Why a shortened or moved CFB season would hurt Clemson

Why a shortened or moved CFB season would hurt Clemson

The Clemson Tigers enter the 2020 season as one of the favorites to compete for a spot in the CFB Playoff and potentially win another National Title.

The Tigers have continuously been among the top programs in the country over the course of the last half-decade and this season will be no different, assuming we can have a season.

As we methodically approach the midway point of the month of July, decisions have to be made. College Football players have been on campus at their respective universities for close to a month now and time is ticking in terms of deciding what will happen in terms of a season.

While most officials are continuing to prepare as if the season will start on time and be played as normally as possible, many analysts (and even coaches and administrators) are growing more and more pessimistic about that happening.

At this point, two alternatives that have been heavily discussed are as follows:

1. Shortening the season by playing a conference-only schedule (or maybe one non-conference rivalry game)
2. Moving the season to the spring.

Neither of those options will be of benefit to Clemson, though.

The best option- from the simple football perspective- for Clemson is to play the season regularly

We have to take what we can get and I’m sure that the vast majority of Clemson football fans would agree that a shortened or moved season is better than a cancelled season.

That being said, neither of those two options would be beneficial for Clemson in its quest to winning another National Championship or continuing its run as the ‘King of College Football.’

Here’s why:

If we play a shortened season, Clemson would be punished for playing a ‘weak ACC schedule.’ The Tigers wouldn’t have the strength of schedule as teams in the SEC and Big Ten would be given the benefit of the doubt. If we did have a CFB Playoff, the Tigers would absolutely have to go undefeated to even be considered.

If we don’t have a CFB Playoff, a National Champion could be decided simply by the AP voters- the old-fashioned way- and that certainly wouldn’t bode well for the Tigers.

If we play a season in the spring, you run into two barricades: First, stars like Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne– who are expected to be first-round draft picks in the 2021 NFL Draft- aren’t going to play. That’s going to lead to younger players without experience getting on the field and not having the opportunity to develop as they would’ve had previously.

In addition to losing a final year with Lawrence and Etienne, a spring season could also bring into question the safety and health of the athletes. Are we really going to play a season that ends in April or May and then turn around and ask those student-athletes to play another full season beginning in late-August? It seems like a recipe for injury.

As we said earlier, we’ll have to take what we can get, but it’s clear that Clemson football would much rather play the season as regularly scheduled rather than seeing a major change.