Could Clemson and South Carolina play football on Black Friday? What we know
Thanksgiving leftovers. Naps. Discounted shopping.
Clemson-South Carolina football?
The Palmetto Bowl isn’t generally associated with Black Friday, and for good reason. Clemson and USC boast one of the nation’s best college football rivalries. But this century, as other teams have branched out, the Tigers and Gamecocks have become synonymous with playing each other the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Not the day directly following it.
But Clemson and South Carolina’s respective conferences and television partners have tried to change that, and there’s lingering interest ... from one side, that is.
About six months after the teams signed their latest rivalry game contract for 2024-25 and four months after both teams’ 2024 schedules were revealed, the Atlantic Coast Conference and its main TV partner, ESPN, reached out to Clemson.
Their question: Would the university be willing to move its 2024 home game against South Carolina up one day, from Saturday Nov. 30 to Nov. 29 — aka Black Friday?
To incentivize the move, the ACC wrote it had secured various “concessions” from ESPN to benefit Clemson, including an agreement facilitated by the SEC that South Carolina would “reciprocate” by hosting a future rivalry game on Black Friday, too.
Long story short: Clemson declined.
This year’s Palmetto Bowl did not change dates, and the No. 17 Tigers and No. 18 Gamecocks will meet as scheduled this Saturday at Memorial Stadium with in-state bragging rights and College Football Playoff implications at stake. Kickoff from Clemson is set for noon on ESPN, and the Tigers are a 2.5-point favorite.
It’ll be the 18th-straight game they’ve played the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Heading into the 121st overall meeting between Clemson and South Carolina, though, it’s worth revisiting: Why did the ACC and ESPN ask to move this year’s Palmetto Bowl to Black Friday? Why did Clemson say no?
And if the Tigers won’t do it, what are the chances USC will?
Why did Clemson say no?
Tigers coach Dabo Swinney has been living and working in Clemson since 2003, so he understands what football Saturdays mean to a small city of about 18,000.
He’s also keenly aware of what playing South Carolina the day after Thanksgiving could do to his football program’s home-field advantage and recruiting efforts — two key components of a rivalry game he likes to describe as a season of its own.
To him, that made declining the ACC/ESPN request, which was revealed this past July in court filings during Clemson’s ongoing lawsuit against the ACC, a no-brainer.
“It’s what’s best for Clemson,” Swinney said Sunday. “It’s what’s best for the community here. This is a small town. This is not some big city. This is a small town, and we have a lot of businesses that depend on these gamedays.”
A Friday football game, Swinney said, would also hurt recruiting efforts and negatively impact Clemson students — some of whom would have to travel back to campus on Thanksgiving Day in order to make it to a Friday home game.
A Friday game in November would run up against high school football playoffs in just about every state in the Southeast. In the state of South Carolina, for example, public school teams and recruits across all four classifications will be playing third-round S.C. High School League games on Black Friday of this year.
“We want them to have the opportunity to come to one of the biggest games going on in the country, and they can’t come to it if they’re playing in their game as well,” Swinney said.
Swinney’s views on declining the Friday game are consistent with those of athletic director Graham Neff and the Clemson administration. Although Clemson has played in plenty of non-Saturday road games over the years, the Tigers have long made it clear they don’t prefer hosting such contests.
Clemson has only hosted two non-Saturday games in Memorial Stadium over the past 11 seasons, and one of those (a 2019 Thursday night season opener against Georgia Tech) came on an “e-learning day” for students.
Hosting games outside of Saturdays can put a logistical strain on the athletic department when it comes to things such as traffic, gameday staffing and overlap with university and city schedules.
The Tigers certainly aren’t incapable of pulling it off: Thursday night home games against Georgia Tech in 2013 and 2019 proceeded smoothly. But a non-Saturday game doesn’t completely jibe with Clemson’s goal of creating a “top-tier” environment in a place where lots of fans commute in for each game, a spokesman previously told The State.
There’s local business consideration. Add in the holiday travel and high school football playoff logistics specific to Thanksgiving weekend, and Swinney said there are “a lot of reasons” why Clemson declined the request.
“It’s what’s best for this community, and it’s what’s best for our program when it comes to recruiting and getting people here and all those things,” Swinney said.
What about South Carolina?
