ESPN recently published a ranking of every playoff team in the College Football Playoff era (subscription required).
This year’s Clemson team checked in at No. 50 on Bill Connelly’s list of all 52 teams in College Football Playoff history.
Of course, the Tigers (10-3) are the No. 12 seed in the inaugural 12-team playoff and will face fifth-seeded Texas (11-2) in the CFP First Round Game at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Dec. 21 (4 p.m. ET, TNT).
“The Tigers thought they had finished their regular season with a loss at South Carolina, but after Miami got upset by Syracuse, Dabo Swinney’s team eked out an ACC championship bid and then upset SMU to land its first CFP spot in four years,” Connelly wrote. “On paper, this team is basically the same as Swinney’s past three — clearly talented and clearly flawed. We’ll see how much noise it can make.”
As for Tiger playoff teams of the past, Clemson’s 2018 national title team – which became the first major college football team in the modern era (and the first since Penn in 1897) to finish a season with a 15-0 record – is ranked No. 5 on ESPN’s list.
“Clemson barely survived September unbeaten, needing a 2-point-conversion stop to escape Texas A&M and a rousing comeback led by backup quarterback Chase Brice to beat Syracuse,” Connelly wrote. “But once Trevor Lawrence was healthy and established in the starting lineup, no one had any hope against the Tigers. They beat Florida State by 49, Wake Forest by 60 and Louisville by 61, and they won two CFP games by a combined 74-19. Goodness.”
The 2018 Tigers are ranked behind 2020 Alabama (13-0) at No. 1, the 2019 LSU team (15-0) that beat Clemson in the national title game (No. 2), the 2022 Georgia team (15-0) at No. 3 and last year’s 15-0 Michigan national title team (No. 4).
The other Clemson team to win a national championship in the CFP era — the 2016 squad that finished 14-1 and beat Alabama 35-31 in an epic national title game battle — is ranked by ESPN as the 10th-best team in CFP history.
“Clemson nearly lost to Auburn, Troy and Lamar Jackson’s Louisville teams early and did lose to Pitt in mid-November,” Connelly wrote. “But as would become a Dabo Swinney custom, the Tigers turned into Angry Clemson after their loss, humiliating South Carolina, keeping Virginia Tech mostly at arm’s reach and shutting out Ohio State. Trailing Bama by 10 in the final, the Tigers played a nearly perfect fourth quarter, exhausting the Tide’s defense and scoring the title-winning touchdown with one second remaining.”
The 2019 Clemson team (14-1), which beat Ohio State 29-23 in the CFP Fiesta Bowl semifinal before falling to LSU 42-25 in the national championship game, is ranked No. 12.
The aforementioned 2019 Buckeyes (13-1) are ranked No. 13.
“It was overshadowed by LSU’s late-season brilliance, but both the Buckeyes and Tigers were unreal for most of 2019,” Connelly wrote. “They went a combined 26-0 in the regular season; 22 of the wins were by at least 24 points, and only one was by single digits. And in the Fiesta Bowl semifinal, they played one of the most even and compelling games in recent college football memory.
“Ohio State dominated the early proceedings, going up 16-0 but settling for field goals; that offered Clemson a lifeline, and the Tigers charged back. The second half featured three scores and three lead changes, and after controversy and countless plot twists, Nolan Turner’s interception of Justin Fields made the difference. If they’d played 100 times, each team would have won 50.”
As for Clemson’s other CFP teams, the 2015 team (14-1) that narrowly lost to Alabama 45-40 in the national title game is ranked No. 19, the 2020 team (10-2) that lost to Ohio State 49-28 in the Sugar Bowl is No. 23 and the 2017 team (12-2) that lost to Alabama 24-6 in the Sugar Bowl is No. 37.