On his Always College Football show, ESPN analyst Greg McElroy went through the biggest “what if’s” of the upcoming college football season – including a few pertaining to Clemson.

One of those “what if’s” is – what if LSU beats Clemson on the road on Aug. 30?

The fourth-ranked Clemson Tigers are currently a 3.5-point favorite at home over the No. 9 LSU Tigers, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.

“Now, how does LSU do it? LSU is going to have to be really good along the offensive line,” McElroy said. “That’s the entire question mark going into this one. We know how good Clemson is along the defensive front. We know [about] Peter Woods at defensive tackle. We know T.J. Parker at defensive end. We know the second-level defenders that they have, that could potentially take over the game. We know how good they’ve been on the perimeter. It means that LSU held up in protection and gave Garrett Nussmeier plenty of opportunities to throw the ball downfield to try to take advantage of some of the matchup nightmares that they can create on the outside with their improved wide receiver corps. So, that’s probably how LSU got it done.

“Now, how did Clemson lose? Maybe LSU’s newly disruptive defensive front, maybe their new additions defensively, their new additions on the outside at corner step up against elite-level wide receivers for Clemson. Maybe their defensive front creates some problems with their pass rush and applies pressure to Cade Klubnik. Maybe LSU’s second-level defenders, Whit Weeks coming back from injury, Harold Perkins… Maybe he becomes the game-changer that he’s always been destined to become.”

Added McElroy: “Maybe those are the things that happen for LSU in a route to pulling off a significant upset on the road against one of the top teams in college football, on paper, coming into the season.”

On the flip side, what if Clemson beats LSU?

That’s another “what if” that McElroy weighed in on, pointing out that Brian Kelly, in that scenario, would fall to 0-4 in season openers as LSU’s head coach.

After losing 24-23 to Florida State in New Orleans to open the 2022 season, LSU lost to the Seminoles again in 2023, by a score of 45-24 in Orlando, before falling to Southern Cal, 27-20, in last year’s opener in Las Vegas.

Earlier this offseason, Kelly detailed exactly how he has been trying to motivate his team ahead of the highly anticipated showdown against Clemson, saying that LSU’s facility is littered with Clemson paw prints. Kelly also said that he has “circled the game [against Clemson] and I’ve never done that before in openers.”

“He’s already been very outspoken about how they’ve changed their mindset going into this game — that they used to treat Week 1 as if it was just any other game,” McElroy said. “They have now adjusted that and said, ‘No, we are making this into a massive deal. This is our Super Bowl. Granted, it’s Week 1, but this is our Super Bowl.’ So, they’ve already made that adjustment, but if they do come up short, what will the narrative be surrounding Brian Kelly going into the rest of the season? Probably won’t be a real positive one, let’s be honest with that.”

Finally, McElroy laid out the “what if” of, what if Clemson wins the national championship?

He says it would be “proof of concept” for head coach Dabo Swinney.

“What has Dabo Swinney resisted from the beginning? Going to the portal. What has he prioritized? High school players, retaining his talent, retaining his roster,” McElroy said. “They did add a couple pieces in the portal this year to kind of fortify some positions, to add some depth, to add some quality at premier spots, like at defensive end. So, it’s not like they’re completely against going to the portal, but a vast majority of their roster has been on campus for a number of years. If Clemson goes on to win the national championship, it will be proof of concept for Dabo Swinney. I think he’ll make sure that we all know about it, including Tyler from Spartanburg, who called into that radio show famously a couple years ago and talked about where Clemson was.”

McElroy added that if the Tigers win the national title, maybe – just maybe – it will cause programs and fans to be a bit more patient going forward, although even McElroy admits that might not be likely.

“It might actually open teams up to the possibility of, ‘Hey, you know what? We can maybe live through a nine-win season if we know a year or two from now we’re going to make a run at the title.’ That’s not where we currently live in college football,” McElroy said. “You’re expected to win 10-plus every year, especially if you’re at a blue blood program. If you don’t win 10, you might as well just throw everybody out. But, if Clemson goes and wins it, maybe people will have more patience. I don’t think it’s likely, because I know how college football fans — I know how I respond on a year-to-year basis. I try to be a little bit more level-headed than most, but I can’t expect fans to be level-headed. I don’t want fans to be level-headed.

“But if Clemson goes and wins the national championship, maybe there will be more teams that will be open to maybe waiting a couple years and circling seasons every third year or so where they can truly make a run with an experienced quarterback and experienced roster that’s played a lot of football together. So, put the portal teams and the Clemson national championship all kind of in the same bucket — if those teams that relied heavily on the portal regress and underperform, and if Clemson goes and wins the national championship, it could be a massive shift in philosophy in the future as it relates to how teams approach the portal in the offseason.”