Julian Edlow shares college football betting analysis on Clemson to win the ACC in 2025.
After finishing first place in the ACC in five consecutive seasons from 2014 to 2019, Clemson hasn’t been the same national contender over the past five seasons. Since losing the 2019 National Championship Game to LSU, Clemson only has one first place finish in the ACC. The Tigers won the ACC Championship Game that season in a blowout over UNC, following a 10-2 regular season.
The other seasons during that span include three second place finishes and a sixth place finish in 2023 during the regular season. However, the Tigers have won three of the last five ACC Championship Games — totaling eight of the last 10. Clemson went 9-3 during the regular season in 2024, but upset SMU in the ACC Title Game to earn a College Football Playoff birth.
Now, Dabo Swinney and the Tigers look to build on that momentum in 2025, and they have the roster to do so. Many national outlets have Clemson ranked as a preseason top-five team in the country as of June. This should be the cream of the crop in the ACC, likely favored in all 12 games this season. Getting plus money on the Tigers to win the conference is terrific value, as it’s tough to image a scenario where they don’t at least make the title game, and they’d almost certainly be favored.
Clemson has a pair of SEC matchups, hosting LSU to begin the season and playing at South Carolina in the regular season finale. While those won’t matter towards ACC odds, those games will be terrific measuring sticks for the Tigers. Clemson dodges Miami on the regular season schedule, potentially setting up an exciting ACC Championship Game collision. The Tigers also play host to SMU and are priced as double-digit favorites. This team can run the table in the ACC, and should still have the wiggle room to be playing for the conference championship even if it slips up once.
The Tigers return 13 starters, so they’ll have an extremely experienced team. Swinney even used the transfer portal this time around, bringing in what we expect to be three more key contributors. Eight of those returning starters are on offense, including quarterback Cade Klubnik. Klubnik improved down the stretch last season, and projects as one of the best signal callers in the nation this season. It should help that a once slim WR room is now loaded with some of the best talent in the nation. Klubnik will also be protected by an elite offensive line that returns four starters.
On defense, Lindys ranks Clemson’s defensive line tops in the country. Between Lindys and Athlon’s positional rankings, Clemson is essentially top-10 at every position, outside of running back — which should amount to a plug-and-play position. And the elite positions grade as quarterback, wide receiver and D-line, all of which rank top-two in both magazines. In positional rankings by conference, the Tigers rank at the top of the charts in the ACC at everything but running back.
The bottom line is that this should be Dabo’s most dangerous team since Trevor Lawrence was under center. Backing Clemson at plus money to win the ACC won’t be around for long once we finally get a glimpse of what things look like on the field.
ACC Championship Game Winner: Clemson (+115) – 2.5-units
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