The ACC didn’t do itself many favors in terms of garnering national respect in the first round of the College Football Playoff.
Clemson and SMU, who played in the ACC championship game a couple of weeks ago, earned the 11 and 12 seeds in the College Football Playoff, respectively. And they both went down in the first round.
The pair were outscored 76-34 in the process.
SMU fell to Penn State, 38-10, in State College, Pa. It was a disasterclass for starting quarterback Kevin Jennings, who turned the ball over three times against the Nittany Lions.
SMU mustered just 253 yards and committed more than its fair share of miscues and mistakes in a tough loss in front of 106,000. Jennings threw two pick-sixes in the first half, and the Nittany Lions didn’t need to do much offensively throughout the later stages of the game to pull away.
Clemson fell to Texas, 38-24, in Austin, Tx. The Longhorns took an early 21-7 lead, and while the Tigers clawed back to a one-score deficit in the second half, it was too little, too late.
Clemson struck first against Texas, but the Tigers’ run defense was gashed to the tune of nearly 300 yards — at just over six yards per carry.
The ACC hasn’t had a national champion since Clemson won the CFP in 2018-19. There have been two ACC national champions in the CFP era, and the Tigers won both. Florida State, in the inaugural CFP in 2014-15, is the only other ACC school to qualify.
The ACC didn’t have a team in the final three four-team CFPs, and while two teams made the first 12-team Playoff, it obviously didn’t go well.
There’s an obvious gap between the SEC and Big Ten and the rest of college football, even when looking at the ACC and Big 12, and the performances this weekend won’t do much to changes anyone’s mind — fairly or unfairly.
