This Saturday Clemson football will open their home 2022 schedule against the Furman Paladins at Death Valley. The game starts at 3:30 PM on ACC Network.
Some would call a game against FCS opponents as tradition. In fact, some have claimed over the years that there is a state law requiring Clemson and South Carolina to play an in-state FCS opponent every season. While SC athletic director Ray Tanner has confirmed that no such law exists, the schools have continued the tradition of interdivisional opponents as a voluntary policy.
I love me some college football, and I don’t limit that to just the big boys in the Power Five. I’m a Clemson alum so they will always be my team, but I root for a lot of college programs to which I am connected through either family, friends or some experience from my past. I like Furman because my sister, my sister-in-law and a handful of friends went to school there.
I’m also not oblivious to the fact that there is a large gulf between a program like Clemson and an FCS opponent like Furman. There has always been a big difference. There is a reason why NCAA Division I football split into I-A and I-AA in 1978. Even back then, many schools understood they couldn’t compete with the power programs of college football. There have always been have’s and have not’s.
Fifty years later, I think I can argue that gulf has gotten even wider, and the way the wind is blowing, it might not be long before the gulf is so wide that teams like Clemson and Furman won’t be able to play anymore. If there is a break coming from the NCAA for the power programs of college football, it is hard to predict how that will impact these kinds of games.
Some fans won’t mind that at all. Some fans would probably welcome the end of “cupcake” games. These games are rarely competitive. It is fun, however, to see the occasional upset bid by an FCS team against an FBS team. They happen every year. This year it was Navy who was tripped up by Delaware. South Dakota State came close against Iowa.
Most of the time, the outcome of these games aren’t in doubt and it is common to see scores like UNLV 52, Idaho State 21. UAB 59, Alabama A&M 0. Miami 70, Bethune-Cookman 13.
I get it, these games aren’t the most fun to watch. If your team wins big, its because they were supposed to win big. If it isn’t your team, it is a rarity that you can find a reason to tune in to watch Baylor beat Albany 69-10.
I understand why many fans won’t miss games like these, but I will. I won’t miss them because I want to watch all of them. I will miss them because games like these make it possible for schools like Furman, South Carolina State, The Citadel and many more to have sports programs that enrich the lives of their student populations and give more opportunities for young men and women to continue to their athletic careers while they get an education.
It doesn’t stop at the FCS – they pay it forward to lower divisions. In Week 1 this season, Furman hosted North Greenville, a Division II team. FCS team East Tennessee State hosted Division II opponent Mars Hill.
Clemson football games with FCS opponents make it possible for schools like Furman, South Carolina State and The Citadel to have sports programs that enrich the lives of their student populations
It is like the well-known NCAA promotion says (paraphrased): “Most of them will be going pro in something other than sports.” We can acknowledge the highest level of sports like football, basketball and baseball need to evolve while also acknowledging the traditional model of student athletics is still a major positive for thousands of young people every year in this country.
If the power programs of college sports split from the NCAA, and interdivisional games cease for schools of the FCS, that traditional model of student athletics will likely suffer. It is hard to see right now how schools like Furman will make up the revenue they earn right now by playing at schools like Clemson. They could conceivably still play Group of Five schools like Coastal Carolina or Appalachian State, but they can’t give them the same kind of payout.
I don’t know any good solutions for the FCS and other levels like Division II and III, but I still think the programs at those levels bring value to college athletics. If it is possible, I want to see teams like Clemson and South Carolina continue to schedule teams like Furman, Wofford and the other FCS teams of the state.