Clemson football: Expanded CFB Playoff suddenly doesn’t look that bad

The 2021 Clemson football season hasn’t gone anything like we all thought it would heading into the year and, honestly, it could be even worse than the abysmal 4-3 start that the Tigers have had.

Clemson has competed in six-straight CFB Playoffs and the Tigers have won two National Championships and six ACC Titles in that period. As we look ahead to the rest of this season, the Tigers have been eliminated from CFB Playoff contention since September and they have a very small chance remaining that they even win the ACC Atlantic Division and get to compete for a conference championship this season.

While everyone hopes this year is just a ‘one-off’ in the grand scheme of things with this Clemson football program, we can’t deny that the Tigers would benefit greatly from having a little more margin for error.

An expanded CFB Playoff doesn’t look so bad for the Clemson football program moving forward

Even in a 12-team CFB Playoff system, the Tigers would likely be eliminated from contention in this season but you’ve got to admit that if this were the case, we’d at least have some intrigue heading down the stretch.

One of the most beneficial portions of having an expanded playoff would be the fact that Clemson would have a little wider margin for error.

If the Tigers finished 11-1 or even 10-2 and won the ACC, they’d be guaranteed a spot. Depending on the terms of the playoff, there could be automatic qualifiers and that would go a long way in taking the human factor out of the equation.

What would that do? It would allow Clemson the opportunity to just focus on winning rather than trying to impress a committee.

The inclusivity of an expanded playoff– whether it be 8, 12 or 16– would make for some fun matchups and would give a wider range of programs an even bigger incentive heading down the stretch in November each season.

We understand that the four-team playoff gets the job done, but there’s nothing wrong from a Clemson football perspective of hoping for the Tigers to have the greatest margin for error possible and still having a chance to compete for the ‘big trophy’ year-in and year-out.

It’s hard to win– and Dabo Swinney has said that– but it would at least incentivize teams to understand that they are still playing for it all even if they fell short in a game during the regular season. Honestly, that doesn’t sound all that bad looking towards the future from a Clemson perspective.