After a season of skepticism, Clemson deserved a shot at defending its title

Playing in a weak conference clearly doesn't automatically exclude Clemson as a contender.

If we’ve learned anything about Clemson from the 2019-20 college football season — and really, the last couple — it’s that two things can be true: The Tigers can rule the worst Power Five conference and still be among the two or three best teams in the nation. Those things are not mutually exclusive, and they’re unlikely to change in the immediate future.

After a season of questions, criticism and doubt following a slow start (by the Tigers’ standards, not most teams’), they proved they deserved a College Football Playoff spot and the opportunity to defend their national championship — even if it didn’t work out the way they’d hoped.

For the first time in two years, Clemson lost.

The No. 3 seed fell to No. 1 LSU in Monday’s College Football Playoff National Championship game, 42-25, and the Tigers’ 29-game win streak was snapped. The longest active win streak in the FBS also tied the ACC record (Florida State, 2012-14), and it included a perfect 15-0 record last season and the team’s second national championship in three years.

In two seasons of straight dominance, Clemson’s undefeated run was, no doubt, incredible because regardless of what a team’s schedule looks like, winning that many consecutive games in a sport famous for chaos is astonishing.

But some people might want to attach an asterisk — perhaps rightfully — to that record for the same reason Clemson’s College Football Playoff resume was repeatedly called into question this season.

Strength of schedule and quality wins are important to the CFP selection committee, and the ACC is bad. The conference has been trending down over the last couple seasons, and this year, it was particularly terrible with teams like Florida State, Miami, Louisville and Virginia Tech nowhere near playoff contention. Even when Clemson played then-No. 23 Virginia — its only ranked conference opponent of the season — in the ACC title game, there was little doubt that the Tigers would easily win. We predicted Clemson would hang at least 40 points on the Cavaliers, and it won, 62-17, for its fifth straight conference championship.

By the end of the season, Clemson was the only ranked team in the conference with a prolific offense, led by star quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who finally lost a college game. It lit most of its opponents up, averaging 528.7 yards and 43.9 points per game, while allowing a little more than 13 points a game.

Combine its dominance against a weak schedule with the unforgettable one-point win over North Carolina back in September when the team looked a little out of sync, and it seemed fair to wonder if Clemson team was a national championship contender — or if it even deserved a chance to defend its title. And their nonconference games didn’t exactly give them a boost. Prior to playing Virginia, the only opponent ranked when Clemson played it was Texas A&M at No. 12. The Tigers beat the Aggies in Week 2, and by Week 8, Jimbo Fisher’s team had fallen out of the top 25.

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney loves to push the underdog narrative, even when his team had this outrageous win streak and a couple national championships, and arguments about his team not deserving a playoff spot played right into that. Especially in the second half of the season, he repeatedly whined about the Tigers being disrespected, but when his team hadn’t beaten anybody in the regular season, the skepticism was a little warranted.

But as Clemson proved over and over, maybe it does actually deserve the benefit of the doubt.

After all, not one team in the ACC challenged the Tigers in 2018 — though Syracuse lost by only four after Lawrence was injured mid-game — and they still cruised past Notre Dame in the CFP semifinal before rocking season-long championship favorite Alabama with a 28-point title-game victory.

This year’s semifinal game was more of a nail-biter in a narrow six-point victory over Ohio State, which repeatedly traded places with LSU for the top-ranked spot this season. But all it took was a win against the No. 2 team in the country to prove to everyone that Clemson was, in fact, very worthy of its playoff appearance. And although the Tigers fell apart in the second half against LSU on Monday night, it was still a good game that they deserved to be in.

The problem is that it’s challenging to know for sure just how Clemson matches up against other highly ranked teams when its strength of schedule is 49th while LSU and Ohio State are in the top 10. The ACC needs to have a couple more competitive teams again or the Tigers’ nonconference schedule needs to improve — though they do play Notre Dame next season.

For years, it’s been the best team in a declining conference, but there’s no way to know in advance how it could fare against a team like LSU, which beat a total of seven team in AP’s top 10, including all top-4 preseason teams.

But again, Clemson continues proving that playing in a weak conference and being a national championship contender are not mutually exclusive, and that might be the case for the next couple seasons. The ACC has a bit of work to do to be competitive again, and Clemson has, by far, the best 2020 recruiting class joining Lawrence for what’s assumed to be his last year in college. The Tigers are even the way-too-early title favorites for the 2020-21 season.

So while it may punch some holes in Swinney’s underdog mentality, maybe it’s finally time we give Clemson the benefit of the doubt until further notice.