Dabo Swinney and the Clemson football team may be unranked in the AP Poll and Coaches Poll. Still, those rankings don’t truly represent the talent of the Tigers and how good of a team they actually are.
Clemson (3-2, 1-2 ACC) hasn’t had the start to this season that would keep them in contention for the College Football Playoff or even possibly the ACC Championship, but there are some who have watched the Tigers and understand how talented this team is. One of those people is Josh Pate of CBS Sports and 247Sports.
In his latest edition of the JP Poll for Week 6, Pate has Clemson ranked as his No.14 team in the country. These rankings don’t care whether a team wins or loses; it is strictly about neutral field favorability. Simply enough, this is the metric that he and his people choose to value.
This, I completely get. I talked about this in the updated look of ESPN’s SP+ rankings, where Clemson also ranked in the top 15. Look at the landscape of the top 25 right now… There are multiple teams that, if the Tigers were set to face, they would be the betting favorites in the matchup.
That’s what I like about Pate’s rankings here. It ignores the noise and worries about what matters with a college football team. Don’t get me wrong, losses do matter at the end of the day… but we can’t ignore the talent and odds that go along with the game of college football.
🚨JP Poll – Week 6 Edition🚨 pic.twitter.com/cbLbFdP97O
— Josh Pate (@LateKickJosh) October 4, 2023