Clemson’s Dabo Swinney Opted Out Of Coaches Poll After Backlash From Ohio State Ranking

Swinney put the Buckeyes at No. 11 ahead of their College Football Playoff matchup.

During his weekly press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney revealed that he opted out of voting in the Coaches Poll due to the backlash he received from ranking Ohio State as the 11th-best team in the country ahead of last year's College Football Playoff matchup.

“I didn’t vote this year,” Swinney said. “That’s the first time in my head coaching career I opted out of that – 13 years of doing that – because of all the drama last year. That was just a distraction for my team based on what I felt.”

The majority of the coaches who submitted ballots placed the Buckeyes in their top four, while Swinney was the only one who didn’t put them in his top six – claiming Ohio State simply didn’t play enough games amid the pandemic to qualify for the playoff.

Thus, he put Alabama, Clemson, Notre Dame, Texas A&M, Florida, Georgia, Cincinnati, Oklahoma, Iowa State and Coastal Carolina ahead of the Buckeyes, who then beat his Tigers, 49-28, in the Sugar Bowl.

“It’s just something I could eliminate because it don’t matter anyway,” Swinney said. “Who cares?”

Ohio State is once again one of the top teams in the country this year, sitting at No. 4 before tonight’s playoff rankings. The Buckeyes host No. 7 Michigan State this weekend, and a win will keep them on track for their fifth straight Big Ten title and third consecutive trip to the playoff.

Clemson, meanwhile, has struggled to a 7-3 record heading into this weekend’s matchup with 12th-ranked Wake Forest. The Tigers, who are unranked and received just four votes in the latest Coaches Poll, need some help in order to win their seventh straight ACC title.

“It just comes with who we are as a program, and nobody wants to give our opponents any credit,” Swinney said. “I mean, Georgia’s pretty good. They’re pretty good. I think we played them pretty good. Only scored three points on us. We scored the other seven. N.C. State, pretty good team, at their place, double overtime, you know? Pitt, they’re pretty good, at their place, had a chance to win it.

“I think it’s more ‘Clemson stinks’ as opposed to the opponents are good. I think that’s something that comes with who we are as a program. Whether it’s fair or not, I think we lost to some good teams that were better than us that day.”

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