Clemson Tigers Have Strong Playoff Chances Despite Weak Remaining Schedule

The Clemson Tigers still have a solid chance at making the College Football Playoffs this year, despite a weak remaining schedule.

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The 2024 season has been a strong one for the Clemson Tigers and veteran head coach Dabo Swinney.

Coming out of the bye week with a 6-1 record overall with a 5-0 record in Atlantic Coast Conference play, the only blemish so far came in a week one contest against the Georgia Bulldogs.

When you look at the schedule as a whole, however, it is among one of the weaker schedules for teams ranked within the top 15.

Now, I get that you can only play the teams that are put in front of you, and that we would be panning the Tigers much more should the record be reversed, but the schedule does matter in the eyes of the College Football Playoff Committee.

Despite the weak schedule to this point in the year, Clemson still holds strong to a 32.4 percent chance of making the College Football Playoffs, a tournament that was expanded this year to include 12 teams instead of the usual four.

The schedule does not get much harder for the Tigers down the stretch, either, with only one ranked opponent left to play in the regular season, the (currently) 18th-ranked Pittsburgh Panthers.

The other three games for Clemson this year include the 5-3 Louisville Cardinals, the 5-3 Virginia Tech Hokies, the 4-5 Citadel Bulldogs, and the 4-3 South Carolina Gamecocks.

While the Panthers hold the best record this year of the Tigers' remaining opponents, the Gamecocks may be much better than their record indicates, as they took the Alabama Crimson Tide to the limit in a 27-25 heartbreaker on the road.

It is not the roughest of roads for Clemson to get to the College Football Playoffs this year, though should they win out it could get much harder with a potential matchup in the ACC Championship Game against the Miami Hurricanes.

The Hurricanes are 8-0 on the year overall with a 4-0 record in conference play, and could be the last remaining obstacle the Tigers have to hurdle in order to make their eighth appearance in the College Football Playoffs since its initial inception.

This season has been one for the ages across the nation, and that is no different for Clemson and head coach Dabo Swinney.

With no less than five games left to play, it is sure to be a spectacular finish to the year for the Tigers, one way or another.