No. 3 Clemson is looking to win its 28th consecutive game Saturday as it faces No. 23 Virginia for the ACC title in Charlotte. While the game has an extremely large point spread attached to it, this could be an interesting due to the late kickoff making it one of the last conference title games of the day. The stage could be set for Clemson to take care of business on its way to a College Football Playoff bid, but will Virginia have any opportunity at playing spoiler?
The Wahoos are actually the seventh team (out of seven) to win the ACC Coastal in as many years, completing a cycle that started with Duke in 2013 after the division was represented by either Virginia Tech or Georgia Tech for each of the first eight years of the game's existence. That should not matter much to their opponent on Saturday night.
Clemson enters the game looking to claim its fifth straight ACC title and fifth straight College Football Playoff bid, and the odds for both are looking good. But it would not be fitting of Clemson's "Championship Phase" to overlook the ACC title, especially when the program went 20 years without winning one between 1991 and 2011. Winning has become commonplace for a Clemson program that has just five combined losses since the start of 2015, but the glory of championships still means something to Tigers fans who remember days before this magical run.
Let's take a closer look at the storylines heading into Saturday night's showdown from Charlotte and make some picks both straight up and against the spread. Will Clemson complete an undefeated season and continue its roll of 30+ point victories?
Storylines
Clemson: Dabo Swinney sure has been feisty this week, alleging that "no one" wants to see Clemson play in the College Football Playoff and they've got to go "30-0" just to make the final four. While Swinney's tactics may be motivation for his own team, they stand in opposition to what most of the country has recognized about the Tigers. Clemson is simply one of the most complete and dominant teams in the entire country, ranking No. 4 nationally in yards per play on offense and No. 2 in yards per play allowed. They are the only team to rank in the top five on both sides of the ball and one of only three (the others being Ohio State and Utah) to rank in the top 10 on both offense and defense.
Clemson is such daunting an opponent that one of the most intriguing storylines of championship weekend is who will get the No. 1 seed for the sole reason that the No. 1 team will get to avoid having to playing the Tigers in the national semifinal.
Virginia: There was so much emotion packed into last week's season finale win against Virginia Tech. The Wahoos had not beaten the Hokies in 15 tries and to have the ACC Coastal on the line as well only put more pressure on the upperclassmen who have been following Bronco Mendenhall down a program-building path to championship contention.
Everything has been an upward trajectory for Mendenhall, winning two games in 2016, six games in 2017, eight games in 2018 with a 28-0 bowl win against South Carolina before leveling up one more time with nine wins and a Coastal Division title this season. The nine wins are already the most since 2007 and if it can win another, either against Clemson or in the bowl game, it would be Virginia's winningest season since 1989 under the leadership of George Welsh.
Viewing information
Date: Saturday, Dec. 7 | Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
Location: Bank of America Stadium -- Charlotte, North Carolina
TV: ABC | Live stream: WatchESPN.com
Game prediction, picks
Don't get in the way of the Tigers. No one in the country knows how to gameplan for a 15-game playoff season better than Clemson, and while championship form didn't show up in September, that's not how championships are won. Expect a complete performance led by the defense and two-time ACC Offensive Player of the Year Travis Etienne. Pick: Clemson (-28.5)
Who wins Virginia vs. Clemson? And what critical x-factor makes one side of the spread a must-back? Visit SportsLine now to see which side of the spread you should be all over Saturday, all from the football expert who is an incredible 95-57 on his picks this season.
