The pros & cons of Clemson football playing a conference-only schedule
The 2020 Clemson football team enters the season as one the favorites to win the National Championship, but there are still major hurdles to jump simply for a season to be played.
The Big Ten made an announcement earlier this week that it would canceling all of its non-conference games and playing a conference-only model during the 2020 fall season.
Since that point, many reports have said that the other Power-5 conferences are looking to do something similar, though it’s unclear exactly what at this point. The ACC and SEC have remained adamant that they’d like to keep their in-state rivalries and the Big 12 unanimously said that they’d be in favor of playing a full 12-game schedule, though things can still change.
If the ACC did decide to go to a conference-only model, though, here’s a look at the biggest pros and cons for Clemson football, beginning with the cons.
Cons
- Less games, obviously
- It could mean loss of rivalry game with South Carolina
- The overall perception of the ACC would hurt Clemson in its attempt to secure a CFB Playoff berth
- On those same lines, a single loss could mean elimination from the CFB Playoff.
The major cons for Clemson football playing an ACC-only schedule- other than the simple fact that you’d be losing games- is that the Tigers would be hurt by the ACC’s perception. A loss in the ACC may very well mean no CFB Playoff berth no matter what the Tigers do the rest of the season.
Also, everyone wants the South Carolina game to be played (and we’ll touch on this in the ‘pros’ section, as well), but moving to a conference-only model could very well spell the end for the rivalry, which has been played annually for more than a century.
Pros
- Notre Dame is still going to be included
- The ACC could work out a package with the SEC to keep in-state rivalries
- It could mean adding another exciting game to the slate
- In the end, football is football.
First, let’s talk about the two most prominent games on the current schedule: Notre Dame and South Carolina.
John Swofford has already said that the ACC would help Notre Dame out with scheduling games if it went to a conference-only model and that means the game with the Fighting Irish would still be on for the Tigers. In addition, there has been talk about the ACC and SEC searching for ways to keep their in-state rivalry games and I think that’s more likely to happen than not, assuming we’re able to have a season.
In addition, this also could mean adding another exciting conference opponent- like UNC, Virginia Tech or Miami- to the Clemson football schedule.
More so than anything else, if we’re playing a conference-only schedule, it means one thing: We’re playing football. In the end, football is football- whether you have 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 or 12 regular season games. At this point, we’ll take what we can get.