Don’t try and tell Dabo Swinney that South Carolina has a tougher schedule than Clemson because he isn’t buying it.

During his recent appearance at the College Football Hall of Fame, where he was set to accept the NFF MacArthur Bowl on behalf of the defending national champions, Swinney was asked to share his thoughts on those saying the Tigers have an easier schedule than their in-state rival, South Carolina.

If you were unaware, South Carolina’s schedule has been rated as the toughest in the nation by ESPN’s Football Power Index.

“I couldn’t disagree more with how you phrased the question. There’s no lack of competition in our league,” Swinney said in a YouTube video posted by Clemson Insider. “There’s a reason we’ve won two out of the last three national championships and it’s not because we don’t play anybody. We’ve played everybody. We’ve played Alabama three times in national championships. We’ve played Ohio State, Oklahoma, we play Texas A&M, we play South Carolina every year.

“Our league, I think we had 11 bowl teams this year, 10 the year before, 11 the year before that. Our league is incredibly competitive and deep.”

While Swinney certainly isn’t willing to go as far as to say the ACC is as good or better than the SEC, he’s confident in his belief that the Tigers play in the at worst the second-best league in the country. In addition to the ACC schedule his team annually plays, Swinney also points to the two SEC programs his team is slated to play in 2019.

“The reason we have been successful is how our league prepares us,” Swinney added. “And then we step out of our league and play people, for example, we play Texas A&M, we play South Carolina.”

Clemson certainly hasn’t been shy about scheduling opponents as the five upcoming games against Georgia prove. While it’s debatable how the ACC matches up against the SEC, you have to at least give the Tigers credit for scheduling multiple games against Power 5 non-conference opponents, that’s something few schools commit to doing.