Alabama The two
southern schools have long, decorated histories in the sport of college football. They first met on the football field on November 29, 1900. Clemson won the inaugural matchup by a score of 35–0. The Crimson Tide and Tigers met again in 1904 and 1905, with Clemson winning both games. Beginning with the next meeting between the two squads in 1909, Alabama won the next thirteen matchups against Clemson. In the first seven games of Alabama's 13-game streak, Clemson only scored seven total points and was shut out in six of the seven games. The Tide emerged victorious with a 34–10 victory. The last four matchups between the squads have had national championship implications and have greatly re-intensified the rivalry. The teams squared off in the
2016 College Football Playoff National Championship in
Glendale, Arizona, resulting in Alabama emerging with a thrilling 45–40 victory. The next year, the teams again found themselves doing battle in the
2017 College Football Playoff National Championship in
Tampa, Florida, with Clemson emerging with a last-second 35–31 victory and their first win over the Crimson Tide since 1905. Once again the teams met in the
2018 Sugar Bowl semifinal in
New Orleans, Louisiana with a trip to the
2018 College Football Playoff National Championship game on the line. Alabama won by a score of 24–6 following two costly Clemson interceptions in the second half. Their most recent meeting was in the
2019 College Football Playoff National Championship. This time, Clemson dismantled the No. 1-ranked Crimson Tide in a 44–16 rout to win its third national title. Alabama leads the series 14–5 through the 2023 season.
Auburn These old rivals (which are often called sister schools) first played in 1899, but until 2010, had not faced each other in the regular season since 1971. Along with snapping a 14-game losing streak to the Tigers of the Plains, Clemson also snapped Auburn's 17-game winning streak coming off of the 2009–2011 seasons after a home-and-home series in the 2010–11 seasons. The
Georgia Dome then hosted the Auburn–Clemson rivalry the following year in the 2012
Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game. Clemson defeated Auburn 26–19 riding on a 231-yard performance by
Andre Ellington. This game was notable due to
Sammy Watkins' absence, having been suspended the first two games due to a drug-related arrest in May 2012. Auburn leads the overall series 34–15–2 through the 2018 season.
Boston College The O'Rourke–McFadden Trophy was created in 2008 by the Boston College Gridiron Club to honor the tradition at both schools and to honor the legacy of
Charlie O'Rourke and
Banks McFadden, who played during the leather helmet era. The club plans to make this an annual presentation. Clemson first met Boston College on the football field in the 1940
Cotton Bowl Classic, the first ever bowl game for the Tigers and Eagles. Over the next 43 years, the teams met a total of 14 times. In 2005, Boston College joined the ACC and the Atlantic Division. Since then, the game has been played on an annual basis with Clemson winning the last 11 meetings. As of 2022 the Tigers lead the series 21–9–2.
Florida State Between 1999 and 2007 the ACC Atlantic Division matchup between Clemson and Florida State was referred to as the "Bowden Bowl" to reflect the father-son head coach matchup between
Bobby Bowden (Father, FSU) and
Tommy Bowden (Son, Clemson). Their first meeting, in 1999, was the first time in Division I-A history that a father and a son met as opposing head coaches in a football game. Bobby Bowden won the first four matchups extending FSU's winning streak over Clemson to 11 dating back to 1992. Since 2003, Clemson is 11–6, including a 26–10 win in Clemson over then-No. 3 FSU. Also during this time the Tigers recorded a 27–20 win in
Tallahassee in 2006 which broke a 17-year losing streak in
Doak Campbell Stadium. 2007 was the last Bowden Bowl game as Tommy resigned as head coach in October 2008. No. 3 Clemson pulled off a thriller in Tallahassee in 2016, 37–34, over the No. 12-ranked Seminoles. In 2018, No. 2 Clemson defeated Florida State in Tallahassee 59–10, which tied the Seminoles' worst loss margin in history. This marked a 2nd time the Tigers have beaten the Seminoles by more than 17-points. Clemson did it again in 2019, beating FSU 45–14. FSU has defeated Clemson by more than 17-points nine times. The most lopsided contest occurred in 1993, with the FSU squad winning 57–0. As of 2022, Florida State leads the overall series 20–15. Before the dissolution of divisions in ACC Football as of 2023, the annual Clemson-Florida State game often decided which team would represent the Atlantic Division in the ACC Championship. However, under the ACC's new scheduling system, Clemson and Florida State are designated as permanent rivals and will continue to compete for the title every year. Because of the new ACC scheduling system, there is a chance these rivals could face each other a second time in the ACC Championship.
