After Clemson’s last-gasp thriller, the College Football Playoff committee faces a massive decision

Clemson is in the College Football Playoff after freshman Nolan Hauser kicked a game-winning 56-yard field goal to beat SMU in the ACC title game. (Grant Halverson/Getty Images)

CHARLOTTE — Dabo Swinney glared into an ESPN camera and gave a warning to the College Football Playoff selection committee, not about his team but the one his team just beat.

“Listen,” he said, “that’s a playoff football team. SMU better be in the dang playoffs.”

It is not often that a coach, immediately after a heart-pounding victory, not just praises but lobbies on behalf of his opponent. But on Saturday night, in this new, odd playoff expansion world, that’s what happened here just before the clock struck midnight on the east coast.

The story on this night should be how Clemson won the ACC championship game: in a wild furious final few seconds, on the foot of freshman kicker Nolan Hauser, a Charlotte metro-area native whose title game-record 56-yard field goal as time expired split the uprights and sparked an orange-coated eruption at Bank of America Stadium.

But there’s another story here, perhaps one that is more important: With its 34-31 win over SMU, Clemson became the first-ever College Football Playoff bid stealer. For some team — SMU or Alabama — the bubble has popped. And for the ACC’s football dynasty — the Clemson Tigers — a playoff spot, improbable just a week ago, is secured.

Bludgeoned by Georgia to open the season, whipped by Louisville midway through and beaten at home by South Carolina just last week, Dabo’s Tigers couldn’t possibly make the playoff, right?

Here they are. Swinney is back in football’s newly expanded big dance. The Tigers (10-3) will grab the final of the five automatic bids designated for the five highest-ranked conference champions. We think. We won’t know for sure until around…


Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/after-clemsons-last-gasp-thriller-the-college-football-playoff-committee-faces-a-massive-decision-054808229.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-12-08 05:48:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.

Check Also

McKenzie Milton: Chance to coach UCF QBs, join Scott Frost was ‘too good to turn down’

ORLANDO — Scott Frost spent more than six weeks assembling and finalizing his assistant coaching …