NEW YORK – It is game day at Yankee Stadium where the Tigers look to finish the season with a bowl win over Penn State.
Two teams that were ranked in the top four in the nation in the preseason face off in a bowl they didn’t expect to play in this season.
Location: Yankee Stadium
Kickoff: Noon
Television: ABC
Announcers: Dave Pasch, Dusty Davoracek, Taylor McGregor
2025 Record: Clemson 7-5, Penn State 6-6
ACC Record: Clemson 4-4
Series History: Clemson leads series 1-0
Last Meeting: Clemson defeated Penn State 35-10 on January 1, 1988
Clemson will attempt to earn a postseason victory for an FBS-record-extending 15th season in a row on Saturday, Dec. 27 when the Tigers face the Penn State Nittany Lions in the 2025 Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl. Kickoff at Yankee Stadium in New York is set for noon ET on ABC.
Clemson’s postseason participation comes after it engineered one of the largest in-season turnarounds in school history. After a 1-3 start, the 2025 Tigers finished the regular season 7-5, becoming the first squad in program history to reach seven wins after starting a season with one win or fewer through four games.
With an eighth win, Clemson (14 straight seasons with eight or more wins) would join Alabama (18) and Georgia (15) as the only programs in the nation with 15 or more consecutive eight-win seasons. It would represent only the 12th streak of 15 or more consecutive eight-win seasons in the FBS in the AP Poll era (dates to 1936).
The game will represent the second all-time meeting between two of the nation’s premier programs in Clemson and Penn State. The programs boast a
combined 1,764 all-time victories, and the schools have combined for five national championships since
The Tigers and Nittany Lions first squared off on
New Year’s Day in 1988 when Danny Ford’s squad
concluded a 10-2 campaign in 1987 by handing Joe
Paterno and Penn State its largest margin of defeat in a
bowl game in school history in a 35-10 Clemson victory
in the Citrus Bowl.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR THIS WEEK
– Clemson attempting to win a postseason game (conference championship, bowl game and/or national championship game) for a 15th consecutive season. Clemson’s active 14-year streak is the longest streak on
record in major college football history.
– Clemson attempting to improve to 28-24 all-time in bowl/CFP play.- Clemson making its 52nd bowl appearance in school history, including CFP play. Clemson was one of 13 programs to enter 2025 having made at least 50
bowl appearances all-time.
– Clemson appearing in a bowl for a 21st consecutive year, the nation’s fourth-longest active streak and the 11th-longest streak in FBS history.
– The 2025 Tigers attempting to become the first team in Clemson history to win eight games in a season in which the team started the year with one win or fewer through four games.
– Clemson attempting to push its streak of consecutive eight-win seasons to 15 years.
EIGHT-WIN SEASON STREAK
Sitting at 3-5 on the first day of November, Clemson faced an uphill battle to reach six wins and bowl eligibility. Reaching the eight-win mark from there would require perfection.
Clemson did what it need to do to end the regular season to keep the possibility of an eight-win season alive, going 4-0 down the stretch including two wins against teams that had defeated Clemson’s 2024 College Football Playoff squad a year earlier.
With a bowl victory, Clemson would push its streak of consecutive seasons with eight or more wins to 15, tying Georgia for the nation’s second-longest active streak. It would be only the 12th such streak at any point in the AP
Poll era (since 1936).
CLEMSON FOOTBALL AT MLB STADIUMS
Clemson will make its Yankee Stadium debut in the 2025 Pinstripe Bowl. It will be Clemson’s 17th game all-time in a venue that was an active MLB facility as of the date of the game. Clemson is 9-5-2 in MLB venues
all-time, including wins in the homes of the Washington Senators (1939 and 1941), Boston Red Sox (1941), Pittsburgh Pirates (1947), Boston Braves (1948, 1950, 1952), Baltimore Orioles (1990) and Florida Marlins (2009).
TCI Predictions
Robert – Clemson 21, Penn State 17
Will – Clemson 27, Penn State 21
JP – Clemson 23, Penn State 20
Clemson Athletic Communications contributed to this artic