Dabo Swinney will not be paying much attention, if any, when the first College Football Playoff rankings are announced on ESPN at 9 p.m. today.

“If it’s on down there in the PAW (Bistro), we’ll all watch it and enjoy our dinner,” Swinney said during his press conference Tuesday. “But it just doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter one bit.”

Clemson’s head coach pointed out that the CFP rankings will matter even less if the Tigers don’t win their next game against NC State at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh on Saturday.

“We lose to NC State, we’re going to celebrate, ‘Whoop, we were third in the poll.’ I don’t think so,” Swinney said. “All that will go away. So, we just need to focus on what we control. All that stuff is based on nine games and people’s opinions.”

After 10 weeks of the 2019 college football season, only seven unbeaten FBS schools remain: Clemson, Alabama, LSU, Ohio State, Penn State, Baylor and Minnesota.

At least two of those teams are guaranteed to lose this weekend, as Alabama and LSU play each other while Penn State and Minnesota square off as well.

So, Swinney knows his squad will be where it wants to be at the end of the season if it takes care of business in the next three regular season games and the ACC Championship game, assuming the Tigers (9-0, 6-0 ACC) make it there as expected.

“We’ll be in the conversation,” he said. “I have no idea where they’ll rank us, but I know this – there’s only seven undefeated teams left, and we’re one of them. So, we’ve got a chance if we stay focused and committed and do the things that win this time of year, and we’ll have a chance to be in the conversation.”

While Clemson is likely to be among the top four teams when the CFP selection committee’s initial rankings are unveiled Tuesday night, Swinney could not care less about where the Tigers are slotted.

“What if they tell us we’re number one tonight? We’re going to have a parade, a pizza party? We’re not having a pizza party,” he said. “It just doesn’t matter. If we’re two, three, four, 15 – it just doesn’t matter. It’s not worth the brain cells. We just go to work and try to have a good Wednesday practice tomorrow.”

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