In an episode of Late Kick Live with Josh Pate, the CBS Sports analyst weighed in on which non-conference games he believes will be the best during the 2024 college football season.

Among those games is the Week 1 matchup between Clemson and Georgia at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Saturday, Aug. 31.

Pate pegged that contest as one of his best non-conference games in 2024, despite the Bulldogs being a double-digit favorite.

“Georgia is minus 12.5 against Clemson,” Pate said. “Garrett Riley, the OC at Clemson, Cade Klubnik, quarterback there at Clemson – they’re year two together now. I have spoken about Clemson at length. Georgia’s a mainstay. They’re in this position every year. It’s a virtual home game in their backyard, although Clemson’s not much further up the road.”

Pate went on to say he believes it’s a “very important” game for the Clemson football program – which Pate does not consider a “Tier 1 program” right now, though that could change depending on how the game plays out.

“There are two teams right now where if I talk about them not being in Tier 1, their fans very vehemently disagree,” he said. “One is Clemson, the other is USC. So, I’m not talking about USC right now. With Clemson, if I’m wrong about that and Clemson is a Tier 1 program still and they’re a Tier 1 team – and I do not believe they are right now – I’ll know. We’ll know. Because whether they win or lose, this won’t be lopsided.

“Now if I’m right, there is the opportunity for Georgia to pull away and win by 20, 25 points. But if I’m wrong – or, if I have been right, but Clemson is changing the narrative and they’ve shored up a lot of their inefficiencies – well then all of a sudden, this is a dogfight of a game and everyone’s watching it saying, ‘Wow, Clemson’s tied with Georgia with five minutes to go! Remember, they lost to Duke last year! Ugly loss to Duke! Good for Dabo!’ So, that’s why we play the games obviously. But this is a very, very big, important game for the program. Like, this is not important for Georgia’s program. It is very important for Clemson’s program.”

Clemson will be looking for its first win against Georgia since 2013 in a matchup of regional rivals that have accounted for four of the last eight national championships. In the series’ 17 installments since 1980, the winner of this contest went on to win the national championship three times.

Along with Clemson-Georgia, Pate’s top five non-conference games for the 2024 campaign are Miami at Florida (Week 1), Texas at Michigan (Week 2), LSU vs. USC (Week 1 in Las Vegas) and Florida State at Notre Dame (Week 10).

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