Clemson Football: CFB Playoff Picture, Scenarios heading into Week 14

The Clemson football team will play its final regular season matchup against in-state rival South Carolina. Here’s a look at the CFB Playoff picture.

The 2019 Clemson football team is just one win away from finishing the regular season with an undefeated record.

The Tigers don’t just come into this one hoping to remain unscathed in terms of the season, but they also come in holding a five-game winning streak over in-state rival South Carolina and an impressive 26-game winning streak overall.

Clemson football needs a win over the Gamecocks to keep its run to the CFB Playoff alive.

As we head into the final week of the College Football regular season, here’s a look at the playoff picture and scenarios to keep your eyes on down the stretch.

CFB Playoff Picture, Scenarios: Week 14 (A *star* indicates a team has one loss)

ACC: Clemson

Big Ten: Ohio State, Minnesota*

Big 12: Oklahoma*, Baylor*

Pac-12: Utah*

SEC: LSU, Georgia*, Alabama*

The CFB Playoff committee has made it fairly clear that Baylor isn’t go to be in the playoff unless the Bears get a ton of help. They’d need the likes of Alabama, Minnesota, Oklahoma (who they’ll play) and Utah to fall off the map to even be considered, but we still have them listed just because they could mathematically win the Big 12 with one loss.

If LSU, Clemson and Ohio State go undefeated and we don’t see any other upsets, then we would have Oklahoma (one-loss Big 12 champ), Utah (one-loss Pac-12 champ) and Alabama (11-1, no division champ) battling it out for the final spot in the playoff.

At this point, I would expect the committee to favor Alabama over both Utah and Oklahoma with conference championships- not because that’s what I think should happen, but because of the fact that I don’t trust the committee to make the right decision.

If  Ohio State stays in the No. 1 spot with wins over Michigan and potentially Minnesota, we could actually see a scenario where Clemson football would play LSU in the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta, which certainly would be a treat for Tiger fans.

The goal for Clemson football is pretty clear: Win. The Tigers have two obstacles standing in their way of another CFB Playoff berth and that begins this weekend in Williams-Brice Stadium against the South Carolina Gamecocks.