Clemson was ranked No. 4 in the preseason AP Poll and came into this season with national championship expectations, only to go 7-6 and finish the year with a 22-10 loss to Penn State in the Pinstripe Bowl.

Considering how things turned out for the Tigers, ESPN ranked Dabo Swinney’s team as the No. 1 disappointment from the 2025 college football season.

“Clemson’s systemwide collapse in 2025 remains baffling,” ESPN’s Bill Connelly wrote. “Injuries certainly contributed to problems in the skill corps and on the offensive line, but quarterback Cade Klubnik was ineffective for most of the season, whether those around him were healthy or not. And the defense, despite returning plenty of NFL-level talent and playing against zero elite offenses all season, improved only from 29th to 24th in defensive SP+ under Tom Allen. I was openly skeptical of the Tigers’ national title potential heading into the season, but I still expected them to play like a top-15 team, and they instead suffered their worst season in 15 years.”

Penn State, which started as the preseason No. 2 team, fired James Franklin after a 3-3 start and went 7-6 overall, is right behind Clemson as ESPN’s No. 2 disappointment from the 2025 campaign.

Clemson’s 2025 season-opening opponent, LSU, landed at No. 3. The Bayou Bengals were a preseason top-10 team but finished 7-6 as well and also fired their coach, with Brian Kelly getting the axe after a 5-3 start.

Clemson’s in-state rival, South Carolina, checked in as the fifth-ranked disappointment. The Gamecocks had College Football Playoff expectations after narrowly missing out on the CFP in 2024, but did not even make a bowl game after going 4-8.

“Shane Beamer’s Gamecocks can thrive only in even-numbered years, it seems,” Connelly wrote. “In five seasons with Beamer, they have gone from 48th in SP+ to 19th to 51st to 14th to 48th. Hyping them as a top-15 team always felt pretty tenuous; they had potential stars in quarterback LaNorris Sellers and defensive end Dylan Stewart, but neither had played consistent ball yet, and nearly the rest of the team was retooling. Still, it was fair to expect better than 4-8. New offensive coordinator Mike Shula was gone within a year, and the pass defense wasn’t nearly good enough.”

As for other ACC schools besides Clemson, SMU (9-4) is ranked No. 11 on ESPN’s list of college football disappointments as “a post-2024 funk.”

Virginia Tech (3-9) is No. 14 and North Carolina (4-8) is No. 15, with both under the category of “Major expectations? No, but yikes.”

Florida State (5-7) is ranked No. 22 and part of the “Rebound season? Psych!” grouping of teams.

Syracuse (3-9) and Boston College (2-10) are ranked No. 25 and No. 26, respectively, among the teams categorized under “2024 was a mirage.”