USA TODAY identified Clemson as one of the eight “most polarizing” teams in college football heading into the 2026 season.

The 2026 preseason polls are split on Clemson, with the Tigers getting some love in the Coaches Poll (ranked No. 23) but no love at all in the AP Top 25 Poll (unranked).

USA Today’s Craig Meyer pointed out that while Clemson has only failed to reach 10 wins twice since 2011, both of those sub-10-win seasons have occurred within the last three years.

The Tigers are coming off a disappointing 7-6 season in 2025, the second-worst record in head coach Dabo Swinney’s full 17 seasons. Prior to making the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff and finishing 10-4 in 2024, Clemson went 9-4 in 2023 after ending the year on a five-game winning streak.

“On one hand, the Tigers have won fewer than 10 games only twice since 2011. On the other hand, two of those have come in the past three seasons,” Meyer wrote. “Dabo Swinney built a program synonymous with frustrating shortcomings into one of the most powerful forces in the sport nationally for a decade, but Clemson’s fortunes have waned in recent years as criticism has mounted of Swinney’s approach (namely, his aversion to transfers). Swinney is still an excellent coach and there’s still plenty of talent on the Tigers’ roster, like preseason All-American linebacker Sammy Brown. Taken together, it was enough to get them a spot at No. 23 in the preseason Coaches Poll. But after a 7-6 season in 2025, and with at least four losses in each of the past three seasons, it’s fair to wonder if Clemson’s reign as a perennial playoff contender has come and gone.”

Clemson’s arch rival, South Carolina, is also listed among the most polarizing teams entering 2026.

“This time a year ago, the Gamecocks were one of the darlings of the sport, the preseason No. 13 team bringing back most of its biggest stars after going 9-4 in 2024. They fell drastically short of those lofty expectations, suffering through a 4-8 season that included just one win in SEC play,” Meyer wrote. “This season, it brings back one of the most explosive quarterbacks in the sport in LaNorris Sellers and one of the nation’s most disruptive defensive players in edge rusher Dylan Stewart. Coach Shane Beamer made some needed tweaks, too, working to shore up the offensive line and bringing in a new offensive coordinator in Kendal Briles after an inexplicably poor 2025 season. Under Beamer, South Carolina has alternated between strong seasons and less-than-stellar ones, going from 8-5 in 2022 to 5-7 in 2023 to 9-4 in 2024 to 4-8 last season. If that trend continues, it could be one of the sport’s surprises this season.”

Cal — which will host Clemson at Cal Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, Calif., on Friday, Sept. 25 – made the polarizing teams list as well.

“The Golden Bears were below average and often forgettable under Justin Wilcox, going 48-55 in his nine-year tenure, but heading into 2026, there’s plenty of reason for excitement,” Meyer wrote. “Much of it centers around quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, a former five-star recruit who had an electric freshman season and stuck with the program through its coaching transition. Since being hired, new coach Tosh Lupoi has burnished his reputation as an ace recruiter by surrounding Sagapolutele with more talent, bringing in a top-15 transfer portal haul. Cal has a favorable schedule, too, one that has some dreaming of the program’s first season with more than eight wins since 2008. Is that hope enough to override years of mediocrity, a cash-strapped athletic department and a conference in which it’s 3,000 miles away from most of the teams it plays? We’ll see.”

Ole Miss, UCLA, Florida, Utah and Oklahoma State are the other most polarizing teams in college football, per USA Today, joining the aforementioned trio of Clemson, South Carolina and Cal.

“To some, these teams are afterthoughts who might struggle to make a bowl,” Meyer wrote.
“To others, though, they’re undervalued assets — ones that, if things break right, could even find their way into the College Football Playoff.”