CLEMSON — Clemson will open the new college football season in less than three months, against a team who will likely be ranked in the top 10.

The Tigers should also be ranked in the preseason top 10, which makes Clemson’s Aug. 30 opener against LSU one of the top games of the opening weekend. It’s a good thing for Clemson that it is a top 10 matchup in the Original Death Valley.

As the SEC shut down its spring meetings last week in Florida, the league distributed a seven-page packet of data highlighting the conference’s strength of schedule to the media. The move was part of SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey’s plan to change the CFP selection committee’s criteria.

The SEC’s administrators and coaches want more value placed upon the strength-of-schedule metric. The league will likely vote, before the start of the 2025 football season, to begin a nine-game conference schedule in 2026.

There are also discussions of an SEC-Big Ten scheduling agreement, which will acquire SEC teams to play Big Ten teams on an annual basis. However, there has been pushback from the league’s coaches and administrators on playing the Big Ten on an annual basis.

But like it always has, Clemson is not waiting around to see what the SEC, ACC or anyone else is going to do when it comes to playing the best of the best in college football.

“This has been a Coach [Dabo] Swinney’s mantra since he was a young coach and was trying to build Clemson up from a national brand standpoint,” Clemson athletic director Graham Neff said on the Gramlich & Mac Lain Podcast on Monday. “You got to play the big dogs… and you have to win those games, too. So, we have been really consistent in playing 10 of the 12 games against Power 5 (4) opponents.”

Since 2011, Clemson has played either Auburn, Georgia, Texas A&M and Notre Dame, as well as South Carolina, every year, making Clemson one of a handful of teams that plays 10 Power 4 opponents every year.

In other words, Clemson’s strength of schedule components, in most years, is strong.

Starting in 2027, Clemson will begin a 12-year home-and-home series with Notre Dame, continuing its theme of playing as strong of a non-conference schedule as possible.

“It just gives us a lot of options,” Swinney told The Clemson Insider at the ACC Spring Meetings last month. “Because there are a lot of changes that will probably come about, as we know in this business, between now and ’28 or ’29. The SEC may go to nine games, so there’s a lot of things.

“It is a win-win for everyone. It is a win for Notre Dame, it is a win for Clemson, and it is a win for the fans.”

But it could be a loss for FCS or Group of 6 teams that want to play Clemson in the future. Currently, the Tigers do not have a Group of 6 or FCS opponent scheduled after the 2029 season.

“As strength of schedule value continues to take shape, and I hope, because there is talk about strength of schedule becoming even more prominent, as it relates to resumes and the College Football Playoff expanding, so it is not sort just by win-loss record. There is more of a total value of a resume,” Neff said. “This is good for fans because it (means) stronger schedules and maybe instead of nine or 10 Power 4 games, schools are playing 10 or 11.

“Then, what does that do for your G6, your Charlotte, your App State or your FCS (teams)? I am not giving any real specifics like, ‘if this than that’, other than give affirmation to your point that, ‘yeah, a lot of this is really active in conversation at the decision-making level.’”  

As for Clemson’s other future non-conference games with Power 4 opponents, the verdict is still out on whether those matchups will occur or not. Right now, the Tigers are still scheduled to play Georgia in 2029, ’30, ’32 and ’33, while they are also scheduled to still play Oklahoma in 2035 and ’36.

The SEC moving to a nine-game conference slate could change some of these future schedules.

This much is known, in 2029, Clemson is scheduled to play East Carolina, Georgia, Notre Dame, Furman and South Carolina in non-conference games. Obviously, with eight ACC games on the schedule, Clemson will have to cancel one of those five non-conference games.

“I think Graham has done a great job of positioning us with some optionality and some leeway, if things change in the future,” Swinney said. “When it comes to the playoff, or leagues changing, or teams go to nine games, and they change their schedule model, or whatever. So, I think it is a really good thing for Notre Dame and Clemson.”