Here’s how much Clemson basketball is paying for 2025 non-conference games
How much does a non-conference schedule cost to put together?
In the case of Clemson men’s basketball, it’s $580,000.
The Clemson athletic department will pay out a combined $580,000 to seven different schools for regular-season or exhibition games against the men’s basketball team at Littlejohn Coliseum, according to various game contracts obtained by The State via public records request.
Clemson men’s basketball will also receive stipends for participating in the Charleston Classic in November and the Jimmy V Classic in New York City in December, while the Tigers have also agreed to a number of “return” games with power conference teams, contracts show.
College basketball teams often flesh out their non-conference schedules with “guarantee games,” in which a lesser opponent (for a power conference team, that’s usually another Division I team or a Division II team) gets paid to travel and play at the power school. The power school, theoretically, gets an easy win.
Clemson’s $580,000 in “guarantee game” spending this season is in line with recent years, records show. Coach Brad Brownell’s program has spent $464,149.20 on average for guarantee games in the last five non-COVID year seasons, per Clemson’s NCAA financial reports. The highest amount was $615,746 in fiscal year 2019.
Here’s a closer look at this year’s contracts.
How much Clemson basketball is paying opponents
The following mid-major teams will get “guarantee game” payouts from Clemson:
- Presbyterian (Oct. 17, exhibition): $5,000
- New Hampshire (Nov. 3): $110,000
- Gardner-Webb (Nov. 7): $90,000
- Morehead State (Nov. 11): $90,000
- North Alabama (Nov. 17): $95,000
- Alabama A&M (Nov. 28): $100,000
- Mercer (Dec. 13): $90,000
Each team also got 75 free tickets to give out for its game at Littlejohn Coliseum.
Clemson is 2-0 this season with wins against New Hampshire and Gardner-Webb by an average of 44 points. The Tigers host Morehead State on Tuesday (7 p.m., ACCNX).
Clemson basketball agrees to ‘return games’
In another common setup in college basketball, Clemson is playing the front end or back end of three “home-and-home” series with other power conference teams.
The Tigers play at Georgetown (Big East) on Nov. 15 in Washington, D.C.; host rival South Carolina (SEC) on Dec. 16; and play Cincinnati (Big 12) on Dec. 21 in a neutral-site game at Greenville’s Bon Secours Wellness Arena.
For each game, there is no guarantee payment between the teams.
But Clemson will fulfill the back end of the Georgetown and Cincinnati contracts next season. Georgetown will play a return game at Clemson on Nov. 13, 2026, and the Tigers will play a neutral-site game against Cincinnati some time in 2026.
The location of that 2026 neutral-site game between Clemson and UC is to be determined, but it will be played at “a large-sized arena in the state of Ohio (i.e. Cincinnati, Cleveland),” according to a copy of the contract obtained from Cincinnati via public records request. It cannot be played at UC’s home arena.
Clemson and South Carolina play each other in men’s basketball annually — as they do in most other sports — and generally sign contracts for two years at a time. The 2025 game is USC’s “return trip” after the teams played in Columbia last year.
Stipends for 2025 Charleston Classic, Jimmy V Classic
Clemson men’s basketball will also get stipends from ESPN Events for participating in two of the company’s mid-year non-conference basketball events.
Clemson basketball will get a $30,000 stipend from ESPN Events for participating in the 2025 Shriners Children’s Charleston Classic at TD Arena in Charleston. Clemson will play West Virginia in the event on Nov. 21 and Georgia or Xavier on Nov. 23.
The $30,000 stipend is intended to offset travel costs for the event, which are the “sole responsibility” of Clemson, according to a contract struck in February 2025.
Clemson will get an even larger stipend, $250,000, for its participation in the 2025 Jimmy V Classic, per a contract for the event. Clemson will play No. 8 BYU in the event at New York City’s Madison Square Garden on Dec. 9. The game will be nationally televised on ESPN and will be followed by Florida-UConn.
Clemson is responsible for its own travel costs for the Jimmy V Classic (which is standard practice). ESPN Events will provide Clemson 75 free tickets, an “official event gift” to each member of Clemson’s traveling party (players, coaches, staff) and free admission for Clemson’s mascot, cheerleaders, dance team and up to 30 pep band members, per the contract.
This will be Clemson’s first time playing at MSG since the 2014 NIT.
The ACC handles the contracts for the annual ACC/SEC Challenge series, so there is no contract available for Clemson’s Dec. 3 game at No. 15 Alabama in Tuscaloosa.