As everyone awaits the delayed release of the Top 25 college football polls after a busy Labor Day weekend, there’s at least one set of rankings where the Clemson Tigers plummeted after their ugly loss to the Georgia Bulldogs in Atlanta over the weekend.
The Tigers dropped seven spots from their preseason No. 15 ranking to No. 22 in ESPN’s College Football Power Index (FPI), updated Monday. Clemson suffered a 34-3 loss to Georgia on Saturday, one of the program’s most lopsided season-opening defeats.
ESPN’s updated rankings have the Tigers third in the ACC behind No. 1 Miami and No. 2 Louisville. The ‘Canes blasted the Florida Gators in their season-opening contest, 41-17, in Gainesville over the weekend; the Cardinals blanked Austin Peay, an FCS team from the Big Sky Conference, 62-0.
The updated FPI rankings currently give Clemson a 13 percent chance to win the ACC and a 14.5 percent chance of reaching the 12-team College Football Playoff. Miami and Louisville’s odds of winning the ACC are 25.7 and 25.2 percent, respectively. Mario Cristobal’s Hurricanes have the highest projected shot of reaching the playoff of any ACC team in ESPN’s rankings at 43.2 percent.
Georgia remained No. 1 in ESPN’s rankings after its decisive victory. Alabama shot up from No. 5 to No. 2 in the rankings after kicking off the Kalen DeBoer era in Tuscaloosa with an impressive 63-0 victory over Western Kentucky last Saturday night.
Texas, Ohio State and Penn State rounded out ESPN’s top five.
Clemson returns to action Saturday night in Death Valley when the Tigers host Appalachian State in their home opener. Kickoff is set for 8 p.m. ET. The game can be seen on ACC Network.
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