Clemson football can save college football from controversy by winning the national championship.
In a season already full of twists and turns a Clemson football national championship would validate what will go down in history as an unprecedented year.
With Wednesday’s announcement of the Big Ten’s intent to return to football after saying in August, they would not play is about as 2020 as it gets. Provided everything is able to move forward as planned, Clemson will have played five football games prior to the Big Ten playing one.
No one else has the street cred to put naysayers to rest. Yes, programs like the four-year institution in Columbus, OH have high expectations but they have failed to reach the championship game since 2014.
Clemson football can squelch the long list of excuses, asterisks and what-ifs.
There will be some who will make the accusation that the Tigers are trying to duck certain teams. When your program has a 6-3 playoff record any rhetoric coming from another fanbase not named Alabama is the mere buzzing of flies.
A 2020 Clemson National Championship would validate their preseason ranking and reaffirm their supremacy in the sport. A third College Football Playoff championship would cement Clemson as one of the elite programs of the time period.
Winning a national championship in the playoff era is quite different from the BCS era when a team just had to win one postseason game. Today’s structure demands that a team in most cases must go 3-0 in postseason play, including the conference championship game in order to win a title.
Trevor Lawrence leading Clemson to a second national title in three years would make him the greatest Clemson quarterback of all time. He would leave Clemson with one of the most elite resumes in college football history.
He would not only permanently affix himself on the Mount Rushmore of football players at Clemson, but he would also make himself a sure-fire collegiate Hall of Famer in the future.