Dabo Swinney discusses 'great opportunity' ACC has vs. SEC teams to change perception of league

The ACC is making plenty of noise away from the football field with the additions of Stanford, Cal and SMU. The league is hoping to make some noise on the field this weekend in out of conference games.

There will be three ACC vs. SEC matchups this weekend as Virginia and Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina and Florida State and LSU will face off in Week 1.

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney views this as a chance for the ACC to make a statement about the strength of the league.

“I mean, a great opportunity — for sure,” Swinney said. “The only way you change, perceptions, if you will, is you’ve got to beat people, you know.”

Swinney worked hard to change the way Clemson is viewed in the college football landscape, but it didn’t happen overnight.

It took the Tigers winning multiple big-time matchups to start getting respect. Yes, Clemson won a pair of national titles by knocking off Alabama in 2016 and 2018, but the Tigers also won their share of regular season games against SEC programs. That includes meetings with Georgia, Auburn and Texas A&M in the past decade.

“It was the perception about Clemson for a long time until we started beating people. And then they had to come up with something different. But you know, you can’t beat people if you don’t play those games, right?” Dabo Swinney said. “So that’s why I was always a big proponent early on to [former Clemson AD] Terry Don [Phillips], like, ‘Go play these games. We’re gonna win some. We’ll lose some. But man, we need to play them, because this is an opportunity to do something on the field.”

Clemson will be playing an in-conference matchup this weekend as the Tigers face off against Duke. But elsewhere, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida State have a chance to make some noise and show the strength of the ACC.

“It’s a great opportunity for all the teams that get these big out of conference type openers, or conference openers, right out of the gate,” Swinney said.

Clemson will get a chance to show what it can do as an ACC team in out of conference play later in the year.

The Tigers will host Notre Dame on Nov. 4 as they look to avenge last year’s loss in South Bend. Clemson will have a chance to avenge another out of conference loss to end the regular season. The Tigers will face South Carolina in Columbia on Nov. 25. The Gamecocks ended Clemson’s 40-game home winning streak last November.