There’s still a way for Clemson football to play in South Carolina this season
There is still a spot that would allow the Clemson football team to play against its rival in the state during the 2020 season, if only the two conferences allowed.
Pac-12 announced on Thursday afternoon that it would reverse the course of its decision before the start of the season and allow its member institutions to schedule games outside the conference in the event that a game is canceled at the conference.
What we’ve seen over the past few weeks is an influx of games across the country (15 FBS games in total were canceled or postponed last week and the same total was eliminated from this week’s list) due to outbreaks in some programs.
The SEC and ACC began postponing the games until December 12 – an open date embedded for all teams at conferences – and even some games are being moved to December 19 – the conference championship date.
All of these cancellations and postponements created some holes in the schedule as college football moves on in hopes of ending the season and at least having a CFB Playoff.
Could these cancellations somehow bring Clemson football and South Carolina to the forefront of a showdown?
We have already seen conferences turn the tide, change decisions and take completely different paths throughout this year, so don’t tell me it is not possible.
The ACC had a rule in place that member institutions could play a game outside the conference (Clemson played The Citadel earlier this year) and the SEC has a rule that states that teams cannot play any games outside the conference.
But what if the Tigers and Gamecocks arrived the week of December 12 unharmed? We are not saying that it is likely with the amount of outbreaks that we have seen across the country, but let yourself imagine very quickly: what if?
While the vast majority of the ACC and SEC teams would be inventing games from the beginning of the season, Clemson and South Carolina would have played a full schedule. What about those SEC teams that can’t reschedule a game for December 12th and are disconnected? Don’t you think there could be a little pressure on the SEC’s path to allow an opponent not belonging to the conference as a way for some of these schools to make up for lost revenue due to the fact that a game is not able to be played at all? It is certainly possible.
Would the ACC really say no to Clemson’s football if the Tigers asked for an appeal to play against the state’s rival after completing its regular season candidate list?
We are not saying it is likely. We are not even saying that there is a 5% chance of this happening. But the prospect of Clemson and South Carolina having an open date at the end of their seasons while their colleagues are playing makeup games makes the conversation intriguing.
The fans would love it. The revenue can be divided equally. And it would keep the country’s second largest continuous sequence intact.
If Clemson is playing the ACC championship game – as it should be – Tigers can choose to just take the week off to rest anyway – and that is something that should certainly be considered – but something tells me that the competitor in Dabo Swinney I definitely love doing this work.
Will this happen? It is unlikely. It’s more of a dream than anything else, but it presents an intriguing proposal for Clemson’s football fans to keep their eyes on as we progress through the rest of this month and through December.
The SEC will probably be very stubborn anyway, but that’s still fun to think about from a fan’s perspective.