What in-flux SEC scheduling means for South Carolina-Clemson football series
If you let LSU coach Brian Kelly dictate the SEC’s football schedule, flexibility would be limited.
Kelly is not only a proponent of the SEC going from eight conference games to nine — a debate that has raged for years without any action — but the Tigers’ head coach also wants the SEC to adopt a scheduling agreement with the Big 10 where teams in each conference would face off annually.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said it would be “incredibly difficult” to mandate SEC schools to play Big 10 schools every year, which seems to imply a scheduling agreement/partnership was not on the immediate horizon.
But let’s say it eventually comes, that Kelly’s wish is granted and the SEC plays nine conference games and an additional contest against a Big 10 institution. That would leave every SEC schools the ability to schedule just two non-conference games a season — and one could imagine coaches would be in favor of filling those slots with very winnable games against FCS foes.
“If you wanted to go schedule two FCS teams, you could,” Beamer told reporters at SEC Meetings this week. “Ours is different, because we’re saying nine plus Clemson plus a Big Ten alliance. … I don’t know if that makes a lot of sense, but just looking at it from our standpoint.”
And South Carolina isn’t alone. The same conundrum would arise for Georgia, which plays an annual rivalry game with Georgia Tech, Florida (Florida State) and Kentucky (Louisville). That quartet, Beamer said, is basically already playing nine SEC games — and now they might have to play another, plus a possible Big 10 showdown? Where are the easy wins?
In that scheduling world you could see a world where the South Carolina-Clemson rivalry is in jeopardy. Where, perhaps, the Gamecocks would opt to play an extra FCS team rather than facing off against the Tigers.
So is there a world where the Palmetto Bowl doesn’t happen?
“I think it’s ironclad. Now, there’s people above me to make those decisions,” South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer said. “But I would never want that game to go away. Rivalries and rivalry weekend is what makes this sport great. I know what it means. We’re in a state in South Carolina, there’s no pro sports. That game is a big deal.”
One of those people above Beamer is Jeremiah Donati, who is brand new to the rivalry. He took over as South Carolina’s athletic director in January and has yet to see South Carolina and Clemson face off on a football field. Yet, even in his five months with the Gamecocks, Donati knows not to mess with the Clemson rivalry — saying there is no threat to the Gamecocks and Tigers playing each other.
“No. Not at this point,” Donati told The State. “They are our biggest rival. We want to play them every year, just like they want to play us. So whatever the conference schedule is — eight games (or) nine games — we will play Clemson every year. There has been no discussion about not doing that.”
Donati continued, saying the possibilities involving an annual matchup with the Big 10 “are just concepts.”
“There has not been any proposal that’s been put in front of us that would threaten the Clemson game,” Donati said.
