By Neil Burnett
(Editorial/Contributor)
The Wofford Terriers come to Clemson today for the Military Appreciation Day game. The Terriers bring their 5-2 record (5 straight wins) to Death Valley , probably already knowing the outcome but looking to go up against one of the best, if not the best program in America. Of course, the paycheck is nice too, but their motivation in playing this game is to get better, go against a great football team, and use this as a springboard to the rest of their season.
This is pretty much the mindset of a lot of schools that venture into Power 5 stadiums yearly. Get better, get the paycheck. To name a few schools that willingly took this route, let’s go with, say, Georgia State. Wait, that didn’t work out so well for perennial SEC Powerhouse Tennessee.
Ok, let’s go with powerhouse Alabama and their non-conference schedule. They take on powerhouses New Mexico State, Southern Mississippi, Western Carolina and Duke. The halftime score of the Duke game was 14-3, not something you’d expect from the mighty powerful Alabama. Yet, Alabama being Alabama, they get the benefit of the doubt with their schedule and don’t get moved to say, 4th. Dabo basically says….”That’s ok. We play who is on our schedule, we beat who is on our schedule.”
If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a 100 times. “Who is Clemson playing this weekend? Wofford? Serious? They play nobody. They aren’t a top 4 school.” Really? This rhetoric is coming from three fanbases; SEC, South Carolina and Ohio State. Ohio State, of all programs, is probably the most vocal of all of them. The B1G likes to claim the best conference behind the SEC. This is all based on the perception of having more teams pre-season ranked in the AP poll. We all know how this poll must be accurate. After all, these journalists are all experts in knowing who are the best teams, right? I mean, right?
Bottom line, Wofford is on Clemson’s schedule. Charlotte is on Clemson’s schedule. Two SEC schools are also on the schedule. At the end of the day, they all have to be beaten. Schedules can not be changed in the middle of the season so Clemson can swap out Charlotte or South Carolina for real football powerhouses. Can you imagine if that COULD happen? “SPORTS ALERT!!!!! CLEMSON TRADES WOFFORD FOR LSU!!! WILL PLAY NOVEMBER 16TH!!!”
Since schedules can’t be changed mid-season, Clemson will just have to play the one they have this year. Future schedules include teams like Notre Dame, Georgia, LSU, and of course, our yearly patsy, South Carolina. It also includes the Citadel (coot killer), App State, Akron, Furman, Wyoming (Missouri killer), and others. As Clemson fans, we go with the flow and HOPE that somewhere along the line, ACC teams will improve over time and start carrying their weight when playing out of conference, especially Miami, Florida State and Virginia Tech.
