Tim Tebow makes strong case that Clemson isn't a College Football Playoff team

Tim Tebow has a point here.

The first College Football Playoff rankings don’t come out until the first week of November, but if the playoff teams were decided today and Tim Tebow happened to be in charge — neither is true — Clemson would not make the final four.

Now, Tebow has shared some decidedly bad college football takes this season, but this isn’t one of them. He explained his well-reasoned argument about the Tigers receiving too much credit this year for winning the national championship last season — their second in three years.

On ESPN’s First Take, Tebow told Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman that if he had to select his top-4 teams today, he’d go with Alabama, LSU, Ohio State and Oklahoma, respectively. And he added: “And then I would have Clemson just out at No. 5.”

In response, Stephen A. asked why Tebow has the defending national champs out of the top four and joked that maybe he’s been talking with ESPN college football analyst Paul Finebaum too much. Tebow explained:

“We’ve gotta cut off last year at last year. This year’s Clemson team is not last year’s Clemson team — ask all the first-round draft picks that are now playing in the NFL. So we can’t just say what you did last year counts this year. It doesn’t work that way. It’s a new team, a brand-new team, especially a brand-new defense, and they’re not executing and clicking the same on offense. So I don’t think it’s fair or right to look at last year and give them credit this year for what they did last year.”

Clemson had six players selected in the 2019 NFL Draft, including three in the first round, all of whom were defensive linemen.

The Tigers still have quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who seemed like a given Heisman Trophy finalist in the preseason but has since fallen out of the favorites. He’s already thrown two more interceptions in six games this season than in 15 games last year — though he wasn’t named the starter until Week 5 — and his completion percentage is down to 62.7 percent from 65.2 percent in 2018.

With a 6-0 record going into Week 8, Clemson’s playoff hopes are still very much alive, as long as it wins out, which it has a 62.2 percent chance to do. That percentage is, by far, the best in the nation, but a less-than-challenging ACC conference doesn’t help with a playoff argument.

Plus, the one-point win over North Carolina a few weeks ago raises questions about an upset actually happening at some point.

Still, Clemson has a 65 percent chance to make the College Football Playoff, which is third-highest behind Alabama and Ohio State and just better than Oklahoma and LSU.

But Tebow has a valid point about not letting the Tigers’ perfect 15-0 2018 season influence whether or not it’s worthy of a playoff spot this year when the time comes.