Clemson's College Football Playoff bracket unveiled

Clemson is back in the Playoff for the first time since 2020 and the seventh time since 2015.

by Brandon Rink - Staff Writer - Dec 8, 2024, 12:27 PM

This story will be updated throughout the afternoon

Clemson football. College Football Playoff. The two have been synonymous for much of the last decade, and Saturday’s 34-31 win over SMU in the ACC Championship ended a mini-drought in those CFP appearances from 2021-23.

Sunday, the CFP committee unveiled Clemson’s bracket in the new 12-team era of the postseason event.

The Tigers (10-3) are a 12-seed, as the new No. 16 in the CFP committee rankings, and will head to 5-seed Texas (11-2), runners up in the SEC. The winner advances on to face Big 12 champ Arizona State in a Peach Bowl quarterfinal (Jan. 1/1 p.m./ESPN). The winner of that game goes to the Cotton Bowl semifinal (Jan. 10/7:30 ET/ESPN).

FanDuel has Texas as an 11.5-point favorite for the 4 p.m. ET start on December 21 (TNT/MAX). Clemson and Texas have never played before.

The Top 4 seeds with byes to the quarterfinals are Oregon, Georgia, Boise State and Arizona State.

The other CFP matchups are 6-seed Penn State hosting 11-seed SMU, 7-seed Notre Dame hosting 10-seed Indiana, and 8-seed Ohio State hosting 9-seed Tennessee.

The College Football Playoff: pic.twitter.com/dUltIpqwXS
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 8, 2024

Over the course of this season’s CFP committee rankings, Clemson was as high as No. 12 previously (Game Week 14 this season).

Clemson is making its seventh Playoff appearance under Dabo Swinney. The four-team Playoff format started in 2014.

If you’re not familiar by now, the College Football Playoff field features 12 teams, with the Top 4 seeds going to the four highest-ranked conference champions for a first-round bye and the remaining spots going to next highest-ranked teams by the CFP committee, with one more conference champion guaranteed a spot in that final eight according to their ranking.

The CFP will play the first round on campus sites, with seeds 5-8 hosting seeds 9-12. The quarterfinal round will be hosted in bowl sites, with the Rose, Peach, Sugar, and Fiesta bowls, and then the semifinals will be in 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).