Clemson Football: Tigers’ path to CFB Playoff is clear

The 2019 Clemson football team is in control of its own destiny as we head into the month of November. Here’s the Tigers’ path to the playoff.

The first CFB Playoff poll will be released this coming week and it seems as if the Clemson football team could be on the outside-looking in.

In many projections, the Tigers are expected to be No. 5 when the rankings come out. According to CBS, Clemson football would be ranked behind LSU, Ohio State, Alabama and Penn State.

The problem with this top-four, though, is the fact that LSU and Alabama will play each other, and Ohio State and Penn State will play each other. So, even in worst case scenario, Clemson football would be ranked within the top-four in the second poll as long as they keep on winning.

And that’s the key.

At this point in the season, the Clemson football team is in ‘win and you’re in’ mode. If the Tigers win out, it would be near impossible to leave them out of the CFB Playoff. They’d be a 13-0 team with a conference championship.

There are but six other Power-5 teams with undefeated records- Ohio State, Penn State, Minnesota, Baylor, LSU and Alabama- and many of them will cannibalize themselves.

At this point, there could only be four undefeated Power-5 conference champions at most- the ACC (Clemson), Big 12 (Baylor), Big Ten (OSU, Penn State, Minn.) and SEC (LSU and Alabama), but who really believes that Baylor and Minnesota are going undefeated?

The truth is that the path is pretty clear. There will be upsets in the month of November. Many of these undefeated teams won’t remain that way. It’s certainly possible that both Baylor and Minnesota lose multiple games this month.

It wouldn’t be surprising at all to see the loser of LSU-Alabama drop another one down the stretch. Ohio State and Penn State certainly aren’t unbeatable and could be taken down even without playing each other.

There are a lot of questions as we head into this final month of the season, but Clemson football is the one steady. All the Tigers need to do is win and they’ll be in when it matters. It doesn’t matter if they’re No. 1 or No. 4, the committee won’t leave them out and all Clemson needs to be focused on is the opponent they have in front of them.

In a way, every game this month- Wofford, NC State, Wake Forest and South Carolina, as well as the ACC Championship game are CFB Playoff elimination matchups and opportunities to advance.