Clemson back as Playoff favorite in predictions after NC State blowout

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With a quarter of the regular season in hand, a majority of national Playoff prognosticators see Clemson making the College Football Playoff field now.

It comes on the heels of a 59-35 thumping of ACC rival NC State, moving to 2-1 overall and 1-0 in ACC action before hosting Stanford on Saturday (7 p.m./ESPN).

CBS Sports' Jerry Palm slotted Clemson in as his last at-large team for a first trip to Tuscaloosa, Alabama since the '70s to face the Crimson Tide. The winner would draw a more favorable quarterfinal matchup with the projected Big 12 champ, Utah, in the Fiesta Bowl.

247Sports sends the Tigers to another SEC locale, as an 11-seed also at Ole Miss. The Rebels are picked to win there and move on to face Miami in the Peach Bowl.

CFN goes a step further and picks the Tigers to win the ACC and eventually face Texas in a Peach Bowl quarterfinal. The Longhorns are predicted to advance on to face Georgia in the Orange Bowl, however.

Nine of 13 ESPN experts are predicting Clemson to make the CFP now, with a pick as high as a 9-seed and a trip to Ole Miss also by David Hale. Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach round out those picks in a separate piece ($), with Schlabach projecting Clemson at Tennessee in a 6/11 matchup and the Vols advancing on to meet Miami in Atlanta. Bonagura stuck with a Holiday Bowl prediction, featuring an all Riley matchup with USC.

ESPN's Playoff Predictor metric is more skeptical, giving the Tigers only the third-best chance out of the ACC (26%), behind Miami (69) and Louisville (31), and the 18th-best shot overall.

Heather Dinich projects the current CFP rankings Top 12 ($; not the Playoff projection with at-larges and such) as Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio State, Ole Miss, Miami, Oregon, Alabama, Penn State, Utah, Missouri and Michigan (Michigan would be left out in this scenario).

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