CHARLOTTE - Dabo Swinney is excited. The goals for his Clemson Tigers are the same as they've been for years.
That means being here today for the ACC Championship was on Clemson's preseason Bingo card. That's an expectation when you've won seven league titles since 2011.
Likewise for earning a spot in the College Football Playoff.
The first version of the CFP kicked off without Clemson in the inaugural four-team party. But then six consecutive years ticked by with the Tigers taking part and twice taking home the sport's ultimate prize. You can't have so many different episodes of Clemson vs. Alabama, a rivalry that defined the 2010s, without being in the field to begin with.
So, yeah, suiting up at Bank of America Stadium with those familiar goals on the line seems pretty typical.
"This is the first round of the playoff for us," Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. "That's how we have to look at it. This is a goal. The season is over. Now you're into the postseason, and you're where you wanted to be. Doesn't really matter what's happened behind you. It's all about this opportunity."
He's right and he's wrong. Things are the same, yet different.
No doubt everything boils down to this singular opportunity for No. 17 Clemson (9-3, 7-1 ACC). A win today over eighth-ranked SMU (11-1, 8-0) will be the Tigers' 22nd ACC title and send them back to the CFP for the first time since 2020.
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It's a proposition Clemson has faced so many times over the past decade when a nearly flawless - if not perfect - record was required for a CFP spot. A four-team playoff field is incredibly small when you look at it from 10,000 feet.
But the Tigers have been anything but perfect over the past 14 weeks, even if they are back in such a familiar position.
First-world living
Clemson isn't sniffing a CFP berth in any other year prior to this one, the first with a 12-team field.
There's a real possibility that playoff dreams are tanked coming out of the gate thanks to a 34-3 opening loss to Georgia. Any hopes would've been obliterated after losing to Louisville in Week 10; laughable by the time South Carolina beat Clemson to end the regular season.
And, even with all that, the Tigers wouldn't still wouldn't be here if Miami hadn't thrown up on itself last week in the Carrier Dome. There's been much love expressed between TigerNation and Syracuse over the past few days.
Without the Orange, there is no win-and-you're-in scenario against the Mustangs. Folks in Clemson would be eyeing bowl destinations with or without an ACC title. San Diego and Orlando sure are lovely this time of year, though even sunshine in December would still feel kind of bleak, all things considered.
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That's the feeling you get when you've fallen short of maintaining a standard of your own setting. Better yet, as Swinney said Friday, when "you're in a place like Clemson and you lose a game, people can lose their minds."
There have been more moments of temporary insanity in Tigertown over the past few years than there was for nearly an entire decade. That's how ingrained achieving those two goals have become in Clemson's culture.
Last year was the Tigers' first season without at least 10 wins since 2010, and their third straight without a CFP berth after making six in a row. It's preseason ranking of 14th was Clemson's lowest since being 16th to start the 2014 season.
First-world problems, for sure, but that's where Clemson has lived. And now it has a chance to return back to that kind of life, though the circumstances aren't exactly the same.
Maybe that's why Swinney sounded downright giddy on Friday discussing the game with the upstart Mustangs and everything tethered to it. He cherishes this opportunity, even in a three-loss year, as much as any other during championship seasons.
Or perhaps even more so.
The ring's the thing
Maybe it's because one narrative that lingers over all things Clemson is Swinney's way of doing things.
Right or wrong, his words on this topic or that topic are often analyzed and criticized; labeling him as the youngest old man in football or merely a curmudgeon who refuses to adapt with the times. The irony is "transfer portal" and "Dabo" regularly seem handcuffed with each other because of how often they're lumped together. Go figure.
And, while he doesn't remain silent, he doesn't necessarily venture out of his way to defend how he goes about things or his legacy.
Swinney really couldn't care less about that and has said as much. Where the program is now as opposed to where it was when he took over 15 years, 179 victories and two national titles ago speaks for him.
His titles put him in rare company historically and in present day. Georgia's Kirby Smart is the only other guy still working with a title.
Either man could be the face of college football now that Nick Saban is retired if they chose to do so. Neither, however, seems really interested.
Still, playing for another another national title would surely carry more weight this time around for Swinney whether he admits it or not. First, it would give him one more championship than Smart.
But he also knows what's said, he realizes the pushback he gets.
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And it would remind people that no one complained when the Tigers were regularly achieving those two big milestones under his direction.
"We've got two goals left, win the ACC and win the closer - that's it," Swinney said. "If we hit them, nobody can do anything about that. We hit those two goals, we'll be a national champion. That's exciting."
It should be exciting. Even a three-loss national champ that backed into a 12-team playoff is still a national champion.
And it doesn't really matter how they got there.