One Quick Thing: We still can't believe everything we hear about Clemson Football

There has been quite a bit of speculation regarding Clemson Football and what conference they might be joining once they eventually split from the Atlantic Coast Conference.

I have purposefully steered clear of any of this so far because it had not been communicated by reliable sources.

The closest thing to solid information was an interview with Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger where he appeared to be giving credence to the speculation that Clemson and Florida State might be joining the Big 12.

Then he walked back those comments.

Outside of Dellenger, there isn’t another reliable source backing up any of the noise about Clemson and the Big 12.

I use the term ‘reliable source’ intentionally. There are a handful of X accounts that have convinced many people that they have sources that are feeding them information, but I don’t consider them reliable and neither do the people who I do consider reliable. If David Hood from TigerNet or the guys at Tiger Illustrated said we should listen to them, I would, but they haven’t.

Examples from the last week include:

• Both the SEC and Big Ten have said no to Clemson and Florida State

• The Big 12 is looking to use private equity to create a strong cash flow to offer both Clemson and Florida State that will make them as much revenue as any team from the Power Two.

• As many as six other ACC teams are looking to join the Big 12 along with the Tigers and Seminoles.

Is all of this possible? Of course, it is. Is it likely happening? No. Possible and likely are two different things.

Is it possible that both Clemson and Florida State could be snubbed by the Power Two? Yes, it is. There have been some voices around Clemson athletics that have been reluctant to believe the program wouldn’t be wanted, but the reasons for not pursuing Clemson or Florida State are real.

The Big Ten traditionally wants its members to have AAU accreditation. This is important to several of the presidents of their member universities. Neither Clemson nor Florida State has AAU accreditation.

Is it stupid that they care about that? Yes, it is very stupid. It has no real tangible value for an athletic organization.

Is it something that can’t be overcome? No, because presidents can be reasoned with. They might have the final official say on the matter, but they do listen to the people who control their sources of revenue.

The SEC has said in the past there isn’t any reason for them to expand into states where they already have member institutions. Both Clemson and Florida State are in states with current SEC members.

Is it stupid that they care about that? Yes, it is stupid. It is not as stupid as the Big Ten wanting their members to have AAU accreditation, but still stupid.

Is it something that can’t be overcome? No, because we’ve seen it happen recently with Texas.

I caution everyone against being foolish enough to think Clemson and Florida State are on the same level as Texas. The Longhorns are the single most valuable commodity in college athletics.

However, components of the reasons to admit Texas despite Texas A&M’s membership apply to both cases. The SEC’s goal is to increase revenue. That once meant getting on more cable systems. It didn’t matter if anyone tuned into the games or not. The revenue was the same.

That isn’t the case anymore. Today the number of households tuning into the games impacts the revenue, and if anything, it will continue to increase in relevance. Clemson and Florida State are two of the most viewed programs outside of the Power Two.

So while the things that the unreliable X accounts are saying could be true, they are most likely not true.

Now we have a Clemson source which has been reliable saying the same thing.

Who is Swaim? He is one of those unreliable X accounts that says a lot of things to get engagement. I have written about him before. Nothing has changed in the past year. He is still unreliable.

There is one more component to this: when Oklahoma & Texas announced a move to the SEC and USC & UCLA announced a move to the Big Ten, both the schools and the conferences kept what was going on under wraps for a long time before it became public.

Maybe the Big 12 would love to drum up some publicity. Florida State is more likely to share their true feelings publicly too, but Clemson keeps things close to the vest.

The powers that be usually prefer to do their business away from the public eye. One day these unreliable sources might espouse something that reliable sources later confirm, but even then it will probably be more because of luck.