The Clemson Tigers recently declined approval of a request made by the ACC and ESPN to move this year’s rivalry game against the SEC’s South Carolina Gamecocks to Friday instead of Saturday.
With the game being on rivalry weekend, it would have moved the contest to Black Friday. Instead due to Clemson’s decline, it will remain as one of many being played across the college football landscape on the traditional Saturday.
Why moving the Clemson-South Carolina game to Friday makes sense
This in-state rivalry each year is a big game, but it is not one of the biggest each Saturday. It often times takes a back seat to other matchups on rivalry weekend aired on the same day and time slot. Take last year for example- this matchup went up against the Iron Bowl with Alabama versus Auburn. These two contests started within a half hour of each other.
When every year Auburn and Alabama have at last one school inside the top 10 in the country in addition to being known as the biggest rivalry in college football, you would be hard pressed to get any viewers outside of Tiger and Gamecock fans going up against it.
Fast forward to 2024 and had the Tigers approved the move to their game being played on Friday, they would be going up against Georgia Tech versus Georgia as the premier night game on ABC most likely. And furthermore, ESPN probably would not have even asked Georgia Tech and Georgia to move to Friday themselves, allowing the Clemson-South Carolina game to have even more eyes on it.
The Clemson Tigers football program is saying ‘no’ a lot lately
Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney seems to be no stranger to saying no these days with his transparent refusal to use the transfer portal, as well as not allowing players to go on other official visits once committed to the Clemson Tigers. Now, we can add Clemson’s refusal to move their game to Friday not necessarily to Dabo’s list, but to Clemson’s.