Clemson football: It seems Tigers’ schedule stronger than SEC fans want to admit

While SEC fans love giving Clemson football fans a hard time about their schedule year-in and year-out, it seems the Tigers have a much stronger strength of schedule than most would like to admit.

In the last decade, Clemson football has beaten a total of 42 ranked teams. Do you know where that places in terms of the national landscape? Would you guess it’s No. 2 in the country behind only the Alabama Crimson Tide, who have 57 top-25 ranked wins.

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Clemson football consistently beats the teams on its schedule, and that’s what matters

Yes, it’s easy to make fun of the ACC. Honestly, the ACC embarrasses itself enough and Clemson fans will admit as much. It’s embarrassing to see teams like Syracuse, Wake Forest, Duke or Georgia Tech consistently look mediocre.

But the truth of the matter is that people act as if the Tigers never play anybody.

That’s the argument that SEC fans make every single year and, frankly, it’s just not true. The last couple of seasons Clemson has had a weaker strength of schedule, but this graphic shows that the Tigers have played their fair share of quality opponents consistently over the last decade and they also do something that many SEC teams don’t do: They win their games.

The Clemson football program has proven to be one of the nation’s elite and the Tigers have done that by beating quality opponents and showing up when it matters most in the postseason.

They’ve had their downfalls- just as every single team in the country has- but Clemson isn’t a consistent CFB Playoff team because of the weakness of the ACC. The Tigers are consistently a CFB Playoff team because they’re one of the best teams in the country. Don’t get that confused.

You don’t beat an average of 3.8 ranked teams per year- more than Georgia, Auburn, LSU, Florida, Texas A&M and all those other ‘SEC powers’ like Vanderbilt- without being an elite team.

If Clemson were in the SEC, the Tigers would be competing for the top spot each year with Alabama, just as they have for the better part of six years on the national scale.