 13-0 season was ranked No. 1 overall.

The Playoff moves to a 12-team format next year, which is still to be settled but is expected to include automatic berths for at least five conference champions (currently agreed for six teams before the Pac-12 departures).