Clemson is one of six unbeatens left in college football, and the Tigers will find out tonight how they’re viewed among that group in the eyes of the College Football Playoff selection committee.
The Tigers will get an idea of how their body of work stacks up through the season’s first two months when the initial CFP rankings are released at 8 p.m. But Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said he will be paying “very little” attention to where the Tigers fall in the pecking order for now.
“It just doesn’t matter,” Swinney said. “There would be high interest if I was going to find out where we were going tonight, but the only thing I’m interested in is trying to win in South Bend. That’s really it because that’s all that matters.”
Clemson is competing for a spot in the top 4 with Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio State, Michigan and TCU, all of which are also entering November with a perfect 8-0 record. According to the latest Associated Press Top 25, the Tigers have more ranked wins (3) than all of them, but some of those teams have better wins than Clemson.
Tennessee has the best win so far this season with its victory over No. 6 Alabama last month, Georgia has a win over No. 8 Oregon in its back pocket, and TCU has two top-20 victories (Kansas State, Oklahoma State). Clemson’s best win to this point is its road victory at No. 20 Wake Forest back in September.
But the final set of CFP rankings, which will determine which four teams will play for a national championship, won’t be released until the the first week in December following conference championship games. Clemson still has four regular-season games left starting Saturday with its trip to Notre Dame before a potential ACC championship game appearance.
“They may come out tonight and say we’re the No. 1 team in America,” Swinney said. “Ain’t nobody going to give us a trophy for that, so it just doesn’t matter. If they say you’re the No. 10 team in America, that doesn’t matter either. Just doesn’t. It really has no relevance at this point.”
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