The crystal balls of the preseason are beginning to appear, and here, again, the Clemson team has the rare advantage that this time it’s within an environment that feels more familiar than ever.
Athlon Sports released its early 2026 ACC projections and Tigers finished fourth, trailing Miami, Louisville, and SMU. It’s not a bad ranking. It was also not the sort of ranking Clemson had earned by default before. That part matters. Clemson was the ACC for so long. Now, Athlon says, the Tigers are caught in a frenzy of trying to claw their way back to the top — well-respected but no longer feared.
Athlon’s rationale is straight to the point, and honestly the logic has been tough to argue since last fall. Clemson just won seven games and is coming off the program’s lowest total since 2010, and no national outlets are going to erase that. Athlon’s Steven Lassan wasn’t fazed, describing Clemson as one of 2025’s biggest disappointments and asking whether Dabo Swinney could ever bring the team back fully.
Under center will be Christopher Vizzina, with a new offensive play-caller in Chad Morris. That is a major transition — and one that will determine Clemson’s ceiling in 2026. There are pieces to like. T.J. Moore has already begun being talked about as one of the ACC’s best receivers, and the defense put at least some building blocks in place with the likes of Sammy Brown and Will Heldt being touted to have bigger and bigger roles. But for the first time in decades, Clemson’s projection is driven less by “when” than by “if.”
Let’s be real with the flub: Fourth is progress, it seems. Clemson finished tied for seventh in the ACC last season, surrendering the middle of a bloated pack where there were six teams. Athlon’s projection indicates the Tigers are going to come out of that mess, even if they have not won the crown again yet. That is enough to tell the national narrative has not fully cratered.
And rankings serve as some clues as to how Clemson’s 2026 schedule is perceived. Virginia Tech (No. 5) and Georgia Tech (No. 8) respectively, come to Death Valley; Florida State (No. 9), Cal (No. 12), Duke (No. 13), and Syracuse (No. 14) are on the lower half of the conference. North Carolina came last; so the trip to Clemson must be made as well. In other words: The way is there — if Clemson dares to take that line.
]Athlon’s prediction has provided a fairly direct picture of where Clemson is going in 2026. The Tigers are no longer being measured up to by the ACC. That era is officially over. But they are also not being written off. With a new quarterback, a new offense, and the emergence of new defenders, it carries less air of a coronation than of a referendum. Clemson still does indeed have the infrastructure. The question is whether it has the advantage now. Fourth place isn’t an insult. It’s a challenge.