This ESPN analyst says Clemson deserves more love entering the upcoming season.

On his Always College Football show, ESPN’s Greg McElroy gave his reactions to the recently released preseason AP Top 25 poll.

The Tigers are ranked No. 4, behind only Texas at No. 1, Penn State at No. 2 and Ohio State at No. 3.

However, McElroy feels that ranking for Clemson isn’t high enough.

“I look at Texas. I think Texas – I have them at three. At one, it’s kind of splitting hairs. I just feel like Clemson at four feels way too low, especially with what’s back off last year’s team and the fact that on ‘a down year,’ they went and gave Texas all they wanted in the first round of the College Football Playoff, and won the ACC,” McElroy said.

“Clemson, gosh — they’re sleeping on them. I’m just saying. I know it’s four, I know it’s still pretty good, but that feels a little bit too low for me.”

McElroy believes Clemson should be in the top two alongside Penn State.

“Look, I think to me right now, it’s very clear who the top two teams are,” McElroy said. “And if we’re going based off of what we know, things that we have questions about, these two teams have the fewest – Clemson and Penn State. They should both be at one or two.

“The AP put Clemson at four, which is better than the Coaches [Poll] – gotta give them some credit for that. The Coaches had them all the way down at No. 6. But if you really look at both Penn State and Clemson, as far as guys that played roles last year and what their role looks like this year, it should be very obvious that they should be no worse than one and two.”

McElroy added that he thinks the Tigers should even be ranked ahead of the defending national champions.

“There are legitimate question marks around Ohio State,” he said. “To have them at three, ahead of, say, Clemson at four, to me feels like a bit too much. We’re giving a lot of credit to Ryan Day and Ohio State. By all means, they deserve it. But it just feels like it’s a little bit too high, at least for me.”

McElroy recently unveiled his personal preseason rankings, and he put Clemson at No. 1 ahead of Penn State at No. 2, with Notre Dame, Texas and Alabama rounding out his top five. Clemson kicks off the 2025 season at home on Aug. 30 against LSU, the No. 9 team in the preseason AP Poll and the No. 7 team in McElroy’s preseason rankings.