Clemson’s path is clear, and make no mistake, it is the Tigers only path into an NCAA Regional.

With Saturday’s win over Virginia Tech in the regular season finale, Erik Bakich’s team avoided finishing dead last in the ACC standings for the first time since 1957. That means Clemson will enter the ACC Tournament that begins on Tuesday as the No. 15 seed, and it will take the Tigers winning the whole thing to secure a bid into the NCAA Tournament. The tournament champion receives an automatic berth.

Clemson will face No. 10 seed Notre Dame at 5 p.m. The same Fighting Irish team that swept the Tigers in South Bend back in March to open league play. The winner will move on to play No. 7 seed Virginia Tech, who just took two out of three from the Tigers to close out the regular season, on Wednesday at 5 p.m.

If Clemson can somehow manage to win those first two games, No. 2 seed North Carolina, who earned a double-bye, would be waiting for the Tigers in the quarterfinals. That game would be played on Friday at 3 p.m. The Tar Heels took two out of three from Clemson at Doug Kingsmore in April.

While this has no doubt been a disappointing season, there is a lot at stake for this Clemson team this week. A loss at any point means the Tigers will not make a regional for the first time since Bakich was hired ahead of the 2023 season. Bakich guided the team to 40+ wins in each of his first three years, with the team hosting regionals in each of those campaigns. Twice Clemson earned a Top 8 national seed and in 2024, the Tigers advanced to the Super Regionals for the first time since 2010.

Clemson also won this tournament in Bakich’s first year at the helm, although the format was different. That conference championship came during the pool play era, with the league moving to a single elimination format in 2025.

It’s going to take some kind of run to get it done. This team will need to win five games over the next six days. Outside of winning four of five early this month, which included taking two out of three from a ranked Boston College team, Clemson has not been able to string together many wins since the beginning of ACC play.

In fact, the Tigers were just 10-20 in league play, tying the program record for most conference losses. The .333 winning percentage in ACC play is the third-worst in program history, and its worst dating back to 1987.

If there ever was a time to flip the switch, now is that time. There is a lot riding on the results of the conference tournament. Winning it obviously wouldn’t erase the disappointment of the season, but it sure would ease some of the sting.