Greg McElroy explains why Clemson vs. LSU is a Top 10 non-conference game in 2025

Greg McElroy ranked the top non-conference games on the schedule for the 2025 college football season. He believes the Week 1 showdown where LSU will travel to face Clemson is among the best.

The former NFL quarterback took some time to explain his reasoning during the latest episode of Always College Football with Greg McElroy. McElroy believes LSU at Clemson is the second-best non-conference game on the schedule, only behind Ohio State–Texas.

“Moving next to the second best non-conference game of the 2025 schedule, it’s LSU at Clemson,” McElroy proclaimed. “I think Clemson is a legitimate national championship contender. They have their quarterback back. They’ve got tremendous skill. The offensive line should be excellent. Defensively, they have great players back at all three levels.

“Moving over to the LSU side, Garrett Nussmeier comes back, and there’s people that have been surrounding the LSU program, those that have been talking about LSU, being around the team and the players — they feel like this could be the year where Brian Kelly really breaks through. Nussmeier, like I referenced, he’s now back in his second year as the starting quarterback. They’ve gone to the portal, they’ve adequately replaced several spots that needed to be replaced.

“They’re going to be great at wide receiver. Should be pretty good along the offensive line and at running back. Then defensively, second year in Blake Baker’s system, will they have a couple of tricks up their sleeve against Cade Klubnik, and what should be a high powered offense for the Clemson Tigers? LSU travels from their Death Valley to Clemson’s Death Valley. That should be one of the best games of the college football season.”

It’s easy to see why there’s so much anticipation for the showdown between some of the best in the SEC and the ACC. Both LSU and Clemson have College Football Playoff aspirations. A loss wouldn’t sink those, but a win would add a ton of credibility to their resume throughout the season.

These two teams have only met four times in their history, with LSU winning three of four. Their most recent showdown was in January of 2020, when Joe Burrow led his team to an undefeated, national title-winning season, capped off with a win over Trevor Lawrence and Clemson.

Time will tell who’s victorious this time around. Regardless, LSU at Clemson should be a tremendous game when the time comes, and we can’t wait until Aug. 30 for it all to go down.