Dabo Swinney Doubles Down on Ranking Buckeyes No. 11 in the Country

Swinney told ESPN's Tom Rinaldi, "I don't think that it's right that three teams have to play 13 games to win it all and one team has to play eight."

When Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney took some serious public-relations heat last week after it was revealed that he ranked Ohio State as the No. 11 team in the country.

On Saturday, Swinney reaffirmed his position and explained why he felt that way.

Here's what Swinney told ESPN's Tom Rinaldi on College Football Scoreboard as an explanation for why he ranked the unbeaten Buckeyes so low.

"You've been clear on this point throughout, Dabo, about the number of games as a metric has to matter — maybe as much as ever — given how difficult the grind has been this season," Rinaldi said. "So you ranked Ohio State 11th and it creates a huge reaction. All right, how would you characterize the reaction to that ranking? Why Ohio State 11th?"

"Yeah, overreaction," Swinney said. "First of all, my vote don't mean anything. But it means something to me, you know? It's my poll. I do it. It creates a stir because we just so happen to be playing Ohio State. It has nothing to do with Ohio State — absolutely zero. You can change the name to Michigan or Georgia or Florida or Tennessee or Nebraska. Anytime you have a top-10 (ranking), it should be that special. This year it's like really, really, really special and I wanted it to be that way. And so, I wanted to recognize the teams that played nine games or more. And so, if you didn't play nine games, I just didn't consider you from the top 10. That's why they were 11.

"Obviously, they're a great team. They're plenty good enough and talented enough to beat us and good enough to win the national championship. But in my opinion, I don't think that it's right that three teams have to play 13 games to win it all and one team has to play eight. What universe am I living in? And it has nothing to do with them. It was about qualifying. And I didn't think they were qualified, based on the number of games, versus all these other teams. ... In my opinion — Texas A&M, Florida, Oklahoma, Cincinnati — they got punished for playing more games."

His stance is especially notable because he's taken a pretty significant turn, considering what he said on the matter back in September.

Dabo on if he has problem w/ Big Ten in CFP despite less games: "Shoot, in a year like this, no. It's a crazy year. Who knows how many games anybody is going to have? You have some of the best teams & coaches in that league. It's not their fault. They've worked their butt off."

— Anna Adams (@AnnaH247) September 16, 2020

The No. 3 Buckeyes and No. 2 Tigers will play on Friday, Jan. 1 in the College Football Playoff. They'll meet for the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans in a rematch of last year's semifinal out in the Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix, a controversial game in which Clemson won 29-23.

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