ESPN ranks Clemson football program in 150-year celebration

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College football is celebrating 150 years of the sport and that's brought a number of rankings and lists this month heading into the season. ESPN used its own metrics on Thursday to rank the best programs over that span..

Clemson's recent title run was enough to crack the top-25 all-time, at No. 24, and 18th-best among current FBS programs:

"Tigers fans might feel as if this race is being decided just as their program is warming up. The last decade under Dabo Swinney has far surpassed any sustained success that came before it. Clemson long toiled as the "football school" within the hoops-mad ACC. But as the power in intercollegiate athletics swung toward the best football programs, the ACC began to tilt toward Clemson, S.C. Swinney has taken the Tigers to heights of which John Heisman, Frank Howard, Jess Neely and Danny Ford -- to name four former Clemson coaches in the College Football Hall of Fame -- wouldn't even dream."

Alabama and its 15 national titles top the list, followed by Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Southern Cal.

Other regional rankings of note: Miami (17), Florida State (19), Georgia (22) and Georgia Tech (36).

The formula for the rankings was made up of national championships (20 percent of metric; weighted heavier at FBS level), winning percentage in best seasons (20 percent for best 50 seasons), winning percentage over the past 50 seasons (30 percent) and early modern (20 percent from 1919-1968) and pre-modern era winning percentage (10 percent from 1869-1918).

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