It is truly the end of an era in college football as we know it. With the College Football Playoff expanding from 12 to 24 teams next season, that means conference championships will be going away. All four Power Four leagues have announced that this will be the final rendition of their title bouts. Clemson is still alive to get back to Charlotte, but this is such a tough blow for Dabo Swinney.
Since taking over for Tommy Bowden midway through the 2008 season, Swinney went an incredible 9-1 in ACC Championship games. No team went to more ACC title bouts than Clemson, and no one won them more prolifically than Swinney. Seven of those ACC Championship victories guided Clemson into the College Football Playoff. Nobody was beating Clemson during its peak under him.
While Clemson's pathway into the College Football Playoff gets a little easier now with the expanded field, Swinney may not be loving the way the sport is going. Frankly, none of us are. Swinney took over a middle-of-the-pack ACC program and turned it into something dynastic. Since the dawn of NIL, the transfer portal exploding, and the playoffs getting out of control, Swinney could exit stage right soon.
As we approach the apparent sunset of the conference championship game era, here is where Clemson's conference title game history currently stands. https://t.co/M1P3B9c8Oh pic.twitter.com/kf1C2606pf
— Ross Taylor (@ClemsonFBRoss) November 9, 2026
Dabo Swinney dominated in the ACC Championship Game like no other
So much has changed over the last six years. Clemson has made the College Football Playoff only twice since then. The Tigers have not won a national title since 2018. More importantly, the Tigers may not get another crack at playing in the venue and on the stage where they always dominated. Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte has usually been kind to Clemson. Now, that is going away.
When we look back on the complicated legacy Swinney has been building -- and continues to build -- at Clemson, his success in ACC title bouts should be right up there with his playoff appearances and his two national championship victories. While the game is changing so rapidly on him, we do have to wonder if the success on defense and special teams carries over into next year with a better offense.
If that is the case, Clemson may get back to the College Football Playoff rather comfortably, albeit in an expanded field. It is sad, really. What the sport has become is not anything close to what Swinney first experienced as a walk-on and later assistant coach at Alabama. For programs that have won at a high level in these championship settings, it was a rough day. Clemson is chief among them.
Whenever Swinney hangs up the headset -- hopefully, many years from now -- we can only hope that his legacy will mostly be intact. The ever-changing landscape of college football has not always been as kind to him as the ACC Championship almost always was. In a conference defined by basketball, Swinney helped make it a football powerhouse during the first decade of the College Football Playoff.
Florida State has some good luck in the ACC title bout as well, but nowhere to the degree of Clemson.
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