Clemson Tigers Cling to Top 10 in Latest College Football Power Rankings

The Clemson Tigers continue to win their games, but have dropped in this week's power rankings.

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The Clemson Tigers and veteran head coach Dabo Swinney continue to win their way through the 2024 football season with a 48-31 victory over the Virginia Cavaliers on Saturday.

The first half was a struggle for the Tigers, heading to the locker room with just a 17-10 lead, but Swinney would rally the troops for the second half, outscoring the Cavaliers 31-21 to secure the victory, their sixth of the year.

While it did not look as pretty as their other victories, it was still the fifth time this season that Clemson has scored 40 or more points, and only the third time that they have allowed 30 or more points.

They finish the week with a combined points total of 294, an average of 42 points per game while allowing a combined 161, an average of 23 points per game.

Despite their continued streak of rousing success, the Tigers saw their stock fall this week, with Chris Vannini of The Athletic ranking the program 10th in their power rankings, a drop from their previous ranking of ninth place.

While many can pin the drop on the first-half struggles against a weaker opponent, it is more on the strength of the two teams that leap-frogged them in the rankings, the Tennessee Volunteers and the LSU Tigers.

While Clemson was handling business with the Cavaliers, an unranked opponent, the other two teams were busy beating the Alabama Crimson Tide and Arkansas Razorbacks, respectively, two programs that are viewed in a much better light than Virginia strictly because of the SEC logo on their uniforms.

While both of those teams are also 6-1, they have faced struggles in their own right, with LSU losing to a now 3-4 USC Trojans program in week one, while Tennessee's loss came to the now 4-3 Razorbacks in their fifth game.

While a loss is nothing to brag about, the Tigers' loss came in week one to the 6-1 Georgia Bulldogs, who sit second in these power rankings, easily the "best loss" of the three programs sitting eighth through 10th.

The SEC bias continues to reign supreme, even with the conference and playoff expansion, and that may be something that Clemson will never be able to overcome, regardless of their record or how outstanding they are on both sides of the ball.

It has been a tumultuous year for most of the big-name programs in college football, but if the Tigers' only gripe is being jumped by two teams that may not be on the same level, you can only consider that a win for the program.