College Football had another week of college football things happening. Clemson handled their business with a 51-14 over The Citadel, but a lot of other playoff hopeful teams did not. Seven top 25 teams suffered losses in Week 13, so where does that leave the Tigers in the College Football Playoff race?
As far as Saturday goes on the field, Clemson did win handily, as expected. However, the Tigers may have just found some more depth they have been searching for at the running back position. Freshman Jay Haynes ran for 118 yards and two touchdowns on only five carries. I don’t want to make this bigger than maybe it should be, but Garrett Riley and that offense has to feel good knowing that they may have some depth behind Phil Mafah.
There is a lot to unpack on how Clemson was affected on games played outside of the Palmetto State on Saturday. #5 Indiana, #7 Alabama, #9 Ole Miss, #14 BYU, #15 Texas A&M, #16 Colorado, and #19 Army all lost. All of those teams were ahead of Clemson for the exception of Army. Now, five of these seven teams have two or more losses which puts them with the same or a worse record than Clemson. This begs the question: could Clemson get an at-large bid?
This seems much more likely than it did a week ago. The College Football Playoff rankings will not come out until Tuesday night at 7pm ET, but the Tigers are 12th in the AP and Coaches’ Polls that were both released on Sunday afternoon. The Tigers jumped every team that lost Saturday and were previously ahead of them in the rankings outside of Indiana who is 10th.
What is now at stake for this Saturday? Well, it surely seems like a lot more now. There is a lot to break down on the field between the Gamecocks and the Tigers, and we will do that later on the week. However, for right now, a lot of folks are asking if this could be a game to launch either Clemson or South Carolina into a spot for an at-large bid? For this to be the case, there would still be a lot of things that need to happen.
An at-large playoff bid is a lot more likely for Clemson than it is for South Carolina because the Tigers have one less loss. With a Clemson win on Saturday, this would also give the Tigers their first ranked win of 2024 and help boost their resume. Clemson would still need some teams in front of them to fall for at-large bid.
Who are some teams in front of Clemson that could lose Saturday? Well, a Miami loss against Syracuse could benefit the Tigers the most. It would more than likely knock the Hurricanes out of the playoff hunt and would propel Clemson to ACC Championship game. The 8-3 Orange should be Clemson fans second favorite team Saturday.
Georgia Tech beating Georgia, though not probable, is a result that Clemson could reap some benefits from. Even though the Tigers and Yellow Jackets did not play in the regular season, a Georgia Tech win would help the ACC’s resume as a conference, and it would move UGA below Clemson in the rankings if the Tigers can handle business against South Carolina.
The other game that Clemson should monitor closely is Texas at Texas A&M. The winner of this game will play Georgia in the SEC Championship. Tiger fans should be big Aggie fans in this one, as a Texas loss could hurt the Longhorns resume so much that they could fall beneath Clemson if the Tigers win.
Again, there are a lot of “ifs” going into rivalry week, but isn’t this college football in a 12-team playoff era? We have gone from confusion, to drawing conclusions, and now back to concluding we don’t know what is going to happen from week to week in this great sport we love.
No matter happens elsewhere, Clemson MUST beat South Carolina on Saturday to stay alive in the at-large bid conversation. As we get closer to Saturday, we will have an in-depth breakdown of The Palmetto Bowl later this week on our website.
Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy the time with your family this week. Saturday is going to be one of the best Clemson-South Carolina games of all-time.
