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What if back in 1982 the Clemson administration had the
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What if back in 1982 the Clemson administration had the


Sep 13, 2017, 2:59 PM

foresight to lead in the formation of a new conference? When the ACC vindictively added an extra year of probation to Clemson out of pure jealousy, what if Bill McCllean and other leaders at Clemson had reached out to the major independents at the time. The objective: to form a new league which would have essentially relegated the ACC to 1-AA status.

Miami, FL was independent. Florida State was independent. South Carolina was as well and Georgia Tech had joined the ACC but had not started play in the league. With Clemson this would have formed the southern tier of a new league.

In the north, Penn State had yet to join the Big Ten and wanted desperately into a conference. Pitt was independent. Virginia Tech was independent as the Big East had not started football yet. West Virginia was independent. Adding Maryland, who at the time was one of only two schools in the ACC to disagree with the extra year of probation for Clemson, would have made for nine good sized state universities (no small private schools except for Miami). This would have left UNC, NC State, Duke, Wake and Virginia gasping for air and playing basketball 12 months a year.

In the coming years, it would have been very easy to add two additional schools in order to become a twelve team league and qualify for a football championship game.

Can you imagine:

North
Penn State
Maryland
Pittsburgh
Virginia Tech
West Virginia

South
Clemson
South Carolina
Georgia Tech
Florida State
Miami

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Looks reasonable on paper 35 years later ... but


Sep 13, 2017, 3:53 PM

... but it would have been a mammoth undertaking at the time and I don't know if an "outlaw" program facing three years of probation would have had the "pull" to make it happen.

And you have to remember that the Athletic Department would not have had control over such a move.

University administration would have had to go along with it and as we saw over the next decade, university administration was less than amenable to letting athletics run the show at Clemson.

Rightly or wrongly, both Bill McClellan and Danny Ford were already sort of skating on thin ice.

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Pitt, Penn State, SCU?


Sep 13, 2017, 4:15 PM

I'm out.

2024 orange level memberbadge-donor-10yr.jpgringofhonor-francismarion.jpg flag link military_tech thumb_downthumb_up

"I've played multiple sports and would bet any amount that I'm still more athletic than you at this present time...."


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