College Football 2019: Where to Watch Wake Forest vs. Clemson, TV Channel, Live Stream and Odds

By Dan Cancian On 11/16/19 at 6:30 AM EST

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Alabama's loss last week was Clemson's gain. The Crimson Tide's 46-41 home defeat to LSU saw them drop down from third to fifth in the College Football Playoff rankings, while the Tigers took the opposite route.

The CFP committee's singled out Clemson's relatively easy schedule as the main factor behind its decision to leave the reigning national champions out of the four playoff spots in the first ranking of the season last week.

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The omission left many puzzled, particularly as the Tigers were 9-0 and on a 24-game winning streak.

Trevor Lawrence passed for 276 yards and three touchdowns and Travis Etienne rushed for 112 yards and two scores as Clemson extended the run to 25 games with a 55-10 rout of North Carolina State last Saturday, climbing up to third in the CFP rankings behind LSU and Ohio State.

The Tigers' 10 straight win this season clinched a fifth consecutive divisional title and also propelled them back into the top three of The Associated Press Top 25 poll for the first time since Week 7.

The 25-game winning run is already the longest streak in the program's history and the second-longest in ACC history but Tigers coach Dabo Swinney remains hungry for more records.

A home win against Wake Forest on Saturday would see them become only the 22nd team in college football's 150-year history to win 26 consecutive games.

The 2019 senior class could improve to 30-2 in regular season ACC games, matching the 2018 seniors as the most successful class in school history in regular season matchups against conference rivals with 30 wins—and 52 overall.

"It seems like it's a new record every week," Swinney said in his press conference on Tuesday.

"We got to 10-0 last week and got another division title. The seniors have a chance to get a 52nd win this weekend. To get a 22nd straight home win, which would be a school record, would be awesome. [...] It's amazing. These guys take pride in what they're doing."

Wake Forest debuted at No.19 in the first set of CFP rankings of the season, but has fallen out of the Top 25 in both the CFP rankings and the AP Poll after suffering a surprise 36-17 loss on the road to Virginia Tech.

The loss dropped the Deamon Deacons to 7-2, second in the ACC Atlantic behind Clemson, but Swinney warned his players against underestimating the danger poised by their divisional rivals.

"Wake Forest is a tough team," he explained.

"They've had a heck of a season. [...] They're very impressive. They're unbelievably well-coached. That would be an understatement. They do an awesome job with their scheme."

The Demon Deacons are Clemson's last home game of the regular season, with the Tigers closing their campaign on the road against South Carolina on November 30.

Neither the Demon Deacons nor the Gamecocks are ranked, meaning Clemson has limited opportunities to impress the CFP committee before Selection Sunday on December 8.

The situation is further complicated by the fact neither Virginia nor Virginia Tech—the Tigers' most likely opponents in the ACC Championship Game—are ranked.

To offset a less than stellar schedule, Clemson has racked up impressive scores of late. The Tigers have scored 50 or more points five this season, including in the last three straight games and have won their games by an average margin of 41.5-point since beating North Carolina by a point at the end of September.

Clemson thrashed Wake Forest 63-3 when the two teams met a year ago and a repeat of that performance would keep the Tigers in the top four of the CFP rankings for another week at least.

Here's all you need to know ahead of Saturday.