Clemson football: ESPN analyst says AAC teams have tougher schedule

The 2021 Clemson football team is expected to be a contender for the CFB Playoff yet again.

The Tigers might have to replace two legendary figures in QB Trevor Lawrence and RB Travis Etienne, but there is still plenty of talent to believe they’ll dominate the ACC and get another shot at a playoff semifinal.

ESPN analyst Bill Connelly- the creator of the S&P+– took to Twitter to breakdown the 2021 Clemson football schedule and he wasn’t impressed with what he saw. Connelly pointed out that the Tigers only face one *projected* top-40 team and that AAC teams will face more than that.

Of course, Clemson faces five teams inside the top-50 according to his own projections.

It’s not the fault of Clemson football that its opponents aren’t great and the ACC is much better than Connelly gives the conference credit for

Connelly does point out that it’s not the Tigers’ fault that many programs in the ACC are down and it’s also not Clemson’s fault that South Carolina is bad.

It’s pretty funny that Gamecock fans will look at this and try to disparage Clemson, but they’ll miss out on the fact that they are ninth in terms of opponent strength according to these ratings. That’s right, they’re rated behind several ACC teams.

Now, as far as Connelly’s remarks.

It’s funny how we have taken this different look at the AAC because of a select few programs- UCF, Louisiana, Houston, etc.- and all of a sudden believe that somehow should vault the other teams up the ratings list.

In the same way, these ratings punish teams simply for being in the ACC. For example, Boston College- a potential top-25 team- is ranked No. 62. ACC teams are almost intentionally dropped because of their conference affiliation. But we shouldn’t expect anything else. If you take some of Clemson’s opponents and put an SEC patch on their uniform, they’re ranked inside the top-35 and potentially higher.

It’s easy to disparage Clemson’s schedule, but the truth is that the Tigers are one of the best in the nation because of their own talent and skill.