Clemson learns its bowl destination today. A look at the final projections
—— UPDATE: Clemson will play in this year’s Gator Bowl —
Selection Sunday is here, and the No. 23 Clemson football team’s bowl projections continue to come into focus with a West Coast flavor.
After this weekend’s conference championship games, eight of 11 national media members predicting bowl games have Clemson in the Dec. 27 Holiday Bowl in San Diego in their updated projections, with Southern Cal (seven predictions) as its most likely opponent for the annual matchup between an ACC and Pac-12 team. Clemson also has one projection to play Utah in the game.
After Saturday’s conference title games, including No. 4 Florida State’s win over No. 14 Louisville in the ACC championship game, Clemson (8-4) also had two predictions to play Kentucky in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl (from The Action Network and 247Sports) and one prediction to play Texas A&M in the Gator Bowl.
CBS Sports, ESPN, The Athletic and USA TODAY are among the national media outlets whose writers are projecting Clemson to the Holiday Bowl, played in Petco Park, home of the MLB’s San Diego Padres.
The College Football Playoff selection show starts at noon on ESPN, with the four CFP teams being revealed at 12:15 p.m. and the other New Year’s Six matchups set to be revealed at 2:30 p.m. Other bowl game pairing will be released later in the day.
The Tigers have been getting connected to the Holiday Bowl — which features an ACC team and Pac-12 team playing each other in Petco Park — for weeks, and the bowl’s CEO said they’d “roll out the red carpet” for Clemson if it ends up there. The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel also wrote earlier this week that a Clemson-Southern Cal Holiday Bowl matchup was among those he was “most confident” in predicting among a 41-bowl game slate.
A matchup against the Trojans would place Clemson in an entertaining “Riley Bowl” matchup of Southern Cal head coach Lincoln Riley and his younger brother, Clemson offensive coordinator Garrett Riley. Southern Cal also features star quarterback Caleb Williams, the likely No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, though it’s likely he’ll opt out of the game for the Trojans (7-5) if he declares.
A Clemson-Oregon State matchup also offered some major intrigue until news broke early Thursday that former Tigers starting quarterback DJ Uiagalelei, who is now the starter at Oregon State, is entering the transfer portal.
Dabo Swinney’s team won its last four games, including a road win at rival South Carolina last weekend, to work its way into an upper-tier bowl position.
The Holiday Bowl’s CEO, Mark Neville, said the bowl will announce its teams in a news conference scheduled for about 12:30 local time (3:30 p.m. Eastern) on Sunday.
Clemson football 2023 bowl projections
As of Sunday, Dec. 3
247Sports: Mayo Bowl vs Kentucky (Brad Crawford)
Action Network: Mayo Bowl vs. Kentucky (Brett McMurphy)
The Athletic: Holiday Bowl vs. Southern Cal (staff)
Athlon Sports: Holiday Bowl vs. Southern Cal (Steve Lassan)
CBS Sports: Holiday Bowl vs. Southern Cal (Jerry Palm)
College Football News: Holiday Bowl vs. Clemson (staff)
ESPN: Holiday Bowl vs. Southern Cal (Mark Schlabach)
ESPN: Holiday Bowl vs. Southern Cal (Kyle Bonagura)
Fox Sports: Holiday Bowl vs. Southern Cal (Bryan Fischer)
Sporting News: Gator Bowl vs. Texas A&M (Bill Bender)
USA TODAY: Holiday Bowl vs Utah (Erick Smith)
Yahoo Sports: Holiday Bowl vs. Southern Cal (Nick Bromberg)**
** Not updated through this weekend’s games
This story was originally published December 3, 2023 at 6:05 AM.
