ESPN’s Football Power Index believes that the top-10 showdown between LSU and Clemson on Saturday night has the potential to go down to the wire.
The network’s FPI is giving No. 4 Clemson a slight edge in the showdown between tradition-rich SEC and ACC programs. It gives Dabo Swinney’s Tigers a 53.8% chance to outlast Brian Kelly’s Tigers in the primetime, national TV spotlight game on ABC that will kick off at 7:30 p.m. ET.
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The matchup will feature 2 of the top quarterbacks in the country, with Clemson’s Cade Klubnik going up against LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier. Both signal-callers are among the favorites to win the Heisman Trophy in December, and that journey to a possible Heisman will begin for both on a late August Saturday night in Clemson’s version of Death Valley.
The showdown will also tell the tale of which program that seeks to regain its championship glory of the recent past actually gets its 2025 season off on that championship path. Clemson made the College Football Playoff last season but was shown the door by Texas in the first round. Meanwhile, LSU is desperately trying to start a season with a victory for a change, after Kelly lost his season opener at LSU during his first 3 seasons there.
So, which Tigers who call their stadiums “Death Valley” will prevail under the lights at Clemson on Saturday night? ESPN’s FPI is giving Clemson the slight nod, but that also means that it’s giving LSU a 46.2% chance to get a titanic road victory to start the 2025 season.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
