ESPN Ranks Clemson Throughout the Decades

Bill Connelly's SP+ ranks where Clemson has stood through college football throughout the years.

There's no doubt that Clemson boasts one of the top football programs in the country, but how have the Tigers stacked up with the bluebloods of the sport throughout their history? ESPN's Bill Connolly tried to quantify using his SP+ system.  

Connelly explained his process thusly, "Starting with the 1920s, I looked at which teams most thoroughly dominated the sport from decade to decade, using SP+ percentile averages for each team and each decade."

via Clemson Athletics

The early decades didn't include many mentions of the Clemson program until we got to the 1970s. While the decade itself didn't garner any ranking there was one prominent ranking that many veteran Tiger fans will be happy to see. The 1979 Clemson defense ranked as the #1 defense in the entire 1970s. Next came the 1990's in which that same side of the ball was lauded again and the 1990 team came away with #2 overall ranking of the best defense in the decade. 

Eventually, we get to the 2010s, a decade that all Clemson fans remember with reverence.  Many might be surprised to find that while the program did finally earn a spot in the top 10 rankings of the decade they only came in at 7th overall. Perhaps a little low for a team that dominated their conference during the latter half of the decade and won 2 national championships during this time.

Lastly, they touch on the very fresh decade of the 2020s where Clemson, despite no national titles yet, actually ranks higher than the previous decade coming in at #5 overall. Dabo Swinney and his team will have a chance to improve on that ranking and national title count this season.