Can Clemson make the College Football Playoff with another loss to Notre Dame?

Clemson would guarantee a berth in the College Football Playoff with a win over Notre Dame but can the Tigers still get in with a loss?

Clemson already has lost to Notre Dame once this season but would a second cost Dabo Swinney, Trevor Lawrence and the Tigers a chance at the College Football Playoff?

Not necessarily.

My first instinct was to say a loss in the ACC Championship Game would eliminate Clemson from the playoff. After all, there’s never been a two-loss team to make the four-team playoff. And a two-loss team that doesn’t win their conference is an ever harder case to make.

That said, I don’t think it would be a disqualifier in this weird 2020 season.

That’s not what Texas A&M, Iowa State and Oklahoma fans want to hear, but I think it’s true.

Clemson is a 10.5-point favorite over Notre Dame which suggests they have a pretty good chance at getting revenge on the Fighting Irish who won in double-overtime when they beat a Lawrence-less Clemson in South Bend in the game of the year.

But should Clemson lose, I think they’d just drop from No. 3 to No. 4 in the final College Football Playoff rankings and set up a showdown with No. 1 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. That would leave Notre Dame and Ohio State to play in the Rose Bowl.

Why would Clemson make it over Texas A&M, the Big 12 champion or even Florida?

For one, the playoff committee is not too concerned with the actual on-field results from the games as witnessed by their inconsistent rankings in recent weeks. Clemson is a big brand with a big base of fans and generates TV ratings. The playoff committee will find a way to get them in just as they’ve done for Ohio State. They had their minds made up in September that they were a playoff team and nothing was going to change their minds.

Clemson’s two losses to Notre Dame would have them ahead of a one-loss Texas A&M provided they beat Tennessee on Saturday. The winner of the Big 12 Championship Game would be a two-loss team from a lesser conference. Florida has a pulse but there’s no chance they actually beat Alabama after choking vs. LSU, right? Right.

And we already know the playoff committee doesn’t care about the teams from the Group of Five so Cincinnati could beat Tulsa 220-0 in the American Conference Championship Game and they’d still be ranked behind Clemson.

That’s just how it goes.

You may not like it, but until there’s an eight-team playoff, the committee will always bend over backward to get a team like Clemson in over other would-be challengers. We’ve seen it before with Alabama. We’re seeing it now with Ohio State who will have played six games. And we could see it if Clemson loses to Notre Dame.

Then again, all this could be moot because I think Clemson beats Notre Dame in the ACC Championship Game, which likely means we’ll get Round 3 in the Rose Bowl with the winner of the rubber match playing the Alabama/Ohio State winner in the National Championship Game on Monday, Jan. 11.

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