On Dec. 1, Duke, 7-5, 6-2 ACC, punched its ticket to the ACC championship against No. 18 Virginia, 10-2, 7-1 ACC, at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. The five-loss Blue Devils cashed in a long shot.
The Clemson Tigers have hoisted eight of the last 10 ACC Championship trophies. For a decade, the ACC was Clemson’s conference to lose. But this season, the hinges of the ACC’s doors blew off.
On Saturday, Clemson’s win over South Carolina ended the Tigers’ regular season with a 7-5 record. That is the same record that Duke squeaked into the ACC Championship game with. Compared to the Tigers’ 4-4 conference record, Duke’s 6-2 ACC record was the difference, along with pivotal last-ditch losses from Pitt and SMU.
On Nov. 1, Clemson lost a heartbreaker to Duke. The Blue Devils stole the game with a last-minute 2-point conversion, but the story for many Clemson fans was an atrocious defensive pass interference call on Duke’s game-winning drive.
Clemson lost to Syracuse 34-21 in September. Syracuse finished the season 3-9 overall and 1-7 in the ACC, placing the team last in the conference. It’s only ACC win was over Clemson. In retrospect, it was winnable for Clemson.
There is a world where Clemson beats last-place Syracuse, and that pass interference call against Duke is reversed. In that world, the Tigers are 9-3, 6-2 ACC, and are probably preparing for Charlotte right now. Shoulda, coulda, woulda.
For Clemson, the difference between a bowl game and a chance at the playoffs came down to a few plays. The team still finished extremely strong and continued the trend of Clemson excellence. A down year gave the Tigers a bowl game and a reminder that Clemson’s floor is higher than most teams’ ceilings.
“We put ourselves in a position to get to the postseason, and maybe try to get an 8th win. That’s not what we set out to do, but there are only two other teams that have had eight wins 15 years in a row, and that’s Alabama and Georgia,” head coach Dabo Swinney said.
Some people might call it a down year for Clemson. Instead, they should be calling it an up year for the ACC. For 15 years, the conference has been a two-headed dragon with Clemson and Florida State breathing the fire.
Suddenly, Miami has stepped into the conversation. With a season-defining win over Notre Dame in August, the Hurricanes were ranked as high as No. 2 this year, but finished ranked No. 12.
This season, Georgia Tech consistently ranked among the best in the country, with several weeks where quarterback Haynes King looked worthy of a spot on the Heisman shortlist.
On Nov. 4, the Louisville Cardinals peaked at No. 15 in the country before a late-season collapse.
The SMU Mustangs — after playing Clemson in the ACC Championship last year — were a win against Cal away from heading back to the ACC Championship.
Pitt was right there, too. A season-defining, do-or-die matchup with Miami slipped through the Panthers’ fingers in the finale, leaving the team staring back at the glory of its 2021 ACC title run.
Nobody had Virginia on their preseason watchlist. But the Cavaliers strung together a 10-2, 7-1 ACC campaign under head coach Tony Elliott.
One thing was evident this year: the ACC deepened. Many people slander Clemson’s regular-season success by calling it a product of a soft schedule. Suddenly, the ACC looks legitimate.
Clemson’s uncharacteristic season is a result of rising competition, not dwindling talent in the locker room.
The Tigers are not alone anymore. Their conference is suddenly full of opportunity, and not just for the Clemsons or the Florida States of the world.
“This has been a challenging time, again, you know. I’ve lived a lot of life.” Swinney said. “I mean, everything bad in my life, something good has come from it.”
The benefits of this year’s rollercoaster season may be less tangible than securing a bowl game, though: the landscape of the ACC is changing in a positive way.
