Clemson is Florida-bound for 2021 bowl game
Clemson will face Iowa State in the Cheez-It Bowl, the ACC announced on Sunday afternoon.
The game is set for 5:45 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 29 at Camping World Stadium in Orlando. It will be televised on ESPN. College football insider Brett McMurphy reported the news first.
Most of the final projections leading to Sunday’s official announcement had Clemson, which ranked 19th in the final College Football Playoffs poll, going to either the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville or the Cheez-It Bowl.
The Cheez-It Bowl was first held in Miami in 1990 as the Blockbuster Bowl. The game moved to Orlando in 2001. It’s had a number of sponsorship changes over the years, including Carquest, Tangerine, Champs Sports, Russell Athletic and, most recently, Camping World.
Clemson has played in this bowl game three times, all under different sponsor names. They defeated Oklahoma 40-6 in the Russell Athletic Bowl to finish 10-3 in the 2014 season.
This will be the first time since that 2014 trip that the Tigers won’t be in the College Football Playoff, ending a six-year streak.
While the CFP streak is over, Clemson has earned bowl eligibility every year since 2005. Additionally, a win would tie Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney (10-7 in bowl games) with the late former Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden for the most bowl victories in conference history. Eleven of Bowden’s 21 career bowl wins came during Florida State’s membership in the ACC.
This season, the team comes into the bowl contest with a 9-3 overall record following a 30-0 win over South Carolina and third-place finish in the ACC’s Atlantic Division.
Clemson recent bowl, postseason history
The Tigers had made the College Football Playoff each of the last six seasons
- 2005: 19-10 win over Colorado in Champs Sports Bowl
- 2006: 28-20 loss to Kentucky in Music City Bowl
- 2007: 23-20 loss to Auburn in Chick-fil-A Bowl
- 2008: 26-21 loss to Nebraska in Gator Bowl
- 2009: 21-13 win over Kentucky in Music City Bowl
- 2010: 31-26 loss to South Florida in Meineke Car Care Bowl
- 2011: 70-33 loss to West Virginia in Orange Bowl
- 2012: 25-24 win over LSU in Chick-fil-A Bowl
- 2013: 40-35 win over Ohio State in Orange Bowl
- 2014: 40-6 over Oklahoma in Russell Athletic Bowl
- 2015: (CFP) 37-17 win over Oklahoma in semifinals; 45-40 loss to Alabama in nat’l title game
- 2016: (CFP) 31-0 win over Ohio State in semifinals; 35-31 win over Alabama in nat’l title game
- 2017: (CFP) 24-6 loss to Alabama in semifinals
- 2018: (CFP) 30-3 win over Notre Dame in semifinals; 44-16 win over Alabama in nat’l title game
- 2019: (CFP) 29-23 win over Ohio State in semifinals; 42-25 loss to LSU in nat’l title game
- 2020: (CFP) 49-28 loss to Ohio State in semifinals
This story was originally published December 5, 2021 at 2:46 PM.
