CLEMSON — With the College Football Playoff expanding to 12 teams this year, a lot of people think Clemson will be one of those 12 teams.

That is understandable.

The Tigers return a lot of experience on the offensive side of the ball and Cade Klubnik should be better than he was last season. On defense, linebacker Barrett Carter is back, along with some young talent on a unit that saw a lot of young players get considerable playing time in 2023.

What is the ceiling for this year’s Clemson team?

The CFP is definitely an obtainable goal, and who knows what can happen if the Tigers do get in. However, where the Tigers ended up in five months will depend on how they navigate through what I think is a very manageable schedule.

Below is how I rank Clemson’s 2024 opponents, from easiest to toughest.

12 Nov. 23 vs. The Citadel

Clemson will face The Citadel at Memorial Stadium for the first time since a 49-0 win in 2020. Clemson is 38-0 against FCS opponents since Division I split in 1978, winning 37 of the 38 games by double digits. Clemson has not lost to a Southern Conference opponent since it left the conference to join the ACC in 1953.

11 Sept. 28 vs. Stanford

Clemson and Stanford will meet as ACC counterparts for the first time when the Cardinal make their Death Valley debut. Clemson won the only meeting between the two programs to date, a 1986 Gator Bowl victory when Danny Ford’s Tigers ran out to a 27-0 halftime lead and held on for a 27-21 win against Jack Elway’s 20th-ranked Stanford squad. Stanford will become only the second team from California ever to play in Death Valley, joining Pro Football Hall of Famer George Allen’s Long Beach State squad that lost to Clemson 59-0 in the 1990 season opener.

10 Oct. 19 vs. Virginia

One of Clemson’s native sons returns to Death Valley when Clemson faces Virginia Head Coach Tony Elliott and his Cavaliers. Elliott was a wide receiver at Clemson from 1999-2003 and was a team captain of the 2003 squad. Elliott’s position coach that year was current Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney. Elliott later served 11 years as an assistant coach at Clemson from 2011-21, helping the Tigers to a 130-21 record in his tenure. Clemson is 27-22-2 all-time against opposing head coaches who were previously Clemson head coaches or assistants. Elliott is the first former player to go up against Clemson as a head coach since Mike O’Cain did it against from 1993-’99 at NC State.

09 Sept. 7 vs. App State

Clemson hosts its home opener when the Tigers welcome the Appalachian State Mountaineers to Memorial Stadium. Clemson is 98-17-8 in home openers all-time, including home opening wins against the boys from Boone in 1984, 1991 and 1997. The Tigers are 5-0 all-time against App State, including most recently a 41-10 win in 2015.

08 Oct. 12 at Wake Forest

Dabo Swinney’s perfect record against Wake Forest will be on the line when the Tigers travel to Winston-Salem, N.C., to face the Demon Deacons. With a win against Wake Forest last year, Swinney became the first FBS head coach on record in Stats Perform’s data set back to 1996 to win the first 15 games in a series against a single FBS opponent. A 16th consecutive win by Clemson in the series would represent Clemson’s fourth-longest winning streak against a single opponent in school history. Of course, the record is 29 straight to start the series against Virginia from 1954-1990.

07 Nov. 16 at Pittsburgh

Clemson will play in the city of Pittsburgh for only the third time in school history when the Tigers face the Pitt Panthers at Acrisure Stadium. Prior to Clemson’s road game at Pitt in 2021, the program’s only other trip to the Steel City came in 1947 in a 34-13 win by Frank Howard’s Tigers against Duquesne at old Forbes Field. A Clemson win in 2024 would even the all-time series record between the two programs at 3-3. The two teams first met in the 1977 Gator Bowl, a 34-3 Pitt win.

06 Nov. 2 vs. Louisville

Clemson looks to prevent the Cardinals from earning their first win in the series when the Tigers host Louisville at Death Valley. Clemson is 8-0 all-time against Louisville with all eight meetings coming since the Cardinals joined the ACC in 2014, including most recently a 31-16 win at Memorial Stadium in 2022.

05 Nov. 30 vs. South Carolina

Clemson hosts the 121st installment of the Clemson-Carolina game at Memorial Stadium. The Tigers are 73-43-4 all-time against the Gamecocks, including a 19-11-1 mark at home since the rivalry transitioned to a home-and-home format in 1960. The first 68 meetings of the rivalry (1896-1959) were played on Big Thursday in Columbia. Big Thursday was held on the third Thursday every October as part of the State Fair. Clemson has won eight of the last nine games in the rivalry and has outscored South Carolina by an average of 21.1 points per game in that span.

04 Sept. 21 vs. NC State

Clemson will attempt to extend its home dominance over NC State when the Tigers host the Wolfpack at Memorial Stadium following an open date. A win can extend Clemson’s home winning streak against the Wolfpack to 10 games, which would be the eighth home winning streak of 10 or more games against a single opponent in school history. The game will feature the winningest coaches in each program’s history. Dabo Swinney is 8-2 all-time against Dave Doeren, Swinney’s second-highest winning percentage against a head coach against whom he’s coached at least 10 games (10-0 vs. Dave Clawson).

03 Aug. 31 vs. Georgia (at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta)

One might think this would be No. 1 on this list, but the reality is Clemson does not need to win this game to make the CFP this year. In this writer’s opinion that takes away its level of difficulty, though it will be the toughest matchup the Tigers face all year. However, the Tigers would love nothing more than to beat the Bulldogs in Atlanta. Clemson will attempt to earn its first win against Georgia since 2013 in a matchup that has accounted for four of the last eight national champions. Clemson has not beat the Bulldogs in the state of Georgia since David Treadwell’s 49-yard field goal as time expired for a 31-28 victory in 1986. Since 1980, the winner of the Clemson-Georgia contest went on to win the national championship three times.

02 Oct. 5 at Florida State

Though Clemson is 7-1 in its last eight meetings with Florida State, including wins in each of the last three games in Tallahassee, the Seminoles are the last team to have defeated Clemson in back-to-back years, doing so in a three-year span from 2012-14. Clemson is 21-9 under Dabo Swinney when it faces opponents it lost to in the most recent meeting in the series. Clemson could also face its former quarterback, D.J. Uiagalelei, who had a 22-6 record at Clemson as a starter from 2020-’22. After graduating from Clemson in December of 2022, Uiagalelei transferred to Oregon State in 2023 and then to FSU this past January.

01 Nov. 9 at Virginia Tech

Clemson will make its first trip to Virginia Tech since the pandemic – and its first to a fully charged Lane Stadium atmosphere since 2017 – when the Tigers face the Hokies. Dabo Swinney is 6-0 all-time against the Hokies, including a 3-0 record at Lane Stadium. Clemson is 8-2 all-time at Lane Stadium since the facility opened in 1965 and has won its last three games there by an average margin of 23.0 points per game. This game could decide who plays in the ACC Championship Game on Dec. 7 in Charlotte.

—Clemson Athletics Contributed to this story

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