Clemson Football: Projecting the Tigers’ 2019 ACC Championship opponent

CHARLOTTE, NC - DECEMBER 01: A general view of the Clemson Tigers at the trophy ceremony after their 42-10 victory over the Pittsburgh Panthers at Bank of America Stadium on December 1, 2018 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
CHARLOTTE, NC - DECEMBER 01: A general view of the Clemson Tigers at the trophy ceremony after their 42-10 victory over the Pittsburgh Panthers at Bank of America Stadium on December 1, 2018 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /
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The Clemson football team locked up its spot in the ACC Championship game a couple of weeks ago. Who could the Tigers match up with in Charlotte?

The 2019 Clemson football team is heads-and-shoulders better than any other program in the conference, at least to this point.

The Tigers have soundly beaten their conference opponents and sit with a perfect record in the ACC for a second-straight season.

Clemson football clinched the ACC Atlantic with a win over NC State two weeks ago and the Tigers will play one final regular season game against in-state rival South Carolina next Saturday before turning their attention fully to the conference title game.

The Clemson football program has won the last four ACC Championships.

So, who could the Tigers face out of the ACC Coastal? Here’s a look at the scenarios and most likely outcomes as we try to pinpoint an opponent for Clemson in the conference title game.

ACC Coastal Standings (Conference Record), Scenarios:

  1. Virginia (5-2)
  2. Pittsburgh (4-2)
  3. Virginia Tech (4-2)
  4. Miami (4-3)
  5. North Carolina (3-4)
  6. Duke (2-4)
  7. Georgia Tech (1-6)

Miami, North Carolina, Duke and Georgia Tech have all been eliminated from contention. That leaves us with three possible options as the ACC Coastal Champion: Virginia, Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh.

Here’s a look at the remaining ACC schedule for the three programs:

Pittsburgh: @ Virginia Tech, vs. Boston College

Virginia Tech: vs. Pittsburgh, @ Virginia

Virginia: vs. Virginia Tech

Pittsburgh would be eliminated from ACC Coastal contention with a loss this weekend in Blacksburg. The cleanest scenario is that Virginia Tech wins that game and then we’d be set up with a matchup between the Hokies and Virginia Cavaliers to decide the ACC Coastal winner to close the regular season.

However, if Pittsburgh beats Virginia Tech, the Panthers would need to beat Boston College and the Hokies to turn around and beat Virginia to win the coastal. All Virginia has to do to win the Coastal is beat Virginia Tech two weeks from now.

There are still a ton of other scenarios out there where we could actually get down to a seventh-step to decide the coastal, but these are the clearest paths at this point.

dark. Next. Studs and Duds from the victory vs. Wake Forest

If you’re rooting for absolute chaos, then you should want Pittsburgh to beat Virginia Tech, but lose to Boston College. If the Hokies beat Virginia and then Duke beats both Miami and Wake Forest, we could have a situation that would get down to step No. 7 in resolving a division champion and things would actually come down to major metrics and statistics.