What Clemson football’s bowl projections look like after beating South Carolina
The Clemson football team wrapped up its regular season with a 16-7 win over rival South Carolina on Saturday.
Now comes a week of waiting and, eventually, some December sun.
The Tigers were already trending toward an upper-tier ACC bowl game as they stacked up wins this month, and they clinched that status further with a win Saturday over USC that moved Clemson to 8-4 on the season.
Sunday’s projection from 247Sports has Clemson playing Oregon State in the Dec. 27 Holiday Bowl, with Brad Crawford writing that “the allure of former Tigers quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei potentially matching up against Dabo Swinney and the staff that let him leave would increase the intrigue.”
CBS Sports also has Clemson-Oregon State in the Holiday Bowl, an annual ACC-Pac-12 matchup, in Jerry Palm’s updated Sunday projections after Week 13 games.
Oregon State, with Uiagalelei starting at quarterback, finished the regular season 8-4 but just lost its coach, Jonathan Smith, who accepted the Michigan State job.
The Holiday Bowl is played at Petco Park, home of the MLB’s San Diego Padres, and featured a 9-4 UNC team as its ACC representative last season. The Tar Heels lost to Oregon, the bowl’s Pac-12 representative at 9-3.
247Sports projects Tennessee and UNC to play each other in the Gator Bowl, noting that “Clemson could be an option here too on a four-game winning streak, but chances are slim” because ESPN and bowl organizers probably wouldn’t slot Clemson and Tennessee together since they played in last year’s Orange Bowl.
Earlier last week, The Athletic and College Football Network had also connected Clemson to the Gator Bowl, which last year featured South Carolina and Notre Dame (instead of an ACC or Big Ten school, through a stipulation). The Gator Bowl will be played Dec. 29 in EverBank Stadium, home of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars.
Both of those bowls (Holiday and Gator) could be in play for the Tigers, who finished the season tied for seventh in the ACC at 4-4 but tied for the fifth best overall record among ACC teams at 8-4, behind Florida State (12-0), Louisville (10-2) and NC State (9-3) and tied with UNC (8-4).
The Pop-Tart Bowls (formerly the Cheez-It Bowl) is another possibility for Clemson but less likely since the Tigers played Iowa State in that bowl two seasons ago in 2021 and bowl games generally try to avoid repeat appearances (that applies for location and opponent).
Representatives from the Gator Bowl, Pop-Tarts Bowl, Sun Bowl and Peach Bowl attended Clemson’s home game last week against UNC, though Peach Bowl representatives were there to check out UNC (which was, at that point, still in contention for a New Year’s Six Bowl).
Coach Dabo Swinney’s team rebounded from 2-2 and 4-4 starts to finish 8-4 and will likely see a jump in Tuesday’s penultimate College Football Playoff rankings after debuting at No. 24 last week.
The ACC and its bowl partners “will make team selections based on several factors, including geographic proximity, avoiding repeat appearances and matchups, and regular-season won-loss records,” according to a 2019 news release.
Clemson has played in the Gator Bowl nine times, most recently in 2008, and has not played in the Holiday Bowl, according to Sports-Reference.com.
The full college football bowl schedule will be announced Sunday, Dec. 3, a day after the conference championship games are completed Saturday.
247Sports ACC bowl projections
For top five teams in ACC in terms of overall record
Sugar Bowl: Georgia vs. Florida State (CFP semifinal)
Orange Bowl: Ohio State vs. Louisville (New Year’s Six)
Pop-Tarts Bowl: NC State vs. Kansas State
Gator Bowl: Tennessee vs. UNC
Holiday Bowl: Clemson vs. Oregon State
CBS Sports ACC bowl projections
For top five teams in ACC in terms of overall record
Rose Bowl: Michigan vs. Florida State (CFP semifinal)
Orange Bowl: Louisville vs. Ohio State (New Year’s Six)
ReliaQuest Bowl: NC State vs. LSU
Gator Bowl: UNC vs. Tennessee
Holiday Bowl: Clemson vs. Oregon State
