Projected College Football Playoff bracket: Clemson over Miami in the ACC?
The 12-team College Football Playoff is coming and teams at the top of every conference are scrambling for one of the coveted top four spots in the bracket.
Conference champions will lock in those seeds with a bye week to begin the playoff. It's a huge advantage. It looks like the Clemson Tigers and Miami Hurricanes are on a collision course for the ACC's bid.
In September, it felt like this was Miami's to lose. In fact, I'd wager most writers filling in their projected brackets would follow the same process as I have: No. 3 goes to Miami and No. 4 goes to the Big 12 champion. Easy peasy.
Now? Clemson is on a tear and the Hurricanes look plenty vulnerable. It may be time to rethink that auto bid for Miami.
Projected CFP bracket after Clemson trounces Virginia, Miami survives Louisville
- Texas Longhorns
- Oregon Ducks
- Clemson Tigers
- Iowa State Cyclones
- Ohio State Buckeyes
- Miami Hurricanes
- Georgia Bulldogs
- Penn State Nittany Lions
- Alabama Crimson Tide
- LSU Tigers
- Notre Dame Fighting Irish
- Boise State Broncos
The SEC and Big Ten are sure to fight over those top two spots but the third spot more or less belongs to the ACC.
Locking in that bid would require a win the ACC title game for either Clemson or Miami. So why pick Clemson?
The Tigers have one loss but that was a tough out of conference matchup with Georgia in Week 1. Since then, they are on a six-game winning streak. They have scored 48 or more points in all but one game. They have allowed 20 or fewer points in all but two games. And in both of those, the opposition scored the majority of their points in garbage time.
In the meantime, Miami have struggled in each of their last three games after opening the season with a series of blowouts. Yes, they're undefeated, but they've had a bunch of near misses. They were tied up with Louisville in the fourth quarter. They survived a miracle Hail Mary from Virginia Tech. And they needed a touchdown with 26 seconds left to beat Cal.
Wins are wins, so if Miami keeps winning they'll easily book a ticket to the conference title game. But when they get there, will they have what it takes to beat a team like Clemson?
The Tigers may not be the national title contenders they once were, but Dabo Swinney still coaches up a solid team that wins when it ought to win.
The true test for Clemson is coming up soon. Louisville and Virginia Tech played Miami tough. The Tigers take both of those teams on next. For now, they're playing a whole lot better than the Canes, so we give them the CFP nod.
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