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Clemson Dominates ACC, Earns Fifth-Straight CFP Birth

Lawrence Davis III @LawDavis13 @SpecMagSports

CHARLOTTE, NC – Defending national champion Clemson dominated Virginia 62-17 Saturday night to capture their fifth-straight ACC Championship. The Tigers are the only program in NCAA history to win a conference championship five years in-a-row since the beginning of conference championship games in 1992. 

Trevor Lawrence finished the game 16-for-22 with 302 yards and four touchdowns (new ACC record). Running back Travis Ettiene ran for 114 yards on 14 carries and a touchdown. Wide receiver Tee Higgins had nine receptions for 182 yards and three touchdowns (ACC record). Clemson‘s offense racked up 621 total yards of offense which is also a new ACC Championship record. 

According to sources, Clemson’s eight-game winning streak by 30+ points is the longest such streak in the AP era

Clemson’s return to the College Football Playoff for the fifth consecutive year highlighted a Sunday in which the Atlantic Coast Conference landed a nation-leading 10 bowl bids.

The five-time ACC Champion Tigers (13-0) are No. 3 in the CFP Top 25 poll and will face No. 2 Ohio State (13-0) in the CFP Semifinal at the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona, at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 28.

If the Tigers advance past the Buckeyes, they will face No. 1 LSU (13-0) or No. 4 Oklahoma (12-1) for the CFP National Championship at 8 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 13, in New Orleans.

Clemson is bidding for the program’s fourth national football championship and the fourth by an ACC team in the last seven seasons.

Both CFP semifinals and the national championship game will be carried live by ESPN.

Clemson’s five overall CFP selections tie Alabama for the most of any school in the six-year history of the Playoff’s existence. The ACC has placed a team in the Playoff in each of those six years. The Tigers earned the No. 1 seed in 2015 and in 2017 and were the No. 2 seed in 2016 and 2018. Florida State was seeded No. 3 as the conference champion in 2014.

Clemson and Ohio State also met in the Fiesta Bowl as part of the 2016 CFP Semifinal, where the No. 2 Tigers blanked the No. 3 Buckeyes 31-0.

The ACC is one of just two conferences that has placed a team in the CFP or the BCS Championship in each of the last seven years.

Since 2013, the ACC is second among all conferences with 75 postseason appearances in addition to leading in national championships with three.

Sunday also saw ACC Coastal Division Champion Virginia (9-4) accept an invitation to play Florida in the 2019 Capital One Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. That game is scheduled to kick off on Monday, Dec. 30, at 8 p.m.