Three Clemson Games Ranked in Top 100 Games of College Football Season

While the Clemson Tigers didn’t have a season to remember, some of the games that they played had a tremendous impact on the college football landscape.

ESPN writer Bill Connelly released his top 100 college football games from this season, and Clemson found itself on three of the games. All were losses to LSU, Georgia Tech and Duke.

The early months of the schedule were a roller coaster for Clemson, beginning with its season-opening loss to another set of Tigers on Aug. 30. That game was marked at No. 80 from this season.

Connelly said that although the game was more about defense than offense, the months and days leading up to the event made it an exciting watch to begin the season.

“We never know for sure what the meaning of a big Week 1 game will end up becoming,” he wrote, “and while this was a battle of preseason top-10 teams that would come nowhere close to living up to expectations, it was still a hell of an event.”

The other two games actually fall within the top 30 of games played across all college football contests this season. Clemson’s loss to Georgia Tech in September was the beginning of the end for the team last season, moving to 1-2 to start out the year and battle uphill to begin ACC play.

Connelly didn’t have many words to describe it, but he made his point clear.

“Smoothest. Fire-drill field goal. Ever,” he wrote about the game.

Don’t get it twisted: the epic contest had everything from comebacks to fourth down conversions. That included a 13-point comeback before the game-winning field goal by Aidan Birr had the Tigers rethinking their trajectory.

Perhaps the butterfly effect helped send James Madison to the College Football Playoff, because Clemson’s November loss to Duke played a role in that choice. That win helped the Blue Devils win a tiebreaker to end up winning the ACC Championship.

Connelly has the shootout loss for the Tigers at the No. 14 spot in the leaderboard. It is sandwiched between Duke’s Sun Bowl win over Arizona State and the ACC Championship win over Virginia. There wasn’t anything else to be said about the game from his perspective, although the domino effect of how things turned out, as well as how head coach Dabo Swinney reacted, could play a part in why it’s so high.

The Tigers may not have been on the right side of those high-stakes matchups that they were recognized for to close out the season, but Clemson has opportunities next season to do so as well. Games like LSU, Miami or even South Carolina could be in the mix if deemed exciting.

With a new-look team next year with a new offensive coordinator, Clemson will look to get back to the top of the college football world, aiming for the opportunity to play in more high-stakes games in 2026.