Georgia The Bulldogs and the Tigers have played each other 64 times beginning in 1897, with the 64th meeting played in 2014. Clemson's only regular-season losses of the 1978, 1982, and 1991 campaigns all came at the hands of Georgia "between the hedges", whereas Georgia's only regular-season setback during the three years of the
Herschel Walker era came in Death Valley during
Danny Ford's 1981 national championship run. During the two programs' simultaneous glory days of the early 1980s, no rivalry in all of college football was more important at the national level. The Bulldogs and Tigers played each other every season from 1973 to 1987, with Scott Woerner's dramatic returns in 1980 and the nine turnovers forced by the Tigers in 1981 effectively settling the eventual national champion. No rivalry of that period was more competitive, as evidenced by the critical 11th-hour field goals kicked by Kevin Butler in 1984 and by David Treadwell more than once later in the decade. Despite blowouts in 1990 by the Tigers and in 1994 and 2003 by the Bulldogs, the series typically has remained very competitive with evenly matched games. Most recently, Georgia defeated Clemson 10–3 in the
2021 Duke's Mayo Classic with neither team scoring an offensive touchdown; Georgia went on to win the national title in 2021. The Bulldogs maintains a 43–18–4 lead in the series.
Georgia Tech Clemson's rivalry with Georgia Tech dates to 1898 with the first game being played in
Augusta, Georgia. Notably, both programs share the privilege of having
John Heisman as a former coach. It was played in Atlanta for 44 of the first 47 match-ups, until Georgia Tech joined the ACC. When the Yellowjackets joined the ACC in 1978, the series moved to a more traditional home-and-home setup beginning with the 1983 game. When the ACC expanded to 12 teams and split into two divisions in 2005, Clemson and Georgia Tech were placed in opposite divisions but were designated permanent cross-divisional rivals so that the series may continue uninterrupted. In the new system without divisions, they remain as such. The two schools are 127 miles apart and connected to each other by
Interstate 85. This distance is slightly closer than that between Clemson and traditional rival South Carolina (137 miles). Georgia Tech leads the series 50–35–2 with Clemson winning the last 8 in a row.
NC State The yearly conference and divisional match-up with
NC State is known as the
Textile Bowl for the schools' similar missions in research and development for the textile industry in the Carolinas. The first meeting of the two schools occurred in 1899. Clemson has won 18 out of 23 contests since 2000. It is a particularly bitter rivalry amongst fans and students of both schools, even though it is not as competitive as the vitriol would suggest, though statistically more competitive than the rivalries with Alabama, Auburn, Boston College and Georgia. Clemson holds a 60–30–1 series advantage through the 2023 season. NC State has won 2 out of the last 3 games in the rivalry.
South Carolina The
Clemson–South Carolina rivalry, which dates back to 1896, is the largest annual sporting event in terms of ticket sales in the state of South Carolina. From 1896 to 1959, the Clemson–South Carolina game was played on the fairgrounds in Columbia, South Carolina and was referred to as "Big Thursday." Beginning in 1960, an alternating-site format was implemented using both teams' home stadiums. The annual game has since been designated "The Palmetto Bowl." The last eight contests between the programs have been nationally televised (4 on ESPN, 4 on ESPN2). Clemson holds a 73–44-4 lead in the series through the 2024 season. It is often considered one of the most heated rivalries in all of college football, on a similar level to the
Auburn-Alabama and
Ohio State-Michigan rivalries, respectively. ==Individual award winners==