Clemson football: Ohio State fans should direct anger at Big Ten, not Dabo Swinney

Ohio State fans should stop blaming Clemson football and look in the mirror

The Clemson football team will take on the No. 3-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes in the CFB Playoff semifinals this Friday evening in the Sugar Bowl.

The Tigers and Buckeyes have built up quite the amount of resentment over the course of the last 11 months and we have a feeling that much of that hate will play itself out on the field Friday in New Orleans.

Ohio State fans have been all over Dabo Swinney‘s case about a multitude of issues ever since Clemson football beat the Buckeyes in the Playstation Fiesta Bowl last December.

Buckeyes fans were among the loudest groups questioning Swinney’s character earlier this spring and summer and those feelings of hate have only amplified over the last couple of weeks, especially with Swinney ranking Ohio State No. 11 in his final Coaches’ Poll.

The fact of the matter, though, is that Ohio State fans should stop directing their anger at Dabo Swinney and the Clemson football program and look in the mirror: It’s time to start holding your own conference accountable.

Clemson football was a leader in the ACC and the conference made the best decisions possible. The same can’t be said about OSU and the Big Ten

The ACC made the decision to play and put protocols in place to keep its athletes safe. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but the conference did its best to get a season played under the circumstances we’re currently dealt.

The ACC began its season on mid-September and allowed time for games to be made up along the way. The result saw every team in the conference play at least 10 games besides two: Wake Forest (finished 4-4) and Florida State (finished 3-6). Eight teams played 11 games.

Now, as we sit here, Ohio State fans want to pawn off their lack of a schedule on Clemson and talk about how it’s just an excuse. They point to the fact that the ACC didn’t reschedule a game for the Tigers and how that somehow equates to the same thing as the Big Ten changing all of its rules to bow down to Ohio State.

Here’s the difference between the two conferences and the decisions, for those who want to play along:

• Clemson’s game against Florida State was canceled by the Seminoles back in November. The ACC didn’t reschedule the game. It’s not as if Clemson had a game scheduled with FSU that the ACC canceled. No, the game was canceled by the ‘Noles and never rescheduled.
• Even if the ACC did ‘protect its top teams,’ but teams had played 10 games in their regular season.
• Agreed protocols stayed in place for every single team, it wasn’t handpicked to make things easier on Clemson or Notre Dame.

The ACC made the right decisions and allowed all of its member institutions the opportunity to compete and have a season that really amounted to something. The Big Ten didn’t. That’s the big difference.

Ohio State fans can be mad at Dabo Swinney all they want to be, but it doesn’t make what he said any less true. It’s much more impressive that Clemson, Alabama and Notre Dame are all in the playoff with 11 games than Ohio State with just six, and we all know the truth: If you took an undefeated 6-0 Wisconsin team in this situation, they wouldn’t have gotten in.

Buckeyes fans need to look in the mirror and realize that they are very fortunate to be in the playoff. It’s a gift, not something you’re entitled to.

And you should probably look in the mirror and direct that anger towards the real culprits for why you shouldn’t have been in the playoff. It’s not Dabo Swinney. It’s Kevin Warren and your poor leadership over in the Big Ten.