Clemson athletic President, Dr. James Clements, should be the leader he has shown us to be.
Over the last few days, we have seen both the Big Ten and the Pac-12 announce that they would play conference only schedules, setting the stage for what will ultimately be a disastrous effect for schools all over the country.
While this may seem like an athletic move, university presidents ultimately guide and have the final say of what happens within conferences and push conference commissioners the way they see fit. With Clemson being among the biggest names in college athletics’ biggest sport, Dr. Clements needs to take a stand.
Clemson is scheduled to play Akron, Citadel, Notre Dame, and South Carolina out of the conference in 2020.
While Notre Dame will more than likely stay on the 2020 schedule, Akron, Citadel and South Carolina would get the ax. Not playing Clemson in 2020 would be devastating to Akron and Citadel and the athletic departments that they come from.
Clemson makes it a point to alternate the state’s FCS programs in order to help them out with payday games every few seasons and those games are huge not only for those kids but for those employed by those entities. Canceling that game in 2020 could set a domino effect in place that Citadel may never recover from.
Sure, that seems dire and maybe exaggerated, but it doesn’t make it a false statement.
Clemson should take a stand for the smaller schools in the state
If the SEC and ACC join the Big Ten and Pac-12 in canceling all non-conference games in 2020, four of the state’s FCS program would lose paycheck games. The trickle-down effect would be one that the state of South Carolina isn’t ready for.
If college football is played in 2020, stadiums will be mostly empty which itself will have a huge effect on local economies, canceling out of conference games will have an even bigger effect. While Clemson may not be able to stop that from happening, they can at least apply pressure and let it be known they are against this ridiculous change in the 2020 schedule.