Clemson Football: Potential ranked opponents for the Tigers in 2020

Potential ranked opponents on the 2020 Clemson football schedule

The 2020 Clemson football schedule isn’t the most exciting in school history, but there are still some important and intriguing games on the docket.

The Tigers are scheduled to open up the season on the road against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets before making their way back home for a game against the Louisville Cardinals. This will be the first time in quite a while that Clemson football has opened up the season with back-to-back ACC opponents.

Though many continue to harp on the weakness of the ACC as a whole outside of Clemson, the truth is that the conference is set to take a major step forward.

Here’s a look at several teams on the 2020 Clemson football schedule that could be ranked before it’s all said and done.

Who are the potential ranked opponents for Clemson football?

Here are the games we’ve pegged as potential ‘ranked match-ups’ for the Tigers:

• vs. Louisville
• @ Florida State
• @ Notre Dame
• vs. South Carolina

These are the potential games where we could see a ranked opponent.

While Louisville likely won’t be ranked to begin the season, the Cardinals could quickly jump into the top-25 and work their way up the rankings following their game against Clemson. Louisville has one of the best offenses in the nation with several returning play-makers and the Cardinals very well could be lined up to be the second-best team in the ACC.

Florida State and South Carolina are both darkhorses. If things go right, they each could end up a fringe top-25 team, but I wouldn’t count on either breaking into the rankings. Another darkhorse not listed above is NC State. Though Vegas only has the Wolfpack’s win total set at 4.5, NC State actually returns basically everyone from last year’s team and that could lead to them taking a major step foward.

And then that leaves Notre Dame.

Before Clemson plays the Fighting Irish, Notre Dame will play a few match-ups against teams who could be ranked, including Stanford and Wisconsin. If the Fighting Irish are unscathed through the first portion of their season, we certainly will be looking at a battle of top-10 teams and very well could be looking at a battle of top-five teams before it’s all said and done.

This 2020 Clemson football schedule certainly has some intriguing spots and opponents who are on the rise. It will be interesting to see how some of these things play out and what it all looks like in the end.