Clemson Tigers Slide in Latest ACC Power Rankings After Loss

The Clemson Tigers find their playoff hopes in jeopardy after their loss Saturday.

Nov 2, 2024; Clemson, South Carolina, USA; Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney reacts after people in the stands threw water bottles on the field after a call in favor of the Louisville Cardinals Cardinals during the fourth quarter at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ken Ruinard-Imagn Images / Ken Ruinard-Imagn Images

The Clemson Tigers had high hopes for their 2024 season after finishing the 2023 campaign with an overall record of 9-4 and a 4-4 record in Atlantic Coast Conference play, but finishing the year on a five-game win streak.

Those hopes were shattered quick, fast, and in a hurry in week one with their 34-3 road loss to the Georgia Bulldogs, and everyone thought that the sky was falling.

Chicken Little turned out to be a liar, at least for a few more weeks, as the Tigers turned things around tremendously, going on a six-game win streak, and dominating each and every opponent put in their way in the process, outscoring the competition 291-127 over that stretch, more than doubling their opposition's combined scoring output.

Chicken Little kept on clucking, "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" but no one listened to the little chicken because Clemson kept winning.

That all came to an end for the second time this year on Saturday, as the Tigers hosted the Louisville Cardinals, a team they have never lost to.

Just 60 minutes later, when the clock read 00:00, Chicken Little was standing tall as everyone around him hung their head in defeat; Clemson lost 33-21, adding a second loss to their season total, and all but cementing their fate of missing out on the expanded College Football Playoffs.

While the Tigers were busy losing, the Miami Hurricanes and the surprising SMU Mustangs were taking care of business in their respective games, continuing their impressive showings on the year and widening the gap between them and Clemson.

In a recent article from Saturday Down South, Spenser Davis tried to quantify just how wide that gap is by power ranking the ACC.

After ranking second in Davis's last power rankings, the Tigers have now fallen to fourth in the conference, jumped by the Mustangs and the Cardinals.

Clemson does still have a chance to make the College Football Playoffs, though it will take a lot of help from outside forces (read: the Hurricanes and SMU need to lose more games down the stretch, though both teams are through the toughest parts of their schedules and are all but guaranteed to win out).

The signs were there all along, the weak schedule, the slow start to last year against tougher competition, the week one blowout loss to the Bulldogs, and Chicken Little clucking away.

Every once in a while, Chicken Little can turn out to be telling the truth.

The sky is falling in Death Valley, right along with the Tigers' odds at making the College Football Playoffs.