Clemson football fans are willing to forego traditions in 2020

Clemson football fans are willing to put traditions aside in 2020.

IPTAY released the results of a survey they sent to approximately 12,000 current members who have requested more than 56,000 Clemson football season tickets in 2020. The findings will surprise some.

Over the next week or so, we will dive into these numbers and what they reveal about the Clemson faithful and why 2020 will be easier to manage because of their expectations.

One of the questions revealed that Tigers across the country are willing to forego the traditions and pageantry that make the real Death Valley a place people never forget.

This shouldn’t be shocking given that just a couple years ago, the Clemson athletic department got rid of the pregame balloon release which started back in 1983. While there are some who still complain about it, most have gone with their lives.

Obviously, in 2020 with the current worldwide pandemic raging, college football fans knew that changes were going to come but that doesn’t mean it will be easy. While we don’t yet know what changes are in store for the select few that are able to attend Clemson home games in 2020, changes are coming and IPTAY members have spoken on their willingness to accept these changes.

Majority of Clemson football fans want safe football

Of the 8,575 IPTAY members that responded to the survey, more than 81 percent of them said they were willing to “modify traditions to accommodate physical distancing”.

When you think about Clemson football game day traditions, most of them will be affected by social distancing in 2020. Players more than likely will not be able to bus around to the East end zone, run down the hill and no one will be able to meet after the paw post-game in order to sing the alma mater. Those are three really big traditions that will more than likely be shelved in 2020.

We will more than likely find out the Clemson athletic department COVID-19 plan at some point in the next 10 days as players are supposed to start practice August 7th after a 14-day where teams “teams can participate up to 20 hours per week (no more than 4 hours per day) on “countable athletically related activities,” which can include eight hours of conditioning and weight training, six hours of walk-throughs with a football and six hours of meetings such as film study or position meetings.”

While the traditions of college football are what make it the best sport on the planet, we can agree that foregoing traditions for a year are better than not having Clemson football at all.