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Clemson didn’t resemble an ACC soccer staff during the 1980s – not to Steve Spurrier, who was a Duke assistant and later on its mentor throughout that decade. The Tigers won the ACC five occasions in the ’80s.
“When I coached at Duke, Clemson was actually like an SEC faculty in the ACC,” Spurrier said. “That was prior to FSU, Syracuse and Virginia Tech (joined the ACC). When you played Clemson, they looked like SEC men.”
Spurrier’s South Carolina tenure came to thoughts when asking him irrespective of whether Clemson would be a great suit for the SEC, if the meeting wishes much more enlargement. Spurrier’s time with the Gamecocks overlapped with rival Clemson’s ascent below Dabo Swinney.
But the Head Ball Coach’s up-close examination of Clemson’s bona fides dates to Danny Ford primary the Tigers to their very first countrywide championship in 1981.
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“Their defensive guys were a tiny bit larger, a small little bit speedier,” Spurrier reported of Clemson’s ’80s teams. “They just lined up and tried to smash you. That was their model of offense.
“They definitely could slide proper into the SEC.”
A long time later on, the Tigers nonetheless in shape the SEC profile.
Meeting realignment and enlargement are ingrained in university sports activities. Although Spurrier was Florida’s coach, the SEC extra Arkansas and South Carolina. Spurrier especially approved of that spherical of expansion, which permitted the SEC to split into divisions and host a convention championship sport. Missouri and Texas A&M joined the league although Spurrier was at South Carolina.
The SEC will expand to 16 teams by 2025 with the additions of Oklahoma and Texas, and the Significant Ten will counter with Southern Cal and UCLA in 2024.
The SEC and Huge 10 raids are aided by business-primary media rights specials.
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When the Huge 10 hasn’t permitted geography to hinder its growth quest – the meeting will stretch from Piscataway, New Jersey, to Los Angeles – the SEC mostly has adhered to its Southern brand.
Clemson and Florida Condition are two ACC programs that would healthy that tradition.
The SEC eyed FSU during its early ’90s enlargement, but the Seminoles selected the ACC, leaving an SEC spot for the Gamecocks.
Spurrier’s Gators annually clashed with Bobby Bowden’s Seminoles as two of the marquee courses throughout the 1990s.
FSU would have suit in with the SEC then.
Belief:SEC must eye further more enlargement to polish soccer prowess – on a person condition
And now?
“I guess it remains to be witnessed if FSU can return to people times with Bobby Bowden,” Spurrier explained. “From ’87 by means of 2000, they ended up in the top four or five in the nation each calendar year, 14 straight several years there. That’s a good deal of profitable. I don’t know if they can return to that once again.”
Of program, soccer pedigree isn’t really the only factor driving realignment.
Revenue issues.
UCLA and USC will find a richer payday in the Huge Ten. Very same for OU and Texas in the SEC. Meanwhile, those conferences will expand their access and develop their viewers.
Although the riches of the SEC and Major 10 are a gravitational pull for colleges flirting with a modify, Spurrier miracles about the on-discipline influence. He thoughts how perennial Major 12 winner Oklahoma will fare in the SEC.
“I believed Oklahoma designed a slip-up,” Spurrier said, “but Oklahoma people say, ‘We can play in the SEC. We’re not scared of these fellas.’ Time will tell.”
The ACC homes educational institutions that really should be eye-catching to the SEC or Huge Ten, but the conference has avoided currently being plundered. It helps getting a grant of legal rights offer that operates as a result of 2036, building a steep hurdle to any ACC faculty that needs to exit. Leaving the ACC now could charge a member college hundreds of millions.
Other than Notre Dame, Clemson is the top football brand which is not a present-day or foreseeable future member of the SEC or Big Ten, and the Tigers command a potent television viewers.
Having said that, Clemson might not top rated the SEC’s want listing, even if the ACC’s grant of rights deal failed to stand in the way.
The SEC has used earlier expansions to methodically broaden its footprint into neighboring states though sticking to its perfectly-crafted Southern id. Working with that as a guidebook, the SEC could possibly want North Carolina, Virginia Tech or Virginia – the SEC does not involve a university from possibly state – previo
usly mentioned the Tigers.
In terms of cultural fit and soccer item, however, there would be no improved catch for the SEC than Clemson. It really is been that way for years.
Blake Toppmeyer is an SEC Columnist for the Usa These days Community. Comply with him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.
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