Clemson Football: Why we need to play FCS exhibitions this spring

We need to see Clemson football play an FCS exhibition this spring

Clemson football fans, along with the rest of the country, are anxiously anticipating an announcement for what the future of the 2020 College Football season will look like.

Some believe the season will be canceled altogether. Others believe we’ll play in the fall, either on time or postponed by a couple of weeks or months. Still, others think the season could be moved to the spring.

While no one- including College Football officials, for that matter- knows what will truly happen this season, one thing is for sure: Power-5 programs are still preparing to play this fall.

Say what you want about everything going on right now, but that doesn’t change the fact that the Clemson football team- along with every Power-5 program across the nation- is preparing for a fall start and the Tigers are going through workouts as if they’ll start on time.

Despite the fact that we’ve seen all the Power-5 conferences maintain the position that they want to play this fall, we’ve already seen many smaller leagues, led by the Ivy League, postpone their season until the spring.

While several FCS conferences have already canceled, it seems like only a matter of time before we see the rest of the conferences in that division follow suit.

And that brings us to our point.

Power-5 programs, like Clemson football, can save FCS athletics by playing spring exhibitions

Let’s say, for instance, that we see the Power-5 play conference-only slates this fall, with potential for the ACC, SEC and Big 12 to play some out-of-conference games against one another.

The result? We see the Power-5- and potentially some of the Group of 5- play a 10-game season (of sorts) with a CFB Playoff that concludes in January.

Now, here’s where things get interesting.

The FCS and some of the smaller FBS conferences decide that it’s safe enough to play this spring and schedule their season. Perhaps by the spring more fans can join together in stadiums and they get started. With Power-5 programs already having played their season, these smaller schools will be left to fend for themselves.

Or would they?

What if, in the place of the typical spring game, we saw Clemson football host an exhibition against The Citadel or Furman? The game could be general admission with a small fee (maybe $10) and the money raised from ticket revenue, as well as concession stands and things of that nature, would help not only Clemson, but the in-state FCS program with revenue.

This helps offset some of the costs lost to Clemson and allows The Citadel, for example, to still get its paycheck that helps to fund its athletic programs.

It’s a win-win all the way around and something that the NCAA absolutely needs to allow this spring as a way to help save those smaller College Football programs who are floundering as it is.