Coaching Legend Reveals Whether Clemson Makes College Football Playoff Field

The Clemson Tigers are looking to get back to the College Football Playoff for the first time since the 2020 season.

Nick Saban signs autographs, shakes hands, and poses for photos Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, at Bryant-Denny Stadium during the annual Nick’s Kids Foundation Luncheon. / Gary Cosby Jr.-Tuscaloosa News / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Clemson Tigers don’t play for a week, but the college football season kicked off on Saturday with a small slate of games, including the contest between Florida State and Georgia Tech in Dublin, Ireland.

ESPN’s College Gameday was on site for the matchup, and it was the preeminent pregame show’s first time outside the United States. It was also the debut of former Alabama coach Nick Saban as a full-time analyst on ESPN

Toward the end of the show, each member of the Gameday crew was asked to provide their projections for the 12-team College Football Playoff field, which is the first time the field has expanded since the CFP’s inception.

Saban has experience with Clemson and coach Dabo Swinney in the playoff. They met three times, with the Tigers finishing with a 2-1 record. Both Clemson wins were in the title game.

So, when Saban revealed his projected 12-team field, he had Florida State as the ACC’s automatic representative. He later picked the Seminoles to win the ACC.

As for Clemson?

Well, the Tigers didn’t make the cut. In fact, no other ACC teams made the cut.

Nick Saban's 12-Team College Football Playoff Prediction👀

(via @ESPN) https://t.co/HmqgHpv4nH pic.twitter.com/1TzzMkMmTY

— On3 (@On3sports) August 24, 2024

Later, Kirk Herbstreit, a long-time member of the Gameday crew, revealed his bracket and had Clemson in the field.

He later picked Clemson to win the ACC.

The new 12-team playoff will give automatic bids to the top-five ranked conference champions — the ACC, the Big Ten, the Big 12, the SEC and the top-ranked champion from a Group of 5 conference. The remaining seven bids will be at-large.

The top four seeds will receive byes and the next four seeds will host home games in the first round, followed by the next two rounds, which will be played at the sites of the New Year’s Six bowl games, followed by the national championship game.

With six appearances, the Tigers made the second-most appearances in the CFP in the four-team playoff era, which started in the 2014 season. Only Alabama, with eight, made more.

Clemson won the national championship at the end of the 2016 and 2018 seasons, while reaching the championship game at the end of the 2015 and 2019 seasons. The Tigers lost in the semifinals in 2020.

The Tigers are coming off a 9-4 campaign that saw them miss the ACC title game, but claim a win in the Tax Slayer Bowl. The Tigers finished their season by winning their final five games, including a victory over in-state rival South Carolina.

The Tigers open this year against Georgia on Aug. 31 in Atlanta.