Clemson Football: What would the Tigers’ record be with UGA’s schedule?

Many analysts have made the argument that Clemson football wouldn’t cut it with an SEC schedule. What would the Tigers’ record be in the conference?

It’s tough to play the hypothetical game, but we’re going to do it a little today.

Many pro-SEC analysts have said time and time again over the past few months that Clemson football wouldn’t cut it with an SEC schedule.

They’ve made the argument that the Tigers would falter under the pressure of the vaunted SEC and that the dominance with which they played against Alabama was more of a testament to the strength of the SEC wearing the Crimson Tide down rather than the elite level of the Clemson football program.

Earlier in the week, an SEC analyst said that Clemson was basically Georgia if you put the Tigers in the SEC. He said that the Tigers have been dominant, but the dominance isn’t as impressive as Alabama because they don’t play in the SEC.

Well, today we’re going to take a look at Georgia’s schedule and see just how the Tigers would fare against the opponents on the Bulldogs’ 2019 schedule. To do this, we’re going to give you an estimated Vegas spread for what you’d expect the Tigers to be favored by or underdogs to based on the opponent.

Schedule Opponent (Estimated Vegas Spread)

• @Vanderbilt (-28.5)
• Vs. Murray State (FCS team)
• Vs. Arkansas State (-39)
• Vs. Notre Dame (-13.5)
• @ Tennessee (-21)
• Vs. South Carolina (-25.5)
• Vs. Kentucky (-26)
• Vs. Florida *Neutral-site* (-7.5)
• Vs. Missouri (-21)
• @ Auburn (-9)
• Vs. Texas A&M (-17.5)
• @ Georgia Tech (-30)

These lines, of course, are estimates, but they’re pretty close to what would probably be expected. We used lines from the South Carolina, Texas A&M and Georgia Tech games for Clemson that are already set by Vegas, but took a way a few points since the Yellow Jacket game is one the road for Georgia and added a couple of points since the Bulldogs get South Carolina at home.

In the end, the result is this: At most you’ve got three games (Florida, Auburn and possible Notre Dame or Texas A&M) that would have spreads of less than double-digits.

The game on the road at Auburn would be intriguing, but other than that the Tigers would have no trouble reeling off wins against the lines of Vanderbilt, Murray State, Tennessee, Kentucky and Florida.

Clemson already blasted Notre Dame in the CFB Playoff, so there’s no reason to think the Tigers would do anything other than that again.

With all of this considered, our prediction would be 12-0 or 11-1 at worse with this schedule. There are a few decent tests, for sure, but nothing that Tigers couldn’t handle. And guess what: An 11-1 schedule in the SEC- no matter the difficulty- is an automatic berth into the CFB Playoff with a conference championship, so I would certainly like my chances.