Dabo voted Coastal, and 9 other teams, ahead of Ohio State in his final Top 25 ballot
Ohio State may be No. 3 in the final College Football Playoff rankings, but Clemson coach Dabo Swinney has the Buckeyes outside of his own top 10.
Swinney voted Ohio State No. 11 in the USA Today Amway Coaches Poll. The public can see how each of the 61 coaches voted in their own final Top 25 as each season concludes.
Clemson will face Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on New Year’s Day. Swinney voted the 6-0 Buckeyes just behind 11-0 Coastal Carolina and just ahead of 8-3 North Carolina.
Swinney said in 2018 that he fills out his own ballot each week.
“I keep an eye on everybody, because I vote in the poll every week. I really vote. I really do,” Swinney said at the time. “Sometimes I call in at 3 in the morning. I’m sure that guy who takes that poll is like, ‘Oh man, there’s coach Swinney again at 3 o’clock in the morning.’ But I actually call in and I actually vote. So I try to keep up with everybody and do a good job with that. If I’m gonna put my name on it, I should try to be informed.”
Ohio State being ranked so low in Swinney’s ballot is likely due to the Buckeyes only playing six games.
Swinney said on the Rich Eisen Show on Dec. 10 that he believed Florida and Texas A&M had better cases for the playoff than Ohio State. That was before the Gators lost back-to-back games to LSU and Alabama.
“I just think if I was on a committee, it would be hard for me to leave out a 10-1 Texas A&M or a 11-game Florida team over a team that’s played six games,” Swinney said. “It’s almost like you’ve gotta have 120 hours to get a business degree. But yet these people over here only need 60 hours to get a business degree. I think any time you step between the lines in the game of football, there’s a lot that can happen.”
Dabo Swinney final Top 25 ballot
1. Alabama
2. Clemson
3. Notre Dame
4. Texas A&M
5. Florida
6. Georgia
7. Cincinnati
8. Oklahoma
9. Iowa State
10. Coastal Carolina
11. Ohio State
12. North Carolina
13. Brigham Young
14. Indiana
15. Miami (Fla.)
16. Louisiana-Lafayette
17. Oklahoma State
18. North Carolina State
19. Northwestern
20. Southern California
21. Texas
22. Iowa
23. Liberty
24. San Jose State
25. Army
This story was originally published December 21, 2020 at 9:58 AM.