Coach Shane Beamer remembers sitting in South Carolina’s team hotel in Greenville two years ago on Black Friday, the night before the Clemson game, and watching Florida and Florida State go at it in a 45-38 instant classic win for the Seminoles.
They were the biggest game on TV, and he was part of the captive audience.
“I’m just thinking to myself, ‘Man, the whole country is watching this game right now and that’s great exposure for this rivalry,’ ” Beamer recalled in July.
In other words, there’s a lot more receptiveness among the Gamecocks toward potentially hosting Clemson on a Friday in Williams-Brice Stadium.
As revealed by court filings, part of the ACC’s pitch to Clemson was that ESPN secured an “agreement” from South Carolina via the SEC to move a future rivalry game in Columbia to Black Friday, too. (ESPN has a separate television deal with the SEC.)
Beamer said Sunday that he and Swinney talked about the possible one-for-one deal. USC athletic director Ray Tanner and Clemson’s Neff talked about it, too.
“We’re all grown-ups here, and we had conversations with both sides, and ended up deciding to play it on Saturday” for the 2024 season, Beamer said.
South Carolina’s football coach spoke glowingly in the offseason about the concept of creating “even more exposure” for the Palmetto Bowl.
The city of Columbia is also significantly larger than the city of Clemson — about eight times more populated, at about 142,000 residents — and could theoretically be better positioned on things such as traffic, logistics and staffing.
USC, like Clemson, has hosted a handful of non-Saturday home games at Williams-Brice Stadium. The Gamecocks played South Carolina State in 2022 in a Thursday game moved up from Saturday due to potential hurricane impact. South Carolina also hosted UNC in 2013 and Texas A&M in 2014 for Thursday season openers.
Given the impact of holiday travel and recruiting that would affect just about any school agreeing to such a set-up, Beamer acknowledged there would be “pros and cons” to playing Clemson the day after Thanksgiving versus two days after.
Enough pros to consider it, though.
“We had internal discussions within the athletics department and were interested in the move,” Tanner, South Carolina’s athletic director, said in a statement to The State. “However, we were informed that Clemson was not interested in the reciprocity of moving their home date, so we did not pursue it any further.”
A Black Friday rivalry
This year, there are 14 FBS football games scheduled for Black Friday.
Among the games fans will be digging into alongside their leftover turkey are four ranked games: Oregon State at No. 12 Boise State, Oklahoma State at No. 16 Colorado, Mississippi State at No. 9 Ole Miss and Georgia Tech at No. 10 Georgia.
Georgia Tech’s trip to Georgia for their annual rivalry game is set for a 7:30 p.m. Friday kickoff on ABC, the time slot that could have been occupied by the Clemson-South Carolina game, had the Tigers agreed to the ACC/ESPN request.
Could that “biggest game on TV” setup offset or outweigh any logistical challenges, holiday travel considerations and overlap with high school football for a future rivalry game, especially if it’s a one-off or something that doesn’t happen annually?
It’s something both schools — especially South Carolina, considering its willingness to explore the possibility — could consider going forward.
Other ACC and SEC schools have agreed to Black Friday games in recent years. In agreeing to play Florida on Black Friday to end the 2022 season — in the same game Beamer found himself watching in the team hotel — Florida State AD Michael Alford noted Black Friday is a day that’s “historically drawn huge television viewership.”
Other recent Black Friday rivalry games among ACC and SEC schools include Virginia vs. Virginia Tech (2014, 2017-19), UNC vs. N.C. State (2016, 2021-22) and the Egg Bowl between Mississippi State and Ole Miss this year.
Agreeing to such a game could also lead to interesting concessions.
If Clemson had agreed to move its home game vs. South Carolina to Black Friday, for example, it would’ve received perks including a guaranteed noon game the week before against The Citadel to help with the short turnaround; a confirmed primetime slot for the game; and an agreement to make its 2027 season opener a home game.
Also worth pondering: Would USC move a home rivalry game to Black Friday even if Clemson wouldn’t reciprocate? Swinney said over the summer he’d be “happy” to play such a game in Columbia, if that’s what the Gamecocks decide.
All important considerations ... but they can wait until after this weekend.
“Whenever you play it, it’s a great rivalry that a lot of people will be paying attention to,” Beamer said. “This year, it’s Saturday at 12 noon. That’s all I’m worried about.”
Sports reporter Jordan Kaye contributed reporting.
