No. 1 Clemson (7-0) will face No. 4 Notre Dame (6-0) in South Bend on Saturday in a showdown with significant College Football Playoff implications.
Well, sort of.
“This is probably a preview of the ACC championship,” CBSSports.com college football writer Ben Kercheval said on After Hours with Amy Lawrence. “These are probably your two best teams in the ACC. If you can beat Notre Dame this weekend, there’s a good chance you’re going to get them in December for that conference title game. And if you lose, look, I think pretty much everybody agrees that Clemson is one of the four best teams in the country. They’re probably one of the three best teams in the country. So if you lose, I think there is some leeway that you have, especially if you don’t have Trevor Lawrence.”
Lawrence, who tested positive for COVID-19, did not play against Boston College this past Saturday. The Tigers fell behind 28-10 but rallied to win 34-28, thanks to freshman quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei, who will start against the Irish.
Thus, Clemson likely doesn’t need to beat Notre Dame on Saturday to still make the playoff.
“With the College Football Playoff selection committee, this is a moving goal post every single year,” Kercheval said. “They’re always redefining what the criteria is, what matters, what doesn’t matter as much. I know that’s sort of the bane of the average college football fan’s existence, but let’s say Notre Dame [beats Clemson] and then Clemson runs the table and beats Notre Dame in the conference championship game. . . . The committee [might] – I don’t want to say throw out the [regular season] result – but it does kind of give you a certain mulligan on that. I know you’re sort of forecasting things that haven’t happened yet, but I do think there is a little bit of a potential asterisk with this game if it doesn’t quite work out for the Tigers.”
Ultimately, Kercheval believes the playoff committee would be hard-pressed to leave one-loss Clemson on the outside looking in, especially if the Tigers were to avenge the loss in the ACC Championship.
“Oh yeah, I think so,” Kercheval said. “They’ve been so good this year otherwise. I know what happened last year and the year before doesn’t matter, but they are very, very clearly one of the best, one of the most talented teams in the country. Analytically, their defense is elite. Their offense is up there – very, very good. They’re operating on another level that only about two other teams [Alabama and Ohio State] right now are.”