Where South Carolina, Clemson rank in latest CFP Top 25 ahead of rivalry game

Clemson and South Carolina both made a jump in the latest College Football Playoff rankings released Tuesday night.

The Tigers are ranked 12th, while the Gamecocks are No. 15 heading into Saturday’s rivalry matchup. Clemson was No. 17 last week, and USC was 18th.

With chaos in college football and both teams’ strong play late in the season, there is still at least a chance that the winner of Saturday’s game can make the CFP’s 12-team bracket.

South Carolina comes into the matchup as one of the hottest teams in the country. The Gamecocks have won five straight games and are 8-3 overall. A victory gives USC wins nine games for the first time since 2017.

South Carolina is part of a jumbled Southeastern Conference that has four three-loss teams in the SEC in the CFP Top 25. The Gamecocks are just behind No. 13 Alabama and No. 14 Ole Miss, which gave them two of their three losses this year.

“Where we evaluated it, we came out with Alabama ahead of Mississippi and South Carolina since Alabama and Mississippi both won head to head against South Carolina,” CFP Committee Chair Warde Manuel said on a teleconference with reporters Tuesday night.

The Tigers are hoping for an at-large spot with a win Saturday, or they can still earn an automatic bid as ACC champion. Clemson needs Miami to lose to Syracuse this weekend for the Tigers to make next week’s ACC title game against SMU. The winner of that championship game earns the conference’s automatic spot for the playoffs.

Clemson still remains as first team out, according to the bracket.

“If they can beat South Carolina on Saturday then Dabo Swinney’s Tigers, regardless of whether they play for the conference title have a really good shot,” ESPN’s Rece Davis said during Tuesday’s selection show.

Manuel was asked about putting the Tigers ahead of Alabama and Ole Miss.

“Obviously they’re at 9-2, with only two losses,” Manuel said. “The teams right behind them have three losses. We just felt as a committee as we looked at their body of work, with three straight wins after their loss to Louisville, including back-to-back wins against Virginia Tech and Pitt, that they deserved to move up into that 12th position.”

This is the first year of the highly anticipated 12-team College Football Playoff after the field operated with just four teams from 2014 to 2023.

In the new format, the top five highest-ranked conference champions get automatic bids to the playoff. Of those the top four highest-ranked conference champs get first-round byes and the remaining seven teams will be selected as at-large bids.