Clemson has been prominent in the 12-year history of the College Football Playoff.

The Tigers have participated in the CFP seven times, tied with Ohio State for second to Alabama’s nine appearances. Clemson holds the record for consecutive years making the CFP (six straight seasons from 2015-20), and during that span, the Tigers reached the national championship game four times and won two titles (2016, 2018) while finishing in the Top 5 of the CFP rankings every year. Clemson has six CFP victories overall, third to Alabama’s 10 and Ohio State’s seven.

However, the Tigers have only made one CFP appearance since 2020 – a short-lived one in 2024 that ended with a first-round loss at Texas in the inaugural year of the 12-team format.

Then, this past season, things turned sour for Dabo Swinney’s program as it suffered through a 7-6 campaign — the second-worst season in Swinney’s tenure as Clemson’s head coach — which was capped off by a Pinstripe Bowl loss to Penn State in a clash of two disappointing, preseason top-four teams.

And looking ahead, this national analyst believes the Tigers’ days of being a playoff contender are over. CBS Sports’ Tom Fornelli opined on the Cover 3 Podcast that Clemson Football is dead and its “time as a premier program in college football is officially done.”

“Clemson is dead. It’s dead. It’s not coming back,” Fornelli said. “As the offseason goes on, you will start seeing people saying, ‘Maybe ole Clemson, maybe this is the year they…’ Nope, it’s dead. … All these Clemson players have been going early in the draft, and the team has not lived up to the talent level on the field in recent years. I was looking at the big board for the ‘27 season. … There are only two Clemson players in the top 100. The talent is gone. They don’t have the same kind of players that they have had all these years. Miami is resurgent. You’re seeing in the portal – like, Virginia Tech is now going to basically be another version of what Penn State was, which might not have been good enough to win the Big Ten, but guess what, Penn State was good enough to win the ACC. So if you bring that to Virginia Tech, you bring that to Blacksburg, and that’s a team that’s very good. Florida State, we know, is punting on this season. They’re thinking more long-term, but they’re probably not going to go anywhere.

“I think Clemson’s time as a premier program in college football is officially done.”

Fornelli says Clemson could potentially be playoff-relevant again down the road, assuming there’s further expansion, but he doesn’t believe Swinney will still be coaching Clemson by the time that happens.

“Their last big game was their playoff loss to Texas, and it’s going to be a long time before we see another one. Unless we go to 24 [teams]. Once we go to 24, maybe Clemson starts getting back in that at-large consideration. But I bet you it’s a different coach in charge by then,” he said.

Fellow CBS Sports analyst Chip Patterson slots Clemson at No. 7 in his way-too-early 2026 ACC power rankings, and he sees a significant gap between the Tigers and other teams at or near the top of the league.

Patterson added that he doesn’t think there’s an easy path for the Tigers to return to the type of ACC dominance they enjoyed when winning eight conference titles in 10 seasons from 2015-24, including six straight from 2015-20.

“I see a noticeable gap, certainly with the Miami Hurricanes, but even with just some of that B+/A- level consistency that you’re getting from SMU and Louisville,” Patterson said. “… I do not think there is an easy path for Clemson to get back to anything close to the control it had over the ACC, and I think that, unfortunately for Clemson fans who so desire that, I’m not sure their coach is going to pursue an easy path. I think he told us his most honest thoughts when he said, ‘Maybe we go 6-6 this year.’ And sure enough, they ended up in the Pinstripe Bowl.

“I think that when he was celebrating a winning streak to close out a disappointing season to win the Gator Bowl [in 2023], and he was talking about, ‘We need to still cherish stuff like this — we’re not going to win everything forever.’ I think he really believes that. I don’t think he’s gonna take any shortcuts. I don’t think he’s gonna do anything crazy to change his ways. I think he’s going to continue along the same path as long as he’s at Clemson.”

Patterson says Clemson will have to find a way to win with less talent moving forward.

“They’re going to have to do something that Clemson was not doing when it won six straight ACC Championships and went to six straight College Football Playoffs, played in the national championship game four times and won two of them,” he said.

“They’re going to have to win with less talent. Because the roster that they have is not at the top of the ACC in terms of talent, and that’s going to be a little bit different. … Right now, the talent gap is not there. … This team, which started up in the top four and finished in the Pinstripe Bowl and does not have robust future NFL talent moving forward, it is going to have to require great coaching and it’s going to have to require great player development. Because this is not a team that rides all around the stadium and gets off the bus and is ready to just beat you by lacing them up.”