Where Clemson Is Projected to Land This Bowl Season

The Clemson Tigers inched one step closer to bowl eligibility with a hard-fought, 20-19, win over conference foe Louisville last Friday. With Furman up next this weekend, it’s looking almost sure that Dabo Swinney and company will lock in their post-season spot as they have a 99.4% chance to get to six wins, according to the ESPN Football Power Index.

ESPN staff writer Kyle Bonagura and senior writer Mark Schlabach released their College Football Playoff predictions and bowl game projections on Sunday, following the Week 12 slate. Both have Clemson projected for the Wasabi Fenway Bowl in Boston, Massachusetts, on Saturday, Dec. 27.

Clemson took a steep and rapid fall from its early-season projections, which had it in the College Football Playoffs; even after its Week 1 loss to LSU, Schlabach still had Clemson facing off against Florida State in the first round of the playoffs. Nevertheless, the Tigers have fought back into post-season talks, as both analysts still see them making a bowl game, regardless of the underwhelming season.

Schlabach’s outlook hasn’t shifted much, as he previously projected Clemson to the JLab Birmingham Bowl. But Bonagura’s pick marks an upgrade from last week, when he had the Tigers slotted in the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl, one of the earliest games on the post-season slate.

Bonagura now predicts the Tigers will face off against Army in Boston. Like Clemson, the Black Knights opened the season on shaky footing, dropping three of their first four games. They flashed potential with an upset victory over Kansas State, but the start was far from what they hoped for. Since then, though, Army has played its way back into post-season contention, winning four of its last five, with the lone setback coming against Tulane.

Army sits at a 5-4 overall record and 7th in the American Athletic Conference (AAC), and if this matchup holds, the Black Knights would have a much shorter trip to Boston. With West Point located in New York, Army would be playing practically in its own backyard compared to Clemson’s long haul north.

However, Tigers safety Ronan Hanafin could be in line for another homecoming, as the Massachusetts native had plenty of family and friends in attendance during Clemson’s Week 7 trip to Boston College.

Schlabach, on the other hand, has the Tigers matched up against South Florida — the same opponent Bonagura projected for Clemson last week, though he had them meeting in the Gasparilla Bowl. The Bulls climbed as high as No. 18 heading into late October, but a narrow loss to Memphis knocked them out of the CFP race and halted their rise.

This past weekend, they hit another bump in the road, falling to Navy 41-38 and losing their No. 25 spot in the national rankings. South Florida is now 7-3 and essentially has no shot of making the College Football Playoff, as they sit with a 1.5% chance, according to ESPN’s Football Power Index.