Clemson football: How the ACC bowl bids work in 2021

It’s been quite a while since Clemson football fans have had to worry about the lineup of bowl bids for the ACC past the CFB Playoff semifinal bowl games.

You have to go all the way back to the 2014 season when Clemson beat Oklahoma in the Russell Athletic Bowl to find the last time that the Tigers weren’t in a CFB Playoff game, let alone not even making it to a New Year’s Six bowl game, but that’s exactly what we’re looking at heading into the final five weeks of the season.

Clemson (4-3) will need to win two more games to be bowl eligible, but the Tigers still can better their bowl standing by finishing as high as possible in the ACC standings.

Here’s a look at the bowl affiliations for the ACC this season:

• Possible at-large berth in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl (the Orange Bowl is a CFB Playoff semifinal site)
• Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl
• TaxSlayer Gator Bowl
• Duke’ Mayo Bowl
• Cheez-It Bowl
• New Era Pinstripe Bowl
• Fenway Bowl
• San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl
• SERVPRO First Responder Bowl
• TicketSmarter Birmingham Bowl
• Military Bowl Presented by Peraton
• Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl

How the ACC bowl bids work in 2021 and what Clemson football fans should expect

There are obviously contractual agreements in place, but typically how these bowls works (for those who need a refresher) is basically through a draft system.

Once the New Year’s Six bowl games have their selections, the bowl games (listed from top to bottom) have their picks. Due to specific ranking constraints, some bowls may be forced to take a higher-ranked team even if they would prefer a lower-ranked team, but that is all dependent upon the conference.

If the season were to end today, Clemson football has bowl projections to the Duke’s Mayo Bowl against Tennessee by CBS Sports and the Holiday Bowl against Utah by 247 Sports.

Even with the bad season that the Tigers are having, we would expect the Clemson football fanbase to propel them up the board in terms of what kind of bowl game they’d be getting. There’s no way the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, for example, would pass on the opportunity to take Clemson– regardless of record– unless there were constraints in place to force them to take a higher-ranked team.

If Clemson were to win out (9-3) or possibly even finish the year 8-4, we’d imagine you’d be looking at the Sun Bowl, Gator Bowl and Duke’s Mayo Bowl with the Cheez-It Bowl and possibly the Pinstripe Bowl having an outside shot at landing the Tigers.