Clemson Football: Vegas releases way-too-early win totals for 2020

What is Vegas expecting in terms of contenders during the 2020 season? Here’s a look at how Clemson stacks up with the way-too-early win totals.

The Clemson football team enters the 2020 season as one of the massive favorites to get back to the CFB Playoff and compete for the National Championship.

The Tigers return QB Trevor Lawrence, alongside Travis Etienne, Justyn Ross, Amari Rodgers, and one of the deepest defensive lines in the country to compile one of the nation’s most talented and deepest teams.

Caesars Entertainment released the regular season win totals for every College Football team in the country and, interestingly enough, the oddsmakers had Clemson on top.

Here’s a look at some of the prominent win totals, pertaining to teams across the country, rivals and conference opponents for Clemson:

National Contenders (Only teams with 10 wins or more projected in Power-5):

• Clemson (11.5)
• Ohio State (11)
• Alabama (10.5)
• Oklahoma (10)
• Georgia (10)
• Florida (10)

2020 Regular Season Opponents:

• Georgia Tech (3)
• Louisville (7.5)
• Akron (2)
• Virginia (6.5)
• Boston College (5)
• Florida State (7.5)
• NC State (5)
• Syracuse (5.5)
• Notre Dame (9)
• Wake Forest (6.5)
• South Carolina (5.5)

When you look at the 2020 schedule, you can see that Vegas doesn’t project many of Clemson’s opponents to be ranked when it’s all said and done.

The Tigers could potentially see an opponent like Louisville or Florida State become ranked and there’s obviously hope that the game against Notre Dame will be a battle of top-10 teams. The Fighting Irish have a projected win total of just nine right now, though, which is probably right on the money.

What does this mean?

Well, just like in 2019, it means that Clemson doesn’t have much room for error. If there is, indeed, a College Football season, the Tigers will likely need to win all 12 games- or have a lot of things fall into their favor- to get back to the CFB Playoff.

While the strength of the ACC will increase this season, the conference as a whole likely won’t be strong enough to vault an 11-1 Tiger team into a guaranteed playoff spot.