Tigers set themselves up for playoffs

CLEMSON, S.C. — Clemson Coach Dabo Swinney put on a slideshow for his team this week with pictures of the College Football Playoff title site in Arizona and the White House, a privilege reserved for national champions. “The best is yet to come,” he said. The Tigers, who landed atop the first CFP rankings this week, took a huge step toward the playoffs with their 23-13 victory over No. 16 Florida State on Saturday.

“We won the Kentucky Derby tonight,” Swinney said. “But we want to win the Triple Crown.”

There was no dampening the party, though, for the thousands of orange-clad supporters who rushed the field to celebrate as the final seconds ticked off of Clemson’s 12th consecutive win. The scoreboard flashed “ACC Atlantic Division Champions” and the speakers blared the song, “I’m on top of the world.”

“I’ve been voting us No. 1 for three weeks,” Swinney said. “Y’all are just catching up.”

Swinney promised bigger parties ahead, but only if his players keep the same approach they have all year of focusing on the next opponent. No one’s sleeping on the Tigers (9-0, 6-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) now. They appear to have a glide path into the playoffs with games against Syracuse, Wake Forest and rival South Carolina — which have a combined record of 9-18. Clemson will be heavy favorites to defeat whoever comes from the ACC Coastal in their first league title game since 2011. It’s hard to imagine a scenario in which Clemson isn’t among the four playoff teams.

“We’re not worried about that now,” said Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson, who rallied the Tigers from a 10-6 halftime deficit with three long second-half scoring drives. “We’ve taken it game by game, prepared the same way and gotten these results.”

The loss all but eliminates Florida State from the college football playoffs.