Clemson's absurdly late night kick at Cal brings all sense of logic into question

We are living in a simulation. Logic went out the window a long time ago. Even if the dollars and cents make sense, nothing else makes any sense anymore. Down is the new up, as the ACC now spans the entire country. This is why the Clemson Tigers will be playing a conference game at the California Golden Bears on a Friday night. Kickoff from Berkeley, CA, will be at 10:30 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. PT. Why?

This is not meant to disparage Cal for joining the ACC. The Pac-12 as we knew it was left for dead, and the ACC offered Cal and Stanford a lifeline. It also added SMU out of the Group of Five to make it a 17-team football league, because of the Notre Dame of it all. While Dabo Swinney and Tosh Lupoi will have their teams ready to play, we are about to see a conference game played 2,000 miles away.

So instead of taking on regional rival Georgia moving forward, let's cross three time zones to play ball!

Clemson is left with no choice but to fully embrace playing games at night

With this being Clemson's third primetime kickoff or later to start the season, the Tigers will only be rewarded with another night game if they beat Cal. This is because Miami will be coming to town next weekend. As long as Clemson puts forth a genuine effort on Friday night, next Saturday's game will likely be in primetime. Otherwise, it will be North Carolina hosting Notre Dame over in Chapel Hill.

To date, Clemson has played Cal one other time. That was way back in the 1992 Citrus Bowl when the Golden Bears defeated the Tigers, 37-13. Clearly, this game is some 34 years in the making. While Cal has actually assimilated itself quite nicely into the wacky, weird, and wonderful conference that is the ACC, we all have to wonder why everyone is subjecting themselves to this. No sleep until ... Sunday!

Although there is no sense in complaining about the ridiculously late kickoff time anymore, who had eyes on this? Yes, Cal deserves to have a night game every so often. However, it should be against arch-rival Stanford, or some other team in the Pacific Time Zone. With the ACC and Big Ten becoming bicoastal leagues, we have seen teams that have to travel far in those conferences struggle mightily.

This is not to say Clemson will play poorly on Friday night. The Tigers are a slight favorite coming in. However, are we really going to see the best version of Clemson in this one? Yes, college students love to stay up late, but it is a lot to ask of student-athletes here. Honestly, we should feel even worse about the equipment staff, as they will have to drive from Clemson to Berkeley to even make it work.

At this time, we should expect the unexpected to come into this game. From a logistical standpoint, it would have never happened even five years ago. Now, it is a conference game, one that both teams will want to win in order to get to Charlotte. While everything is seemingly a whole new venture for Cal, Clemson is not used to these sorts of traveling shenanigans. It is an unproven team in a trying spot.

The only thing that we can hope for as fans in this one is for Clemson to avoid another lightning delay.

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