Clemson No. 1 in first College Football Playoff Top 25

Coincidental though it may be, there’s magic in the fact that the Florida State game comes four days after the College Football Playoff committee ranked Clemson No. 1 in its first top 25 for 2015.

“Some games always have a little extra juice to them and this one has been a game that has been huge for both teams for many years,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said Tuesday. The defending national champion a year ago, Florida State was selected for the first four-team playoff. “If we want to have an opportunity to do that, you’ve got to win this game. You’ve got to find a way to beat these guys, and that’s easier said than done.”

LSU, Ohio State and Alabama completed the first four.

Clemson was last ranked No. 1 in the final polls of the 1981 season. Committee chair Jeff Long, athletics director at Arkansas, said Clemson’s performance through eight games including the wins over Notre Dame – ranked No. 5 – and three other teams with .500 records merited the current ranking.

Last season, Florida State was the only holdover from the first week to the final ranking with Mississippi State, Auburn and Ole Miss eventually falling out, replaced by Alabama, Oregon and Ohio State.

After beating N.C. State for their eighth win, Swinney said he embraced the opportunity to compete on the big stage. During his weekly news briefing, he joked that none of it mattered, “unless they’re going to give me an exemption like a pass.”

“You know, like in golf you win a tournament and just don’t even have to play, just show up for the Masters,” he said. “Maybe that would be a great addition. (When) the first poll comes out, if you’re in the top four, you get two mulligans or something. Unless they do something like that, I don’t care.”

Florida State, ranked 16^th, has been the yardstick since entering the ACC in 1992, displacing Clemson after the program’s most successful decade. One or the other has won the ACC Atlantic Division title each season since 2008.

The series evolved into a full-blown rivalry during the Bowden years with father coaching against son. Each team won half of the last 12 games, and the home team has won 11 of the last 13.

Top-ranked a year ago, Florida State held serve at home, 23-17, in overtime after Clemson missed several scoring opportunities.

“All losses are tough,” Swinney said. “Man, those things kind of stick out.

“That’s just life. You have good days and bad days,” he said. “Life is about how you respond.

“We went on to win 9 out of 10. In fact, we’ve won 17 out of 18 since that time.”

A new top 25 will be revealed each Tuesday through November with the final choices announced Dec. 6 after the ACC Championship. Swinney said the team was “honored” by the consideration, but Florida State stands between Clemson and the championship game in Charlotte.

“The only poll that we’re excited about is Dec. 6, and I promise you we’ll have the biggest poll party you’ve ever seen,” he said. “We’ll open up Death Valley and serve pizza to everybody and just have a poll party on Dec. 6.

“That’ll be a time to celebrate a poll, but until then it just doesn’t matter, because you’ve got to earn your way there. You got to go win the games. You don’t get any passes.”

This story was originally published November 3, 2015 at 7:14 PM.