Clemson, Miami bands won’t sound the same at ACC title game

If you’re a fan of the halftime show, you won’t like what the ACC has planned for its championship game. If you get pumped up by the pregame performances, you’ll really be left flat.

That’s because the shows by both marching bands won’t go on as usual when Clemson and Miami play for the ACC title, and possibly a shot in the College Football Playoff.

The pageantry that makes college football so rich in tradition is being cut short by the ACC for the championship game to be played in Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium on Dec. 2.

Only one school’s band will get to deliver a pregame performance, while the other will have a minimal spotlight to perform in during intermission.

And both championship game performances are limited to 6 minutes.

According to collegemarching.com, the Clemson Tiger Band will march in the pregame show and and be benched at halftime. The Miami Band of the Hour will be benched for pregame and will only march for 6 minute in the halftime show.

“To exclude one band from either portion of the game minimizes the role of both,” Clemson Tiger Band director Mark Spede said to collegemarching.com.

The decision to limit the band performances was made to create time for other halftime and pregame activities, including sponsorship recognition, collegemarching.com reported. The ACC made the change behind closed doors at the conference’s October meeting.

No ACC band directors were consulted about the changes.

“I think it’s inherently unfair to both bands,” Spede said to collegemarching.com. “Pregame and halftime serve two very different roles; pregame has more pageantry and functions as a sort of pep rally to fire up the crowd. Halftime is more oriented toward entertaining the crowd; both are very important.”

Dr. Jay Rees, Director of Miami’s Band of the Hour, echoed those sentiments.

“The ACC’s decision to have one band perform only the pregame show and the other band only at the halftime show is unfortunate and sends a message that the bands and their efforts on behalf of their team and university are devalued,” Rees said to collegemarching.com. “I don’t believe that is the intention, but nevertheless it creates a less than ideal scenario for our students and fans.”

The change means at halftime, fans will sit through 14 minutes of sponsor-related content.

Reaction on social media hasn’t been supportive of the change.

The reason for the change could be related to an adjustment made by the NCAA to start winding the 20 minute clock immediately at the end of the second quarter. In years past, the referees would wait until all players, coaches and referees were off the field before starting the halftime clock.

All conference championship games will have the auto start clock at halftime, however, collegemarching.com reported no changes to the other conference championship games have been made to pregame and halftime performances.

This story was originally published November 20, 2017 at 9:01 PM with the headline "Clemson, Miami bands won’t sound the same at ACC title game."