Clemson at Texas: Picks, odds, kickoff time with Longhorns closely favored in Faculty Soccer Playoff recreation

Texas misplaced to Georgia in additional time within the SEC Championship Sport, however solely fell to No. 5 within the Faculty Soccer Playoff seeding. In consequence, the Longhorns get ACC champion Clemson within the first spherical and are the most important favourite of the spherical, opening at -10.5 factors.

No. 12 Clemson at No. 5 Texas

Venue: Darrell Ok. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium — Austin, Texas
Time: Saturday, Dec. 21, 4 p.m. ET
TV: TNT
Streaming: Max
Watching in-person? Get tickets on StubHub.

On paper, it is smart the 5-12 matchup can be the widest unfold of the bunch. That is the matchup that causes a ton of upsets within the faculty basketball event, however will that apply in faculty soccer as nicely?

These two groups have one thing in frequent in that they each made Georgia look good. For as up and down because the Bulldogs have been this season, Georgia’s 34-3 season-opening win towards Clemson and its 30-15 win in Texas are arguably the Bulldogs’ two greatest performances this 12 months. Texas regarded significantly better within the SEC title recreation, however nonetheless fell brief. Making use of the transitive property to varsity soccer is often a foolish concept, however the Longhorns have been much more aggressive, even the primary time round, than Clemson was towards Georgia.

Clemson is coming off its greatest win of the season although. The Tigers didn’t have a top-25 win earlier than taking down SMU within the ACC title recreation, a contest the Tigers wanted assist to even attain.

Humorous sufficient, which means Clemson has extra top-25 wins than Texas. The Longhorns completed the common season and not using a win towards a staff within the closing CFP rankings. Texas performed Michigan, Oklahoma, Vanderbilt and Texas A&M when these groups have been ranked within the AP High 25, however all of them fell out of the rankings by the tip of the season.

The Longhorns have been a part of the four-team area final 12 months and are the one staff of that group, which included Michigan, Washington and Alabama, to make the 12-team area this 12 months. On prime of that have, Texas has a dynamic receiving group, a veteran quarterback in Quinn Ewers (plus an uber-talented backup in Arch Manning) and the most effective defenses within the nation.

Texas is second within the nation in scoring protection (12.5 factors) and goes up towards a Clemson offense that ranks twelfth within the nation in whole yards per recreation (454.9). The Tigers have been a robust offense total however struggled towards the 2 different SEC groups on their schedule. Georgia held the Tigers to 3 factors, and South Carolina gained 17-14 at Clemson to shut out the common season.

That is the first-ever matchup between these two applications.