Clemson football: The path to the CFB Playoff following the UGA loss

The Clemson football team did not get the 2021 season underway as it hoped it would.

The Tigers showed an elite defensive effort, but a pick-six and a poor offensive showing led to a 10-3 loss to the Georgia Bulldogs.

Now, as we head into Week 2, we’ve had many Clemson football fans ask what the path to the CFB Playoff looks like and the truth is that there are more than one scenarios that get the Tigers back into the final four. Unfortunately, though, they no longer control their own destiny.

The path to the CFB Playoff for Clemson football following the loss to UGA

Every single path to the CFB Playoff starts with Clemson winning its remaining 11 games in the regular season and then winning the ACC Championship. Any loss would almost be an automatic disqualifier, barring some extenuating circumstances that certainly aren’t likely to unfold.

So, let’s say Clemson goes 12-1 with an ACC Championship. What else needs to happen? Here’s a look at the current teams Tiger fans need to be keeping their eyes on:

• Georgia, Alabama, Ole Miss, Texas A&M
• Ohio State
• Oklahoma, Iowa State
• USC, Oregon
• Notre Dame, Cincinnati

The SEC will take care of itself in some respects. We’re not likely to see a situation where there are three one-loss teams heading into conference championship weekend. What you really want to see from the SEC is the conference take itself out of two-team contention.

Right now, if Georgia and Alabama both come out of the SEC Championship game with only one loss, they’re both in. You’ve got to hope that at least one of them stumbles along the way and it would be much more beneficial for them both to enter the conference championship game  with one loss because that would essentially make their matchup an elimination game.

You’ve got some pulling to do in other conferences, as well.

Clemson needs the Pac-12 to devour itself like it normally does, particularly that would apply to USC and Oregon and the Tigers would really like Oklahoma and Ohio State to drop one during their regular seasons, as well.

Finally, you want to get Cincinnati and Notre Dame out of the way. The two play each other so one will be essentially eliminated after that one, but you don’t want the other sticking around with an undefeated record.

The one thing you don’t want is to get to the end of the season and have undefeated Oklahoma and Ohio State with an undefeated SEC team and another one-loss SEC team.