National Outlet Ranks Clemson Teams That Made Playoff in 4-Team Era
By: Staff Report January 17, 2024

With the four-team College Football Playoff era behind us and the expanded 12-team playoff format beginning next season, CBS Sports ranked all 40 teams that made the CFP across the 10 seasons of the four-team field dating back to the 2014 campaign.

CBS Sports ranked the 2019 LSU squad that beat Clemson, 42-25, in the national championship game at No. 1.

Clemson’s 15-0 2018 national title team that throttled Alabama in the natty, 44-16, is ranked No. 4 behind the 2020 Alabama team at No. 2 and the 2022 Georgia team at No. 3.

“No Clemson team of the Dabo Swinney era had an ability to overwhelm opponents quite like the 2018 squad, and it showed when Tigers blew out an equally capable Alabama team,” CBS Sports’ Dean Straka wrote. “Clemson boasted the No. 1 scoring defense and the No. 4 scoring offense in the country, the latter of which averaged 44.3 points per game behind a breakout season from true freshman quarterback Trevor Lawrence. In 11 starts after taking over for Kelly Bryant, Lawrence passed for 3,280 yards and 30 touchdowns, setting the tone for a decorated collegiate career that would give way to him going No. 1 overall to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 2021 NFL Draft.”

As for Clemson’s 2016 team that topped Alabama, 35-31, in a national championship thriller, CBS Sports ranked that Tiger team at No. 8 behind the 2021 Georgia team at No. 5, the 2023 Michigan team at No. 6 and the 2017 Alabama team at No. 7.

“Without a truly masterful season from quarterback Deshaun Watson, it’s unlikely that the Tigers would have broken through in 2016 for their first national title since 1981,” Straka wrote. “He ended the season passing for a career-high 4,593 yards and 41 touchdowns, padding those numbers with an additional 629 yards and nine touchdowns rushing. Of those 41 passing touchdowns, none mattered more than Watson’s go-ahead strike to Hunter Renfrow with one second left in regulation of the national championship game, cementing both of their names in CFP lore.”

Here’s where CBS Sports ranks the other four Clemson teams that made the playoff in the four-team era:

No. 11) 2019 Clemson (lost to LSU, 42-25, in the CFP National Championship)

No. 16) 2015 Clemson (lost to Alabama, 45-40, in the CFP National Championship)

No. 28) 2020 Clemson (lost to Ohio State, 49-28, in the CFP semifinal at the Sugar Bowl)

No. 36) 2017 Clemson (lost to Alabama, 24-6, in the CFP semifinal at the Sugar Bowl)