Can Clemson Football Go 11-1 And Make The CFB Playoff?

We’ve received this question a bunch of times. Can Clemson football go 11-1 and make the College Football Playoff? The answer, in short, is yes.

We’ve received this question numerous times, but what many Tiger fans want to know is can the 2016 Clemson football team go 11-1 and still wind up in the College Football Playoff.

The answer, in short, is yes.

Of course “yes” requires a lot of other things to happen.

Let’s take a look at the 2016 Clemson football schedule.

September 3: at Auburn
September 10: vs Troy
September 17: vs SC State
September 22: at Georgia Tech
October 1: vs Louisville
October 7: at Boston College
October 15: vs NC State
October 22: BYE
October 29: at Florida State
November 5: vs Syracuse
November 12: vs Pittsburgh
November 19: at Wake Forest
November 26: vs South Carolina

There are three factors that go into a team’s ability to make the College Football Playoff with a loss:

Timing
Preseason Rankings
Program perception

Do you want to know why Alabama made the College Football Playoff with a loss last season? They lost early, they had high preseason rankings, and their program perception is, without a doubt, the highest in the land.

So, for Clemson football to lose a game and still make the College Football Playoff, they would need to lose relatively early (Louisville or before) and it couldn’t be to a team like Troy or SC State.

That means that should the Tigers lose a game at Georgia Tech or against Louisville, they may have time to climb the ladder and make their way back into the good graces of the College Football Playoff Committee, but it would take a few other factors as well.

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Firstly, the team that Clemson lost to would have to be a top-25 program for the remainder of the season. You can’t lose to Louisville and then they finish 8-4. You would need to Cardinals to finish somewhere around 10-2 because you would need them to lose two ACC games so that you could still win the Atlantic.

In addition to the timing of the loss, it’s important to be ranked high early. If you start the season out ranked 20th and lose, it will take you a while to climb back in the rankings and it’s nearly impossible to make a run. On the other hand, if you start out in the top-five and lose, you will still be on the outside looking in with hopes that a team or two loses in front of you, which is bound to happen.

The last factor is the perception of your program. I’m sorry, but a team like Iowa doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt with one loss. That’s just how it is. For the first time in a long time, the Clemson football program is among the nation’s elite. Everyone knows who Clemson is and that perception, believe it or not, helps the Tigers if they did trip up early in the season.

It would take a lot, but a loss at the beginning of the season may not be detrimental to the team’s year, but it is much better to just go and take care of business.

More tigers: Clemson vs Auburn: Early Odds

There is not one team on this schedule, other than Florida State, that Clemson is not considerably better than. That even goes for teams like Auburn and Louisville. If you take care of your own business and beat the teams you are supposed to beat, you will put yourself in position for another College Football Playoff run.

So, can Clemson football go 11-1 and make the College Football Playoff? Absolutely, but I’d much rather see them control their own destiny and earn their playoff spot the old-fashioned way: By winning.

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