Clemson Football: Tigers shouldn’t be punished for ACC’s incompetence

The Clemson football team dropped another spot in the AP Poll and are currently outside of many media’s top-four rankings.

The updated AP Poll rankings were released this past weekend and Clemson football dropped to No. 3 behind the LSU Tigers.

In addition to the Tigers being jumped in the poll, many media members continue to hurl criticism at Clemson football, despite winning by more than 30 points this past weekend.

Clemson, who used to be a media darling, is now the victim of a narrative that says: If your schedule isn’t strong, then you, therefore, must be weak.

People want to act as if Ohio State has a strong schedule, but the truth is that the Buckeyes haven’t played a team with a pulse all season either- Michigan State just gave up 38 points to Wisconsin. The same thing could be said about Alabama. LSU has two wins over currently top-10 ranked teams, but both- Florida and Texas- are only in the top-10 because the media ranked them high to begin the season.

Oklahoma gets credit for beating Texas, but people tend to forget that the Big 12 has just one other ranked team (Baylor at No. 18) in its conference.

The truth is this: The whole system is flawed.

Clemson football is one of the top-four most talented teams in the country. The Tigers are the defending National Champions, but that doesn’t matter because their name isn’t Alabama. People are so desperate for a different ending to the season, they will stop at no end to discredit Clemson by looking at the ACC’s incompetence.

Now, don’t get me wrong: The ACC is bad.

The ACC is probably the worst Power-5 conference in the country, though the Pac-12 is certainly not much better- despite what pollsters will try to tell you. Wake Forest just lost to Louisville. Virginia lost to Miami. There’s really not one team outside of Clemson that has shown it deserves to be inside the top-25. It’s sad.

But, that doesn’t have anything to do with Clemson football.

Stop pretending that just because Clemson is in the ACC that the Tigers are bad. If Clemson had gotten beaten in the CFB Playoff in the past, then maybe that would be an argument. But, when the program has won two of the last three National Championships and has been the only team in the nation to consistently have any kind of success against Alabama, your argument holds no water.

If Clemson goes undefeated, there shouldn’t even be a question about if the Tigers get into the CFB Playoff. They’re not 2014 Florida State, they’ve proven that they have sustainable talent, better coaching and a much different culture. They’ve also consistently beaten the likes Alabama, Oklahoma and Ohio State in past CFB Playoffs.

Stop with this nonsense that Clemson would struggle in the SEC, Big Ten or Big 12. Stop with the nonsense that the Tigers couldn’t compete with LSU, Alabama, Ohio State or Oklahoma. It’s just not true.

Every single one of those teams have flaws, but no one seems to want to point that out. It’s just Clemson because the Tigers struggled in a victory one time. It seems maybe some jealousy and, perhaps a little fear, is starting to set in on some of these other ‘top-tier’ programs.