Clemson Football: Tiger Nation’s least favorite sports personalities

Heather Dinich

Dinich has been very visible to Tiger Nation for many years. She started with ESPN in 2007 covering ACC football. When the College Football Playoff began, she transitioned to covering the CFP committee and the selection process. In that role, she has often been tasked with giving her opinion on teams competing for playoff spots and her perspective on what the committee is looking for in the candidates.

Dinich maintained a decent amount of objectivity over the years, often pointing to the committee’s favoritism towards resumes over eye tests, and has spoken positively about Clemson. This is one of my favorite ‘freezing cold takes’ from former ESPN and Charlotte radio personality Josh Parcell.

She’s even gotten under the skin of other fanbases when she supported Clemson.

This year, she doesn’t seem to be that impressed with Clemson, and Tiger Nation has noticed.

While she had Clemson in her top four earlier in the month….

…by this past weekend she didn’t include Clemson in her top four, favoring Michigan for the last spot, and at one point even had Oregon at #4. To be fair, Dinich also didn’t include Tennessee originally, so we have to allow some grace, but like many who are putting the Wolverines ahead of the Tigers, Dinich didn’t seem to realize how lacking Michigan’s resume is due to a particularly weak out of conference schedule and a lack of games played away from Ann Arbor. Considering her experience with the committee and presumed understanding of what they respect, it is at the very least odd that she whiffed on this.

She has even taken a direct shot at Clemson fans.

Like we’ve said a few times now, we can’t expect objective analysts to always be favorable towards Clemson or any other team. If they were, they wouldn’t be objective.

It does seem strange, however, that Dinich has been down on Clemson considering her familiarity with the way the committee creates its rankings. Clemson’s resume is solid, but she seems to have bought into the lazy narrative that the ACC’s ranked teams don’t count because they are Syracuse, Wake Forest, and NC State.

My best guess is that since she is now listed as a National College Football Reporter, she is more focused on her personal perspective than representing her expectations of what the committee is most likely to do, something she once did very well.

It is also possible she has just decided to troll Clemson fans to get attention, and my observation is that most of Tiger Nation think that is the case. She’s not the only one though.