Clemson and LSU will kick off their respective 2026 seasons on Sept. 5, when the two teams face off at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La.

CBS Sports made “way-too-early” predictions for a handful of Week 1 college football matchups, including the Clemson-LSU showdown.

CBS Sports’ Brad Crawford picked LSU to beat Clemson, 31-17.

“One of these teams signed the nation’s top-ranked transfer class, while the other is slotted at No. 66 overall. You can probably guess which one owned the portal,” Crawford wrote. “Lane Kiffin is out for blood in Year 1 with the Tigers with a new-look roster and coaching staff in Baton Rouge. Dabo Swinney made necessary personnel changes at his program as well but is running out of opportunities to get back to the top. Clemson hasn’t won a College Football Playoff game since 2019 and has lost three straight season openers. Spoiling Kiffin’s debut at Tiger Stadium is going to be a challenge as a double-digit underdog, the largest spread against Clemson since Georgia (12.5 points) to open the 2024 campaign.”

Clemson and LSU faced one another at neutral sites in postseason play four times before the two sets of Tigers met in Clemson in the 2025 season opener for their first regular season, on-campus meeting in series history – what was a top-10 matchup that saw LSU win, 17-10, at Memorial Stadium.

LSU leads the all-time series against Clemson 4-1, with Clemson’s lone win being a dramatic 25-24 victory in the 2012 Peach Bowl.

The 2026 opener will mark Clemson’s first trip to Baton Rouge and Clemson’s first time opening a season in an SEC venue since opening its 2016 national championship season with a 19-13 win at Auburn.

It will also be Kiffin’s first game as LSU’s head coach after he was hired this past November to replace Brian Kelly, who was fired in October.

“I know Lane professionally,” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said in December. “We’ve texted many times over the years. He’s reached out different times, questions, or whatever. So, obviously he’s a great coach, and that’s a great program. When that time comes, it’ll be a great matchup.”

CBS Sports’ way-too-early Week 1 predictions also feature some other ACC teams. CBS Sports picked Georgia Tech to beat Colorado (42-17) in Atlanta, Louisville to lose to Ole Miss (38-35) in Nashville, and SMU to beat Florida State (27-20) in Tallahassee.