When asked earlier this month if Ohio State deserved to be included in the four-team College Football Playoff despite playing an abbreviated schedule, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney’s answer was an emphatic “no.” Swinney argued Ohio State’s five-game resume (the Buckeyes, who were initially ineligible for the Big Ten Championship, were eventually granted a sixth game) wasn’t strong enough to warrant top-four status.
While many would agree with that assessment, the committee did not, instead rewarding Ohio State with the No. 3 seed and assigning them to play Swinney’s Tigers in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day. Swinney continued his crusade against the undeserving (in his mind) Buckeyes when he submitted his selections for this week’s USA Today Coaches Poll. The longtime Clemson coach ranked the Big Ten Champs an insulting 11th, slotting them behind his own school, Alabama, Notre Dame, Texas A&M, Florida, Georgia, Cincinnati, Oklahoma, Iowa State and Coastal Carolina. Of the 61 coaches who voted, Swinney was the only one to place Ohio State outside the top six.
“I think the games matter,” said Swinney via ESPN’s Mark Schlabach in defense of his relatively low ranking of Ohio State. "The mental and physical toll of a season—there's nobody out there that would say that somebody who's played 11 games versus somebody who's played six is better physically or something like that because it's a long season. We're going on Week 21. These guys have had no break.”
Swinney is entitled to that opinion, though his public dismissal of Ohio State seems like an odd tactic. If anything, Swinney continuing to harp on OSU for only playing six games, which was largely out of their control, is giving the Buckeyes bulletin board material ahead of their semifinals matchup in New Orleans next month. Clemson defeated Ohio State in last year’s Fiesta Bowl and also beat the Buckeyes in 2017.
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