Clemson football doesn’t need to rely on conference opinions

Clemson football is in a league of its own and unlike teams across the country, the Tigers let their winning speak for itself.

When you reach the pinnacle of your craft, there are a lot of people waiting to knock you down and fans of Clemson football have experienced this for most of the last decade as the Tigers have risen to be the best program in college football.

Because Clemson football has beaten the who’s who of college at least once over the last decade on their way to six ACC championships, five College Football Playoff appearances, four national championship games and two actual national titles, fans around the country love to throw stones at the Tigers pedestal.

What they fail to realize is unlike schools in the SEC, Big Ten, Pac-12 or Big XII, Clemson cares nothing about the ACC. Those are just teams that are in the way of their ultimate goal. The perceived strength or weakness of the conference will never change the goals that the Tigers have for themselves year in and year out.

Reality is if you have to mention your conference record or how good you think your conference is, you’re covering for the failure of your own program. The only aspect of college football that is not based on a subjective ever-changing opinion is the winner of the College Football Playoff.

The fact remains, no matter how you want to spin it, Clemson is one of two teams that have won more than one and appeared in more than two. The ACC didn’t win those national titles, Clemson did. The SEC didn’t win those national titles, Alabama and now LSU did. The Big Ten didn’t win a national title, Ohio State did. Any noise coming from the Big XII or Pac-12 should fall on deaf ears.

Whether you prop up a team’s accomplishments because of their conference affiliation or you try and detract from an accomplishment for the same reason, it is all nothing but noise and anyone with common sense recognizes that.