Yeah, it was a pretty big game even at the time.

Nobody knew Clemson would have the season(s) they were about to have, but they were #12, we were #6 and College Gameday was there. It was a big deal. That's in contrast to, for example, 2013 Michigan State, when they were unranked and we were #22 at the time of the game and it was a bore.

I do think end of season ranking is more important in judging an opponent, but "time of game" has a bit of a place too, as far as managing hype/emotions/the big stage. Probably like a 70/30 split to me in terms of determining how big a win ends up being (and of course, games near the end of the season have less variance between those two variables).