How powerhouse Clemson became the College Football Playoff’s first 12-seed ‘Cinderella’ team

When the format of the 12-team College Football Playoff was approved, there was a set of assumptions about the role and look of the 12-seed. With automatic bids guaranteed to the highest-ranked conference champions and a convenient count of four power conferences with the opportunity to secure four first-round byes, the belief heading into the year was that the 12-seed would be occupied by conference champion from the Group of Five and the CFP’s first true Cinderella.

A Group of Five team did make the field during the four-team era, but Cincinnati is now in a power conference, — and the run of high-level success the Bearcats boasted didn’t make for a plucky underdog story at the time.

No, the 12-seed as we imagined it would be a team that more closely resembles the Cinderella stories we get from the NCAA Tournament. Those examples are teams emerging from conferences with fewer resources and finding a way to level the playing field with tenacity and resolve. It’s a single-game elimination tournament, after all. So when a team can raise its level of play on the biggest stage and advance ahead of the favorite, it serves as an inspiration to underdogs everywhere. The expanded College Football Playoff was designed to increase access, interest and hope to the entire FBS landscape, and we thought that 12-seed would embody that hope.

Except the bracket was revealed and we look up to see the 12-seed in the 2024-25 College Football Playoff is one of the winningest programs of the College Football Playoff era.

There’s not a lot about Clemson football that screams “plucky underdog.” The Tigers have made seven College Football Playoff appearances since the format debuted in 2014, which ranks second only to Alabama (8). Clemson is also one of only…

Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/how-powerhouse-clemson-became-the-college-football-playoffs-first-12-seed-cinderella-team/

Author : Chip Patterson

Publish date : 2024-12-19 20:49:00

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