Clemson Football: Stick Tigers in SEC and they’re still National Champions

CFB Analyst Pete Fiutak went on a radio show this week and said that if Clemson football were in the SEC they would be the Georgia Bulldogs.

The whole narrative about how Clemson football wouldn’t make it in the SEC continues with this latest argument from College Football News’ Pete Fiutak.

Fiutak was on WFNZ’s Wilson and Parcell show this week and said that if the Tigers were in the SEC they’d be Georgia. The reason he made the comparison? Well, he believes that if the Tigers were in the SEC they might get through one challenge or another, but not be near as dominant as Alabama.

"“‘Yeah, Clemson you’re great. No one’s denying your greatness, but stick Clemson in the SEC and they’re like, what, Georgia?’ They might get through one (challenge) to get to a national championship. But it’s one thing to go do what an Alabama’s done and go through LSU, Auburn, Mississippi State and the whole SEC world or else having to go through NC State – the Virginias of the world. It’s just a different animal,” Fiutak said on the show."

Sounds a lot like a bunch of ‘what ifs,’ in my opinion.

Fiutak went on to say that the Tigers would be vulnerable if Trevor Lawrence went down with an injury. That’s a shocking comment. I mean, who would think that a team would be vulnerable if their starting quarterback went down with an injury?

Thoughts:

The horrible truth for these SEC analysts that keep making these claims is the fact that if the Clemson football program was in the SEC, the Tigers would still be National Champions.

Just for fun, let’s replace Georgia with Clemson in the SEC East. What program should the Tigers be scared of in their division? Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Missouri? There’s not one team in that division that is even close in talent.

In the SEC West, Clemson already dismantled Alabama in January. LSU, Auburn and Mississippi State- though Fiutak likes to think otherwise- aren’t the same programs as they were a half-decade ago. None of those teams have any offense whatsoever. You think an outdated, overrated program with a ‘big, bad name’ on the side of their helmet is going to scare Clemson? No, it’s not going to happen.

The reality is this: Stick Clemson in whatever conference, division you want to. The Tigers are just on another level. They’re equals, perhaps even ahead of Alabama.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that the ACC is equivalent to the SEC. But, we need to stop pretending that the SEC is this vaunted conference with teams that would give Clemson football trouble.