Paul Finebaum: Anti-Dabo Swinney bias impacted Clemson’s preseason ranking

The Clemson Tigers are heading into the 2025 season with expectations that they can compete for not just the ACC but a national championship. Those expectations come despite what had previously seemed to be a program slipping from the ranks of the elite under Dabo Swinney.

With the preseason Coaches’ Poll out, Clemson comes in at sixth in those rankings. That’s a little lower than analyst Paul Finebaum believes they deserve, and as he explained on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning, he believes that a bias against Swinney has led to that slip in the rankings.

“A couple of things,” Paul Finebaum said. “It’s really their first game last year, I don’t think has left a lot of people’s minds. When they were just ransacked by Georgia. Losing at home against South Carolina also didn’t help. They didn’t get as much credit as they deserved for pulling off that win against SMU. Their Playoff game against Texas was okay. I mean, on a day of multiple blowouts, it was at least interesting. And I think there’s also a bias against Dabo Swinney right now.”

Dabo Swinney took over at Clemson in 2008. Since then, he’s found more than a little success, leading the Tigers to two national championships. However, he’s also fallen under criticism in recent seasons. In particular, for how he’s built his roster in the modern era, largely without using the Transfer Portal. Even as he’s adapted and begun to use it, it’s still less than many other coaches dip into it for transfers. Add in some recent struggles compared to past Clemson teams, and Finebaum believes it created a bias.

“Instead of giving credit… and I’ve come around. I was one of those critics of Dabo a couple of years ago, as almost everyone was. He has just shut the noise out and he has built this roster back to where it’s one of the better ones in college football. So, I think you add in all those things,” Finebaum said. “And people go, ‘Well, I can’t put them ahead of Georgia,’ because they lost to Georgia. ‘I can’t put them ahead of this team. I can’t put them ahead of that team.’ And that’s how they end up where they are.”

While Clemson opens at sixth in the Coaches’ Poll, the AP Poll has not yet announced its preseason rankings. With others, there seems to be a mixed feeling about Clemson. The expectation is that the Tigers are going to be good, but it’s a question of how good they can possibly be.

“I think that does factor into it,” Finebaum said. “But, to me, and I try to examine myself when I talk about Dabo Swinney because he was so easy to count out. By the way, we weren’t counting him out as a good coach. We weren’t counting him out as a good program. We were counting him out as that successor to the [Nick] Saban dynasty, so to speak. Because they did slip. They’re back where they were really eight or nine years ago. For a lot of reasons. Great defense, but also a difference maker at quarterback.”

Dabo Swinney and Clemson will quickly have the opportunity to prove their doubters wrong this season. The Tigers open by hosting LSU in one of the premier non-conference battles of the 2025 season.