Happy Solid Orange Friday! This is today’s Clemson Tigers News.
Today’s Events
Clemson Volleyball at Wake Forest: 6:00 PM in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Clemson Men’s Soccer vs Virginia Tech: 7:00 PM at Historic Riggs Field
Conflicting reports about Clemson and the ACC
Gene Sapakoff of the Charleston Post and Courier published an article Wednesday with information suggesting that Clemson was close to leaving the Atlantic Coast Conference. There were suggestions that an announcement could be coming in October. Tiger Illustrated posted that this was their impression as well. You can see more of this in yesterday’s Clemson Tigers News.
On Thursday, David Hood of TigerNet stated that he had checked with his sources, and there was no indication that anything was imminent regarding Clemson and conference realignment.
https://twitter.com/IBOSportNetwork/status/1707403459538903159
The university did release a statement Thursday, but it was simply an affirmation of their previous position.
"“Clemson’s leadership has been aligned and consistent throughout this process and continues to position our University for long-term success.”"
There have been many times in the past that I have commented on the reliability of certain public figures making claims about conference realignment or other subjects. My general perspective is that unless it is coming from someone close to the program or someone with definitive credibility, such as a nationally known reporter from The Athletic, Yahoo Sports or ESPN, you shouldn’t latch onto it too tightly.
Sapakoff is a professional, and I don’t consider him ‘unconnected’, but I typically put Hood and Larry Williams higher on that pedestal.
Now we have two reliable insiders who are saying opposite things. I can understand and relate to the confusion this situation creates for fans.
I will note that this is really their sources saying opposite things, which could happen for a number of reasons. I think both Hood and Williams do fantastic work, and fans like myself are very lucky to have insiders like them who keep us up to speed on Clemson Athletics.
Patience, my friends, patience. This will all work out on it’s own timetable, which is all there really is question about. Everything I read or hear is that Clemson is working on their future, and that presumably means leaving the ACC. The unknown is when.
That’s the only conflicting information here: timetables. Sooner or later? That is still an unknown.