Clemson football: Tigers would benefit from major ACC opening weekend

If the ACC is once again considered to be among the two worst conferences in 2021, it will have no one to blame but itself. Other than Clemson football, the ACC has been abysmal for far too long, while the Tigers are getting tired of carrying everyone else.

With the couldn’t come soon enough retirement of longtime ACC commissioner John Swofford a few months ago, comes a renewed hope that the ACC will finally embrace football as its most dominant and profitable sport and finally help the conference gain traction with the SEC as far as network payouts.

College football’s opening weekend is an audition for the ACC to show just how good they will be in 2021 as Labor Day Weekend will feature four ACC teams in primetime matchups. Three of them against SEC schools and the other against Notre Dame.

The ACC can make a big statement opening weekend

Miami will take on Alabama, Clemson will play UGA and Louisville will face off against Ole Miss while Florida State will play Notre Dame. All four of these games are going to allow the ACC to be front and center for a national audience as three of the four games are ABC, Louisville/Ole Miss is on ESPN.

If the ACC can find a way to 3-1 or 4-0, Labor Day weekend, that will set up a narrative that will benefit Clemson throughout the year as they look to make a run at their seventh consecutive conference title as well as a seventh consecutive appearance in the College Football Playoff.

Clemson facing off against UGA is the most intriguing matchup of the weekend.

It would undoubtedly feature two teams ranked in the top three of the country and will have the most publicity given the high-profile nature of each program and their head coaches. The fan bases hate each other and it really bothers UGA fans that their trophy case looks nothing like Clemson’s over the last twenty years.

We are less than 120 days until the official start of college football and 2021 has the potential to be great for those across the conference.