Clemson's latest College Football Playoff ranking revealed

Clemson has multiple paths to the Playoff with three weekends to go in college football.

by Brandon Rink - Staff Writer - Nov 19, 2024, 8:10 PM

Clemson has done all it can in the ACC race, and now, it waits. With two instate foes ahead, all Dabo Swinney's Tigers can do is finish strong.

However, the College Football Playoff committee's assessment of them will be somewhere in their minds, and that group ranked Clemson No. 17 in their latest Top 25 on Tuesday.

That is up three spots from last week's CFP ranking and six places from the initial spot to start the month.

The Athletic's model has Clemson (8-2, 7-1 ACC) up to a 25% CFP chance with a 24% shot in the ACC race. ESPN's Playoff Predictor gives the Tigers a 20% CFP chance – 30% if the Tigers can win out even if they don’t make the ACC Championship Game.

Seeking to secure a bid via an ACC title, Clemson's easiest road to Charlotte’s conference title game is Miami (9-1, 5-1) losing one of its final two games (home versus Wake Forest or at Syracuse). SMU (9-1, 6-0) losing twice (at Virginia; hosting Cal) would also do the job, and an SMU loss just at Virginia next week would possibly make another tiebreaker viable if Louisville also loses to Pitt that same upcoming Saturday (It would give Virginia still a chance to out-rank Louisville in the ACC standings outright and be a better win for Clemson in a potential tiebreaker with SMU).

Miami was ranked No. 8 and SMU No. 13 by the CFP committee this week.

In the traditional polls, Clemson was ranked No. 16 in the Coaches Poll and No. 17 in the AP Top 25. Clemson is now No. 12 in ESPN's Football Power Index, a spot ahead of its Nov. 30 home opponent, South Carolina. The Tigers are also a spot ahead of the rival Gamecocks in the SP+ metric, at No. 14.

This 12-team edition of the College Football Playoff will be settled with the final CFP committee rankings on Dec. 8. The four highest-ranked conference champions will occupy the top four seeds for a first-round bye. As many as seven at-large teams will fill the remaining spots, with one more highest-ranked conference champion guaranteed a spot, also according to their ranking.

Clemson will have a chance to bolster any potentially needed CFP at-large bid against those No. 18 Gamecocks in the committee rankings. Two sets of teams in the CFP Top 15 will play each other in the coming weeks in the regular season (Texas and Texas A&M; Ohio State and Indiana), before probably more in the conference championship games on Dec. 7 ahead of the final rankings.

The CFP will play the first round on campus sites, with seeds 5-8 hosting seeds 9-12. The quarterfinal round will be hosted at bowl sites, with the Rose, Peach, Sugar, and Fiesta bowls, and then the semifinals will be held at the Cotton and Orange bowls. The national championship will be held on Jan. 20 in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

2024 CFP committee: Chris Ault (former head coach and athletics director, University of Nevada), Chet Gladchuk (athletics director, U.S. Naval Academy), Jim Grobe (former head coach, Ohio University, Wake Forest and Baylor), Warde Manuel (chair) (athletics director, University of Michigan), Randall McDaniel (College and Pro Football Hall of Fame member and former All-American offensive lineman, Arizona State University); Gary Pinkel (former head coach, University of Toledo and University of Missouri); Mack Rhoades (athletics director, Baylor University); Mike Riley (former college head coach, Oregon State and Nebraska, as well as head coach in the NFL, CFL, WLAF, AAF and USFL), David Sayler (athletics director, Miami University, OH), Will Shields (College and Pro Football Hall of Fame member and former All-American offensive lineman, University of Nebraska), Kelly Whiteside (professor in Sports Media and Journalism, Montclair State University; longtime sportswriter, USA Today, Sports Illustrated and Newsday), Carla Williams (athletics director, University of Virginia) and Hunter Yurachek (athletics director, University of Arkansas).

College Football Playoff Top 25

1. Oregon

2. Ohio State

3. Texas

4. Penn State

5. Indiana

6. Notre Dame

7. Alabama

8. Miami

9. Ole Miss

10. Georgia

11. Tennessee