Dabo Swinney weighs in on Notre Dame playing partial ACC football schedule
As conference realignment continues to take place throughout college football, Notre Dame continues to play a partial ACC schedule.
The Irish are set to face five ACC teams per year for the next decade-plus as a part of their agreement with the league. Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney was asked at the 2023 ACC Football Kickoff event if Notre Dame playing a partial ACC schedule is good for Clemson and good for the league.
“I mean, I think anytime you can play good teams it’s good for you, regardless of if they’re in the league or not in the league,” Swinney said. “I think it’s great any time you can play great teams. Certainly Notre Dame is one of those teams.”
Clemson and Notre Dame have faced off five times since 2015, including last season, when the Irish earned a 35-14 win. The two programs are also set to meet again in 2023.
As for future games, the Tigers and Irish are scheduled to play in 2027, 2028, 2031, 2034 and 2037, in addition to this upcoming year.
Whether it be Notre Dame or another powerhouse program, Clemson has a simple philosophy as far as its scheduling. The Tigers play eight conference games, South Carolina and an additional Power 5 program out of conference each year. That means Clemson faces 10 Power 5 programs and two non-Power 5 programs annually.
“That’s kind of been our scheduling model since I got the job,” Swinney said. “We’ve tried to play 10 ‘all ins’ if you will. And we’ve tried to play one team from our state. And then another Group of 5 type of team. That’s kind of been our model for a long time. I know not everybody really subscribes to that, the 10 Power 5 type games.”
In addition to Notre Dame, Clemson also has upcoming out-of-conference matchups against Georgia and LSU over the next decade.
Dabo Swinney defends Clemson’s national relevancy ahead of 2023 to return to College Football Playoff
If Clemson is going to reach the College Football Playoff in 2023, it will likely need to beat Notre Dame to do so.
After making six straight College Football Playoff appearances, Clemson has missed out in back-to-back years. Fans became accustomed to seeing the Tigers on college football’s biggest stage, but has back-to-back seasons without the orange and white caused Clemson to fall out of national relevancy as regular title contenders? Tigers’ head coach Dabo Swinney addressed the topic at ACC Media Days.
“Listen, people talk about Clemson,” Swinney said. “We’ve had 12 really, really good years in a row. Some great years in there. It’s hard to get to a final four when there’s 133 teams trying to do it. We’ve been there as much as anybody.”
Swinney has turned the Clemson program around in a major way since taking the reins of the program in 2008, initially as an interim head coach. Since then, he’s led the Tigers to eight ACC Championships and six College Football Playoff appearances.
The Tigers have lost just two semifinal games in the College Football Playoff under Swinney, leading them to a national championship appearance in four of their playoff runs and walking away with national championships in the 2016 and 2018 seasons.
But attaining championship dominance does come with consequences, the main one being facing the critics if that high bar of championship success is not met.
“If not going eight years in a row means we stink, well, I guess we stink, but maybe we can get back there this year and be able to say we went seven out of the last nine years,” Swinney said. “That would be a pretty cool accomplishment.”