Clemson Football: Important games for Tigers on the off week

Even though Clemson football has the week off from playing a game, that doesn’t mean there aren’t games that could have an effect on the Tigers long-term outlook for the season that will take place.

Let’s check out some of them.

While Clemson has a firm grasp on the ACC Atlantic, North Carolina, who has played half the conference games Clemson has, has a perfect 3-0 conference record in the Coastal and hosts Pittsburgh in Chapel Hill, Saturday evening.

The Panthers are only 1-2 in the conference, but also are only a 3-point underdog to the Tar Heels.

As it stands today, North Carolina and Clemson is the likely match-up for the ACC Championship Game.

No. 1 Georgia takes on Florida in Jacksonville, but it’s supposed to be a laugher with the Bulldogs favored by 22.5.

Will the Bulldogs be looking ahead to Tennessee?

No. 2 Ohio State travels to Penn State for the Whiteout game of the Year of the Week.  Maybe it just seems like Penn State has these several times a season.

In my mind, there’s still a question about how good the Nittany Lions are and we may get our answer after this one, though doubts are starting to creep in about Ohio State a bit, too.

No. 3 Tennessee hosts No. 19 Kentucky at 7 p.m. on ESPN.  The Volunteers are a 12-point favorite and I just can’t see them losing at home, but…Georgia is next week.

No. 4 Michigan hosts Michigan State at 7:30 p.m. Saturday on ABC.  Michigan is a huge favorite in this one and it likely won’t be close.

With No. 6 Alabama being off, the last game we’ll look at is undefeated TCU, which travels to West Virginia for a nooner as a 7.5-point favorite.

This seems like the most realistic chance for an upset and one less undefeated team and even if the Horned Frogs pull this one out, they still have to travel to Texas on November 12.

After 8 straight weeks of games, Clemson football has the weekend off as other teams battle to stay in the CFP race

There are still 6 undefeated teams left: Clemson, Georgia, Tennesee, Ohio State, Michigan and TCU.

Given that Georgia and Tennessee play next week and Ohio State and Michigan play in late November, there can be no more than 4 undefeated teams at the end of the regular season.