Clemson Fans Won’t Like Heather Dinich’s Preseason CFP Predictions

This week, ESPN released its preseason predictions for this year’s College Football Playoff (subscription required).

Heather Dinich, ESPN’s lead College Football Playoff insider, gave her prediction for the 12-team CFP field and eight teams on the bubble.

Clemson fans won’t like Dinich’s “CFP Bubble Watch,” as she has the Tigers as one of the eight teams on the outside looking in.

Dinich doesn’t have Clemson as one of the first four teams out (LSU, Missouri, Tennessee, Oklahoma) — she has Clemson among the next four out after the aforementioned teams, along with Michigan, Kansas State and Oklahoma State.

“The Tigers will go as quarterback Cade Klubnik goes, and he needs to improve if Clemson is going to return to postseason relevancy,” Dinich wrote. “Klubnik ranked 11th out of 12 ACC quarterbacks last year with a 55.0 Total QBR. He’ll get some help from running back Phil Mafah, who led the ACC in rushing touchdowns and ranked third in rushing yards per game after taking over for Will Shipley against NC State.”

Dinich’s projected 12-team playoff field includes Georgia, Ohio State, Florida State and Utah as the top 4 seeds (first-round byes).

Her projected first-round matchups (on campus) feature Boise State (No. 12 seed) at Texas (No. 5), Alabama (No. 9) at Ole Miss (No. 8), Penn State (No. 11) at Oregon (No. 6), and Miami (No. 10) at Notre Dame (No. 7).

The 12-team playoff format is set for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. The field will feature the five highest-ranked conference champions, plus the next seven highest-ranked teams, as determined by the CFP Selection Committee.

The four highest-ranked conference champions will be seeded one through four and receive first-round byes, with the fifth highest-ranked conference champion being seeded where it was ranked, or at No. 12 if its final ranking lands outside of the top 12.

Clemson (9-4, 4-4 ACC in 2023) is looking to return to the playoff for the first time since 2020 following six straight playoff appearances in the four-team field from 2015-20.

Dinich recently ripped Clemson on ESPN’s Get Up show, pegging Clemson as the most overrated team at No. 14 in the preseason AP Top 25 Poll .

“Why so much love for the Clemson Tigers? They had four conference losses last year, which is as many as they’ve had combined in the past six seasons,” Dinich said .

“People keep telling me their defense is going to be great – their defense is always pretty good. But they’ve got to get a quarterback,” Dinich said. “Cade Klubnik is back. Until we see offensive improvement, I don’t see why there should be so much love for the Clemson Tigers.”

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