CLEMSON — The Clemson Football program knows where its postseason hopes lie heading into its regular season finale against rival South Carolina on Saturday.

The Tigers (9-2) will come into the state’s biggest game ranked No. 12 in the latest College Football Playoff Rankings, which were released on Tuesday night.

With a win over No. 15 South Carolina, Clemson could easily play its way into the CFP, which begins on Dec. 20.

During Tuesday’s teleconference call, CFP Committee Chairman, Warde Manuel, was asked about the committee’s evaluation of No. 10 Indiana and Clemson, and how close the evaluation was between the two programs.

“They are pretty close,” he said. “They’re two away. Obviously, you can see that we think that they are close in proximity to each other.”

The Hoosiers (10-1) have just one loss, which came at No. 2 Ohio State last week, while Clemson’s losses are to No. 7 Georgia and Louisville, who currently stands at 7-4.

“Indiana’s only loss was to the No. 2 Ohio State team at Ohio State, but they have wins over Michigan and Nebraska and Washington. Indiana is a very good team,” Manuel said. “Clemson has bounced back from their Louisville loss and their loss to Georgia at the beginning of the year with back-to-back road wins at Virginia Tech and Pitt.

“They’ve come on, and again, as expected, as they sat some of their starters against The Citadel and still dominated them as we expected.”

Indiana closes the regular season against Purdue this Saturday. After South Carolina, the Tigers are still alive for a spot in the ACC Championship Game, but they will need No. 6 Miami to lose to Syracuse to get in.

“We think highly of both teams, and, like I said, as you could see, they’re very close in the rankings together,” Manuel said.