Why Clemson is still in CFP hunt despite dreadful loss

In the aftermath of Clemson’s ugly 34-3 loss to top-ranked Georgia on Saturday in Atlanta, head coach Dabo Swinney said the Tigers still have a shot at winning the Atlantic Coast Conference title and reaching the 12-team College Football Playoff.

“Nobody can vote you out,” he said, via ESPN’s David Hale.

He’s correct in that the ACC champion will make the expanded, 12-participant CFP. In 2023, the ACC’s Florida State was perfect in the regular season but got shut out of the four-team CFP.

Last week, Swinney said that he wanted to play Georgia every year, although perhaps he may want to rethink that. It’s not just that the Tigers fell to the Bulldogs. That was an understandable outcome.

Clemson, though, looked anemic on offense. ESPN pundits Paul Finebaum and Booger McFarland had choice words for Swinney following the Tigers’ blowout loss, criticizing him for his refusal to emphasize the transfer portal with his recruiting efforts.

But Swinney isn’t wrong when he said Clemson still can win the ACC. The league seems wide open. Preseason favorite Florida State is 0-2 after getting handled at home by Boston College on Monday night.

Miami, which crushed in-state rival Florida over the weekend, looks like the real deal. But assuming Clemson can vastly improve its offense, the Tigers’ remaining 2024 schedule doesn’t appear overly imposing.

Clemson has home dates with Appalachian State, N.C. State, Stanford, Virginia, Louisville, The Citadel and South Carolina. The Tigers travel to Florida State, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh.

Not on the Tigers’ schedule are Miami, Georgia Tech (which already beat FSU) and North Carolina, which squeaked by Minnesota on the road in Week 1.

Clemson isn’t likely to run the table through the rest of its schedule. But if the offense gets rolling, the Tigers aren’t out of the conference title or CFP hunt yet.