Clemson Football: ESPN’s way-too-early 2020 FPI favors Tigers
The 2020 Clemson football team is considered one of the favorites to win the National Championship and ESPN’s FPI echoes those sentiments.
The Clemson football team enters this 2020 offseason as one of the favorites to get back to the CFB Playoff because of the Tigers’ returning experience, talent and depth, as well as the incoming skill set to join the roster.
Clemson football fell short to LSU in the National Championship game back in January, but will be looking to avenge that loss this time around.
ESPN’s way-too-early FPI rankings believe the Tigers should be the favorites to do just that.
- Clemson
- Ohio State
- Oklahoma
- Alabama
- Penn State
- Wisconsin
- Texas
- Texas A&M
- Notre Dame
- Georgia
The ESPN FPI shows Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Alabama leading the charge. The FPI typically shows a certain amount of bias to SEC teams (and we can see that with Texas A&M) but we’re also seeing a major love for Big Ten teams now.
Penn State and Wisconsin, for example, are ranked No. 5 and No. 6. I’m not convinced that either one of those programs- especially Wisconsin- are top-10 teams, let alone major competitors for the CFB Playoff.
The love for Texas and Texas A&M is always shown in the preseason, but neither program has shown any amount of merit to justify those rankings. Georgia at No. 10 is a little surprising as the Bulldogs will likely be much higher in preseason polls.
Overall, the FPI appears to get the top-two right- Clemson and Ohio State- in my opinion, but misses on the rest of the country. It’s easy for anyone to see that the Tigers and Buckeyes are at the top right now with a few programs following behind, but it’s probably not accurately displayed in ESPN’s metric.
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