Clemson Tigers Tumble In Final AP Top 25 Poll of College Football Season

The Clemson Tigers remained a ranked team in the final AP Top 25, but fell a few spots.

Dec 21, 2024; Austin, Texas, USA; Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney reacts against the Texas Longhorns during the CFP National playoff first round at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

The Clemson Tigers 2024 college football season was a roller coaster ride featuring many highs and lows.

Things could not have started off any worse as they were demolished in their season opener by the Georgia Bulldogs, 34-3.

That led to a lot of talk about whether Dabo Swinney had lost his touch, falling behind the times because of his reluctance to use the transfer portal. Many people were writing the team off after that loss, but they got things figured out.

Clemson ripped off a six-game winning streak, scoring 40+ points in five out of six games and winning all of them by at least 16 points. Cade Klubnik was breaking out before our eyes, but the offense faltered a little bit after that stretch.

A loss to the Louisville Cardinals at home looked to have dashed any ACC Championship hopes the team had, as they would need help to move up the standings.

Because the SMU Mustangs, Miami Hurricanes and Tigers didn’t play each other in the regular season, it looked like the championship participants would come down to tiebreakers.

That was, until the Syracuse Orange pulled off the upset, knocking off the Hurricanes in the final week of the season, punching Clemson’s ticket to the ACC Championship game to face off with SMU, who went undefeated in the conference.

After a loss to the South Carolina Gamecocks during rivalry week removed the Tigers from the at-large bid discussion, they rebounded with a 34-31 victory over the Mustangs to earn a spot in the College Football Playoff.

They turned into first-round fodder for the Texas Longhorns, who won the game 38-24.

Certainly not the outcome that Swinney and his team were looking for, but they had to be happy about overcoming the odds during the regular season and even advancing that far.

Despite the up-and-down nature of the campaign, Clemson remained in the top 25 throughout the entirety of 2024. And they are closing it in the same spot at which they began it.

In the final AP Poll of the season, the Tigers are ranked No. 14; the same exact spot they began the year in all the way back in August.

That is a drop from the No. 12 spot, which they occupied heading into the playoff and bowl season. They are the second-highest ranked ACC program, as SMU moved up to No. 12 despite their blowout loss in the playoff at the hands of the Penn State Nittany Lions.

Miami dropped to No. 18, while Syracuse moved up to No. 20.

Those were the only ranked ACC teams, as Louisville just missed after receiving 38 votes.