Clemson's ranking falls in latest College Football Playoff poll after first loss |
Does Clemson still have a Playoff shot? The CFP committee set the tone for one part of that answer with the Tigers’ ranking after a surprising 35-14 defeat at Notre Dame over the weekend.
Clemson (8-1) was slotted No. 10, which is down from a No. 4 spot in the initial poll from last Tuesday. The Tigers were one of three top-6 teams from the initial ranking to fall on the road over the weekend, along with No. 1 Tennessee (at Georgia) and No. 6 Alabama (at LSU). "Now everyone has written them off, including me, with the way that they lost to Notre Dame," ESPN's Rece Davis said on the rankings reveal show. "They're hanging on when it comes to the Playoff," lead ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit said. "I'm just intrigued to see how they handle a loss like that. Still trying to figure out the quarterback position. If I'm Dabo Swinney, I'm not watching these rankings. I'm not worried about the rankings. I'm just worried about football and getting back to their standard. But I'm anxious to just see how Clemson responds to -- that's a humiliating loss for Dabo Swinney." "I'm just wondering if there's enough meat on the bone on Clemson's remaining schedule to get back in the mix," ESPN's Greg McElroy said after Clemson's ranking. "Even in a loss, to Ohio State, Michigan can still be ahead of Clemson. Where does LSU fall in the mix? Where does Alabama fall in the mix?...There's still so many teams that we've yet to rank that even if they were to lose, they'd probably still be ahead of Clemson knowing the strength of schedule that remains in other places. The ACC right now, this is just a reflection of the top -- it's a little more bunched up at the top than we're accostomed to." Those teams around Clemson are two-loss Alabama at No. 9, then one-loss Southern Cal at No. 8, two-loss LSU at No. 7, one-loss Oregon at No. 6, one-loss Tennessee at No. 5 and the quartet of unbeatens 1-4 of Georgia, followed by Ohio State, Michigan and TCU. ESPN metrics are not quite as down as some on Clemson's remaining CFP chances. FiveThirtyEight’s odds peg Clemson for the sixth-best Playoff shot (34%), tied with unbeaten TCU and trailing Georgia (82), Ohio State (67), Michigan (44) and Tennessee (38). Those chances move up to 74% according to the model if Clemson wins out through Charlotte’s ACC Championship. The ESPN FPI Playoff model gives the Tigers the fifth-best chance (30.5%) behind Georgia (90.6), Ohio State (86.3), Tennessee (64.6) and Michigan (62.2). Per ESPN, the Tigers are No. 8 in Strength of Record and No. 55 in Strength of Schedule (SOS) with a top-20 remaining SOS (20). In overall metric rankings, Clemson checked in at No. 8 in the ESPN Football Power Index and No. 18 with ESPN’s SP+ rankings. Georgia took over the top spot in both metrics this week. Clemson owns wins over No. 16 NC State and No. 23 Florida State in the new CFP rankings. The Tigers missed the Playoff last season with a 9-3 regular season after making it each year from 2015-20. Playoff rankings - 11/8 (updated as they come in) 1. Georgia 2. Ohio State 3. Michigan 4. TCU 5. Tennessee 6. Oregon 7. LSU 8. Southern Cal 9. Alabama 10. Clemson 11. Ole Miss 12. UCLA 13. Utah 14. Penn State 15. North Carolina 16. NC State 17. Tulane 18. Texas 19. Kansas State 20. Notre Dame 21. Illinois 22. UCF 23. Florida State 24. Kentucky 25. Washington 2022-23 Playoff committee Mitch Barnhart (athletics director, University of Kentucky), Tom Burman (athletics director, University of Wyoming), chairman Boo Corrigan (athletics director, North Carolina State University), Rick George (athletics director, University of Colorado), Will Shields (former All-American offensive lineman, University of Nebraska), Gene Taylor (athletics director, Kansas State University), Joe Taylor (Vice President for Athletics and Community Wellness, Virginia Union University), John Urschel (member of the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ and former All-American offensive lineman, Penn State University), Rod West (group president Entergy Corporation and former linebacker at the University of Notre Dame), Chet Gladchuk (athletics director at the U.S. Naval Academy), Jim Grobe (longtime head coach at Ohio University, Wake Forest and Baylor), Warde Manuel (athletics director at the University of Michigan) and Kelly Whiteside (longtime sportswriter for USA Today, Sports Illustrated and Newsday).
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