Where Clemson falls in ESPN ranking of top teams per decade

Clemson won two national titles in the 2010s, but this ESPN metric rates the Tigers seventh overall for teams of the decade.

by TigerNet Staff - Thu Jun 15 11:31:05 GMT-04:00 2023

ESPN covered over a century of college football to assess the top programs and teams per decade and Clemson had reps in multiple editions.

ESPN's Bill Connelly used his SP+ metric to assemble the century-long assessment.

"Starting with the 1920s, I looked at which teams most thoroughly dominated the sport from decade to decade, using SP+ percentile averages for each team and each decade. How much do these lists change from decade to decade? What can these averages tell us about how things have evolved over the past 100 years and how much things are evolving now? Let's dive in," Connelly said.

The surprisingly low ranking comes with the 2010s, a decade with two Clemson national titles, where the formula had the Tigers seventh overall. Alabama paced the decade, followed by Ohio State, LSU, Oklahoma, Georgia and Wisconsin.

"Only two programs have managed a percentile average over 98.0 in any of the decades listed here: Bear Bryant's Alabama in the 1970s and Nick Saban's Alabama in the 2010s. When we complain about the sport being too predictable overall, it's virtually all Bama's fault. Ohio State's run of brilliance under Urban Meyer and Clemson's under Dabo Swinney, fell into the range of normal brilliance, not the 'either first or second in SP+ in every year of the decade' brilliance the Tide established here," said Connelly. "That said, this was still a rather parity-unfriendly decade. Five teams (Bama, Ohio State, LSU, Georgia and Clemson) accounted for 31 of the decade's 50 SP+ top-five spots, 21 of 30 after the CFP was introduced in 2014. It's a smaller group of elite teams than what ruled the sport in the 1970s, but you do have to go back to the '70s to see a ruling class rule this much."

In the 2020s so far, Clemson is ranked fifth, trailing Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia and Michigan.

Those aren't the only two decades Clemson has a mention though for Top 5 or 10 lists.

Clemson's 1979 defense leads the '70s on that side of the ball.

"The South was still all about the defense. But while Bryant had another couple of perfect defenses on the list, the single best unit of the decade took the field in Danny Ford's first season as Clemson head coach. The 1979 Tigers held Georgia to seven points and Notre Dame to 10 and held three ranked foes to 12 points per game," said Connelly.

Clemson's 1990 defense was also name-checked as the No. 2 'D' of the '90s.

Some more notes historically, Clemson also had a No. 1-rated defense by the metric for 1981. The best ranking for the offense within a season was No. 2 for the 2016 national title season, but the best rating came with 2020 season (46.5).

Comparing the national title years, 1981 (23.3) ranked in the 97.7 percentile, 2016 (25.9) in the 96.5 percentile and 2018 (30.4 rating) in the 98.2 percentile. Thankfully for Clemson, other factors decide a national title, because the SP+ only ranked the Tigers as high as No. 2 in a season all-time (2020 and 2018; No. 4 in 1981 and No. 5 in 2016).

Clemson also had Top 10-rated defenses within a season in 1956 (5), 1978 (5), 1988 (9), 1989 (4), 2007 (7), 2010 (9), 2014 (6), 2017 (3), 2018 (10), 2019 (8) and 2021 (8).

Clemson also had a Top 10-rated offense within a season in 1902 (10), 1941 (7), 1950 (9), 1959 (5), 1984 (9), 2015 (8), 2018 (3), 2019 (5) and 2020 (4).

Special teams ratings only go back to 2006 and Clemson's highest finishes there were back to back No. 10 rankings in 2020 and 2021.