Where Clemson Tigers Stand in ACC Standings After Two Games

The Clemson Tigers have started off their ACC schedule perfectly to begin their first two games, taking down North Carolina and California before setting up an important contest with No. 4 Miami this weekend.

After beginning the conference slate last season 0-2, head coach Dabo Swinney has his group in a favorable spot, being one of six teams that are currently undefeated while being one of only two with two wins out of two games so far. The other team, coincidentally, are the Hurricanes, with wins over Wake Forest and Stanford.

However, there is plenty of competition at the top of the standings that Clemson will see throughout the season.

The other four teams are Duke, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Pitt to all be 1-0 in ACC play. Fortunately, though, the Hokies and Panthers meet in Blacksburg this Friday, meaning one of those teams will have a loss in its column going forward.

Clemson sees Virginia Tech at home later in October on the 17th, while it will have to travel to Durham, North Carolina, to face the Blue Devils on Nov. 20, a Friday night, to snap a two-game losing streak to Duke. Perhaps that contest at the end of November could be for a spot in the ACC Championship as well.

The Tigers’ opponent this past weekend, Cal, sits at 1-1 with Wake Forest, Louisville and SMU. Many expected both the Mustangs and Cardinals to be competing for a spot in Charlotte this December, and after Louisville took down SMU two weeks ago, it suffered a loss at home to Wake Forest this past weekend.

If Clemson continues to see schools beat themselves up while the Tigers take care of business, that’s beneficial to their hopes of making it back to Charlotte.

After the Hokies, Hurricanes and Blue Devils, every other school that is left on Clemson’s ACC slate is yet to have a win in conference play, although it’s a small sample size. Florida State lost its only ACC game against SMU to begin the year, Georgia Tech lost to Stanford out west this past weekend and Syracuse is 0-2 to start conference play. That rounds out the rest of the conference schedule for Swinney.

While the Tigers’ matchup against the Yellow Jackets is at home, Clemson has to travel to Tallahassee and Syracuse to face those respective opponents, though.

Of course, the task will be to take down the Hurricanes first at Memorial Stadium this weekend, but being a multiple-touchdown underdog in the contest, the chances of winning the game are slim for Clemson. If it was to pull off the unlikely victory, it would put Swinney in the driver’s seat for the ACC while heading into a bye week and a non-conference matchup against Charleston Southern on Oct. 17.

That would put Clemson in the ideal spot. However, there’s 60 minutes for that to change its narrative on the 2026 start to the year.

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